With the first half of 2024 over, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) has had an epic 2024 thus far, and even more highlights to come. From Beethoven’s Ode to Joy to classic film soundtracks such as Silence of the Lambs and Psycho, the SSO is set for a season for all music lovers. Together with the Singapore Symphony Choruses, the SSO will also perform the thrilling Carmina Burana in a joint concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Choruses.

SSO Gala: Beethoven’s Ode to Joy
Thursday & Friday, 25 & 26 July 2024, 7.30pm. Esplanade Concert Hall.

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is classical music’s most beloved celebration of the human spirit – a splendid ode to equality, freedom and fellowship powered by Romantic fervour and Beethoven’s triumphant struggle against the limits of mind and body. Experience it at the Singapore Symphony’s 2024/25 season opening concert with SSO Music Director Hans Graf – we open with Brahms’s Double Concerto featuring Singapore’s violin star Chloe Chua and SSO Principal Cellist Ng Pei-Sian, a performance which will also be part of the 2025 Australian tour programme.

Brahms with Hans Graf and Sayaka Shoji
Thursday & Friday, 1 & 2 August 2024, 7.30pm. Victoria Concert Hall

The noble strains of Brahms’s music encompass this entire programme conducted by SSO Music Director Hans Graf. Passion and angst rule his Tragic Overture while calm winds of grace flow through his Serenade in A major. Brahms’s popular Violin Concerto takes the limelight in the second half, starring the acclaimed violinist Sayaka Shoji, the first Japanese and youngest-ever winner of the Paganini Competition in 1999.

Temasek Foundation x SSO National Day Concert
Sunday, 11 August 2024, 4pm. Esplanade Concert Hall

In the history of music in every genre, what continues to be played long after it is written becomes classic, and ultimately: identity. Since 2018, the Singapore Symphony’s annual National Day Concert has celebrated the works of our musical forefathers and showcased our composers of today. Come hear our musical legacy and future. This concert will also be streamed live on the Singapore Symphony YouTube channel.

The Violin and the Erhu
Friday & Saturday, 16 & 17 August 2024, 7.30pm. Victoria Concert Hall

Not one but two concertos fill this musical itinerary led by eminent Chinese conductor Long Yu, Music Director of the Shanghai Symphony and Artistic Director/Chief Conductor of the China Philharmonic Orchestra. Karen Gomyo, “a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity.” (The Chicago Tribune) stars in the American half of the programme with Barber’s Violin Concerto while Yiwen Lu, one of China’s finest exponents of the erhu, will enthral you with the haunting music of Qigang Chen.

SSO Gala: Carmina Burana
Thursday & Friday, 22 & 23 August 2024, 7.30pm Esplanade Concert Hall

The Singapore and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras and Choruses join forces to present the choral-orchestral spectacular of Carmina Burana, Carl Orff’s grandiloquent 1937 oratorio. The “Songs of Beuren” is based on 13th century songs celebrating all manner of life’s pursuits – from sacred prayers to bawdy tavern songs, reincarnated through a modern orchestra in kaleidoscopic colour and rhythmic vivacity, amplifying its vibrant and earthy humour. It’s a stunning experience that’s absolutely not to be missed, as is the line-up of fanfares, firebirds and flamenco in this exciting collaboration.

SSO Gala: Sibelius with Maxim Vengerov and Okko Kamu
Friday, 30 August 2024, 7.30pm. Esplanade Concert Hall

“A violinist like Maxim is born only once in a hundred years,” declared his violin teacher. Truly one of the most spellbinding violinists alive today, Maxim Vengerov, arrives in Singapore to play one of the many works that has carried his name into legend – the Sibelius Violin Concerto, a work of tempestuous beauty and piercing sunlight. The Singapore Symphony also premieres Emergence by the doyen of Singapore composers Kelly Tang, while Sibelius’s magnificent Second Symphony forges an incandescent conclusion to this concert conducted by Finnish maestro and former SSO Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu.

Maxim Vengerov in Recital
Saturday, 31 August 2024, 7.30pm Esplanade Concert Hall

From the sweet darkness and brooding introspection of Prokofiev to the beautiful fullness of Franck’s Sonata, ending with Ravel’s fiery Tzigane – this not-to-be-missed recital by the renowned Maxim Vengerov and Polina Osetinskaya is an exquisite encapsulation of the art of violin and piano.

SSO Concerts for Children: Pirates Ahoy!
Saturday, 7 September 2024, 11am & 2pm Sunday, 8 September 2024, 11am Victoria Concert Hall

Come aboard the Victoria with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, presenter Alasdair “Awesome Al” Malloy and conductor Rodolfo Barráez in this musical adventure of high Cs, pitch-perfect pirates and the thrill of the treasure hunt.

President’s Young Performers Concert
Friday, 13 September 2024, 7.30pm Victoria Concert Hall

Not one but two of Singapore’s finest young pianists take the stage at the Singapore Symphony’s 2024 showcase of President’s Young Performers. Watch Toby Tan, 16, prove his prodigiously growing talent in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s popular rhapsody on Paganini’s famous 24th Caprice. This sensuously modern masterpiece makes a mesmerising companion to Prokofiev’s brilliant Piano Concerto No. 1, whose lyrical tang and arresting melodies will be lit afire by Adrian Tang, 19, a First Prize winner at the 2023 National Piano & Violin Competition and alumnus of the Young Artist programme at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

SSO Pops: Classics at the Movies
Friday & Saturday, 27 & 28 September 2024, 7.30pm Victoria Concert Hall

If a picture is worth a thousand words, music is surely worth millions. Music has been a vital ingredient in the art of storytelling, deepening the emotional power and meaning behind great films. Last seen together at the SSO’s tribute to Broadway, conductor Gerard Salonga is joined again by singing sensation Lara Maigue and SSO violinist Chan Yoong-Han in moving solo numbers by John Williams and Handel. Come with us on this cinematic journey of unforgettable scores that have transcended time and memory through film (and cartoon!).

SSO Australian Tour
Wednesday, 12 February 2025, Sydney Opera House, Friday, 14 February 2025, Melbourne Hamer Hall
Sunday, 16 February 2025, Queensland Performing Arts Centre

18-year-old violin sensation Chloe Chua and the Singapore Symphony make their Australian debut in this 3-city tour. Together with the orchestra’s Sydney-born Principal Cellist, Pei-Sian Ng, they perform Brahms’s final orchestral work, the 1887 Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, a magnificent exploration of the prodigious chromatic and emotional range of these instruments. The programme conducted by Hans Graf also introduces Luciola singapura, an award-winning composition by Singaporean composer Koh Cheng Jin (b. 1996), a shimmering musical evocation of the Singapore firefly; and Tchaikovsky’s tremendous Fifth Symphony, a towering masterpiece with its heart fully on its sleeve.

More information on upcoming SSO Concerts here