A New Season of Expanding the Canon with Contemporary Composers

By Leilani Polk

More than 30 living composers are represented this season, an exciting selection of new voices spread across the Octave 9, Symphonic, Chamber and Family Concerts series, not to mention all the composers (Rihards Zaļupe, Danny Elfman, Bruno Coulais, John Williams and John Powell) whose scores are performed live in our film-with-orchestra concerts.  

This September, we have Jessie Montgomery’s Hymn for Everyone, a “chorale for orchestra” in the Opening Night Concert, Xian Conducts Grieg Piano Concerto (September 13, 2025), with our new music director Xian Zhang. Michael Abels is featured next: his jazz and hoedown-inspired Delights and Dances will be performed by the Sphinx Soloists — violinists Rubén Rengel and Melissa White, violist Celia Hatton and cellist/Seattle Symphony Artist in Focus Gabriel Cabezas — in two concerts capped by Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and also conducted by Xian (September 18 & 20, 2025).  

October launches with a Rachmaninov program that begins with a piece by Melissa Douglas, Awaken, a soundscape of spring originally premiered in 2023 by Xian with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Xian is also on the podium to conduct Awaken with our orchestra (October 2, 4 & 5, 2025). Later in the month, Gabriel Cabezas returns to Benaroya Hall to perform Gabriella Smith’s Lost Coast, a cello concerto prompted by climate change that is staged alongside Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony (October 23 & 25, 2025).  

November finds two noteworthy living composers in one thrilling concert program: Steven Mackey, who will present the Seattle Symphony premiere and co-commission of Anemology: Concerto for Saxophone with sax whiz Timothy McAllister; and John Adams, whose expansive 40-minute early work Harmonielehre (composed in 1985) closes the evening concerts (November 20 & 22, 2025). 

With spring comes an intriguing and captivating February program that should be on your radar: Iris Dévoilée (Iris Unveiled), a merging of Western symphonic traditions with Peking opera and Chinese instrumentation by Chinese-French composer Qigang Chen (February 12, 14 & 15, 2026). The following weekend, opening the Schumann & Beethoven program, there’s Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s Primal Message, inspired by a 1974 interstellar radio message sent to the Hercules Globular Cluster that carried information about humanity, Earth and our place in the universe (February 19–21, 2026). Both are conducted by Xian. 

In March, innovative pianist Conrad Tao performs a solo recital that finds Brahms and Ravel bookending works by David Fulmer, Rebecca Saunders and Todd Moellenberg (March 8, 2026). Then, a Chamber Series program finds our own Assistant Principal Bass (and Young Composers Workshop alumnus) Will Langlie Miletich giving the world premiere of his trio for violin, cello and bass, Bully Mammoth, alongside works by Kaminski and Beethoven (March 10, 2026). 

Another Chamber Series program features more living composers in April, pairing Kevin Day’s Ignition and Vivian Fung’s Frenetic Memories for Clarinet and String Quartet with works by Gipps and Hindemith (April 7, 2026). Then, later that same week, we have our Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances program, which features two exciting contemporary works: Joan Tower’s Suite from Concerto for Orchestra and the West Coast premiere and Seattle Symphony co-commission of a Double Concerto for violin and percussion (to feature Concertmaster Noah Geller and percussionist Svet Stoyanov) by Christopher Theofanidis (April 9 & 11, 2026). 

The Chamber Series continues giving shine to living composers with a final program in May that finds Brahms' Second String Quartet preceded by Amanda Harberg’s Trio for Bassoon, Horn and Piano and Eric Ewazen’s Trio for Bassoon, Horn and Piano (May 12, 2026).

In the final concerts of the Symphonic Series season, in June, we have the return of Steven Mackey with his RIOT, originally commissioned by Xian with the New Jersey Symphony and performed here, with Xian conducting and Mackey on electric guitar joined by a vocal soloist and the Seattle Symphony Chorale in a program that comes to a head with Beethoven’s epic Ninth Symphony (June 18–21, 2026). 

LIVING COMPOSERS SHINE IN OCTAVE 9 

Every program in the Octave 9 Series is made up of works by living composers, often with the composers themselves performing and/or directing. This season is no exception. Here’s this season’s lineup in Octave 9: Raisbeck Music Center. All concerts happen on Fridays at 7 & 9pm.

GABRIELLA SMITH & GABRIEL CABEZAS Smith (vocals, violin & electronics) and Cabezas (cello & electronics) perform music from their Lost Coast album — which shares the title of her cello concerto performed on the mainstage the same week — and more (October 24, 2025). 

OF LOVE. Violinist and composer Curtis Stewart (violin & electronics) performs his own compositions, including his personal requiem to his mother, of Love. (November 14, 2025).

MEMORY GAPS Composer/pianist Alex Weston's darkly humorous Memory Gaps — mini portraits based on Cecilia Ruiz’s The Book of Memory Gaps — are accompanied by Ruiz’s text and visuals illustrating characters with unique relationships to memory, and stagecraft and animation by Joshua William Gelb. Weston is joined by a Seattle Symphony string quartet (February 27, 2026). 

THE PIANO // RE-IMAGINED Composer, pianist, music producer/director and singer-songwriter Natalie Tenenbaum offers up this post-classical piano recital inspired by her second album Standard Repertoire Vol. 1, with a program that will be announced from the stage (March 27, 2026). 

THROUGH HER WINDOW: PART II Principal Oboe Mary Lynch VanderKolk, Principal Flute Demarre McGill and pianist Paige Roberts Molloy perform four world premieres and Seattle Symphony co-commissions from composers Alyssa Mercedes Mena, Danae Venson and Elise Winkler (April 24, 2026). 

THE MUSIC OF JEROD IMPICHCHA̱ACHAAHA' TATE Composer Jerod Impichcha̱achaaha' Tate is joined by Seattle Symphony musicians to stage four of his works: Talowa' Hiloha (Thunder Song), MoonStrike, Dream World and Abitahánta': The Hunter Who Was Not So Great (June 12, 2026). 

Music Director Xian Zhang is generously sponsored by Dr. and Mrs. Charles and Lisa Simonyi and an anonymous donor.  

Xian Zhang’s position is generously underwritten as the Harriet Overton Stimson Music Director.  

Noah Geller’s position is generously underwritten as the David & Amy Fulton Concertmaster. 

Principal Oboe Mary Lynch VanderKolk’s position is generously supported by anonymous donors. 

Gabriel Cabezas’ performances are generously sponsored by the James D. and Sherry Raisbeck Foundation. 

Conrad Tao’s performances are generously sponsored by Stephen and Rebecca Whyte. 

Steven Mackey’s performances are generously sponsored by the James D. and Sherry Raisbeck Foundation. 

The Merriman-Ross Family Young Composers Workshop is generously underwritten by Pamela Merriman, Sonja Ross, and Kelley Ross. 

Additional support for The Merriman-Ross Family Young Composers Workshop is provided by Patricia M. Davis, Ann Holbrook, and Michel and Christine Suignard.  

The Arakawa Foundation proudly supports the Seattle Symphony’s Community Partnerships for Youth and Education. Additional support is provided by Delta Air Lines. 

Performances of Xian Conducts Pictures at an Exhibition are generously sponsored by Lyn and Jerry Grinstein. 

Performances of Steven Mackey’s Anemology: Concerto for Saxophone are generously underwritten by the Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Living Music Program.