TSO Broadcast Series on AZPM

Broadcast Schedule

February 1 & 8, 2026: Mozart and Tchaikovsky

The 2024–2025 season opens with Tchaikovsky’s powerful and tragically final musical utterance, most likely a declaration of forbidden love—the sixth symphony, “Pathétique.” The rising French star David Fray makes his TSO debut with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, and the TSO introduces the highly engaging music of the recent Chicago Symphony composer-in residence, Anna Clyne’s This Midnight Hour.

February 8 & 12, 2026: Lauren Roth Plays Beethoven

The Masterworks season opens with the TSO’s beloved concertmaster Lauren Roth performing Beethoven’s sublime Violin Concerto, a dramatic showpiece written during one of the most creative periods in the composer’s life. Antonio Sarrier’s Symphony in D from the 18th century was long-lost until its discovery in an archive in Mexico. Schubert’s dynamic third symphony continues the TSO’s journey to survey the composer’s full symphonic output.

February 15 & 19, 2026: Elgar’s Enigma Variations

Be ready to be moved! Elgar’s hauntingly beautiful Enigma Variations, a series of fourteen musical portraits of the composer’s friends, comes to life under the baton of guest conductor Christian Vásquez. TSO percussionists Trevor Barroero and Fred Morgan take center stage in Laura Vega’s Ángel de luz, a double percussion concerto. Like Sibelius’ evocative tribute to his homeland of Finland, Venezuelan-born Inocente Carreño’s Margariteña is also a love letter to his home island, Margarita.

February 22 & 26, 2026: Mendelssohn and Korngold

Kerson Leong, who dazzled TSO audiences in 2022, returns to perform Korngold’s romantic Violin Concerto, written during his Hollywood years and first performed by the great Jascha Heifetz. The Hollywood-themed first half begins with Bernard Herrmann’s iconic music for the film Psycho. Conductor Nicholas Hersh makes his Masterworks debut with Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, “Reformation,” written to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, when Martin Luther established the Protestant Reformation. It includes the famous Dresden Amen. A noted arranger, Hersh introduces the first performance of his own orchestration of Clara Schumann’s piano collection “4 Pièces caractéristiques.”

March 1 & 5, 2026: Beethoven’s Fifth

The titan of the classical music world returns! Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3, one of four versions for his only opera Fidelio, this one including the famous offstage trumpet signal, is followed by the ta-ta-ta-da opening of the fifth symphony. There’s no better sound than the TSO filling the Music Hall with the unparalleled might of the Fifth. Bartók’s elegant and strongly folk-music influenced Concerto for Orchestra is one of his most popular works and with good reason‍—the orchestra sections become the soloists, showing off their virtuosic abilities.

March 8 & 12, 2026: Haydn and Brahms

As the TSO’s Artist in Residence, Cuban-American cellist Tommy Mesa will perform TWO concertos, juxtaposing classic Haydn with the recent Divided by Jessie Montgomery. The composer describes Divided as a response to the social and political unrest of the recent past, the sense of helplessness people feel in a world that seems in constant crisis. By contrast, Brahms’ sunny second symphony closes the program, composed in the summer of 1877 surrounded by the beauty and quiet of the Austrian countryside.

March 15 & 19, 2026: French Impressions

French favorites meet new wonders, led by guest conductor Sunny Xia! While all three French works were written within a decade in the late 19th century, only two⁠—Debussy’s Petite Suite and Fauré’s Pélleas et Mélisande⁠—entered the repertoire. It took more than another century for the music of Augusta Holmès to be discovered, including the lush La nuit et l’amour, an interlude from her larger work inspired by the work of French painter Puvis de Chavannes. Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst, commissioned by the Sphinx Organization for its Virtuosi, sparkles like the formation of the astronomical phenomenon itself.

Tan Dun’s Concerto for Guzheng and Strings features the TSO debut of local guzheng virtuoso Jing Xia, performing on the traditional Chinese plucked zither.

March 22 & 26, 2026: Mahler’s Third

One of the brightest stars on the operatic stage and a Tucson favorite, internationally recognized mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke returns to the TSO for a riveting performance of Mahler’s colossal third symphony. Organized over six movements, the work is the composer’s hymn to nature and one of his most complete musical statements.

March 29 & April 2, 2026: Mahler and Schumann

Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke returns for a second Mahler turn! The Metropolitan Opera star will perform a selection from the composer’s five-song cycle based on the work of Friedrich Rückert. The brilliant young composer Chelsea Komschlies’ new work Mycelialore, a TSO commission through the League of American Orchestras Toulmin Commissions Program, has its world premiere. Maestro Gómez continues his Schumann cycle with the composer’s Symphony No. 3, the “Rhenish,” and Coleridge-Taylor’s beautiful, rarely-played Ballade complete the program.

April 5 & 9, 2026: Dvořák and the American Experience

Paul Huang, who left TSO audiences spellbound in 2022, returns to perform Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, originally written for the composer’s friend, violinist Joseph Joachim. The concerto is accompanied by two of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances. Written originally for piano duo while he was still relatively unknown, it was these dances that helped Dvořák achieve notoriety. Dvořák came to the U.S. later in life and wrote the New World Symphony, inspired by African-American spirituals. The concert’s second half features works by American composers with very different backgrounds: a TSO co-commissioned work by Arizona-born Raven Chacon, a 2023 MacArthur Genuis Grant awardee, and Still’s Symphony No. 1, known as the “Afro-American.” Chacon, a member of the Navajo nation, draws on relationships between the western and indigenous communities while Still drew from popular African-American music.

April 12 & 16, 2026: Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf

Prokofiev’s classic Peter and the Wolf makes a welcome return. Originally written for a young audience, the piece has long delighted audiences of all ages. The TSO was highly impressed by Xavier Muzik’s work through the 2022 Earshot collaboration with the American Composers Orchestra, and immediately commissioned this new work having its world premiere. Mussorgsky’s stormy Night on Bald Mountain, inspired by the Russian legend of revels taking place on St. John’s Eve is followed by Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9, often thought of as his most classical. Though small in scale and length, it is full of the composer’s characteristic irony and wit.

April 19 & 23, 2026: Chopin and Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet

Chopin’s mellifluous Piano Concerto No. 2 returns to the Classic series stage in the hands of Venezuelan superstar Gabriela Martinez, who made her orchestral debut at the age of 6! The concert also explores imagined worlds, and deeply buried worlds. Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet ballet music brings to life Shakespeare’s beloved play of star-crossed lovers, and Missy Mazzoli’s poignant These Worlds In Us delves into the worlds of intense memory that each person holds in themselves.

April 26 & 30, 2026: Carmina Burana

Carl Orff’s singular and powerful work, bringing to life texts from the 11th and 12th centuries, comes to the stage with soloists Ashley Fabian, Logan Tanner, and Octavio Moreno plus the full might of the TSO Chorus. Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari, which plays tribute to the blue deer, a spiritual guide of the Huichol people of Mexico, is followed by Robert Muczynski’s Symphonic Memoir, premiered by the TSO in 1979 and the latest in the TSO’s exploration of this Tucson-based composer.