Princeton Symphony Orchestra Announces Top Soloists and Programming for 2026-27 Season

Christine Goerke, soprano. Photo by Arielle Doneson

(PRINCETON, NJ) — Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) has announced the programming in their 2026-27 Season. Highlights include Grammy Award®-winning soprano Christine Goerke singing Wagner and Mahler, and returns by violinist Simone Porter, cellist Joshua Roman, and 2025 audience favorite, pianist Maxim Lando. The returning soloists will perform concertos by Mozart, Shostakovich, and Brahms, respectively, demonstrating variances in the classical form through the modern era.

Russian pianist Dmitry Shishkin makes his PSO debut and conductor John Gennaro Devlin returns to lead the PSO at Holiday POPS! performances on December 19 and at classical series concerts in March. Teaming up once again with the Westminster Symphonic Choir, the orchestra will perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s exultant anthem to solidarity, his Symphony No. 9 “Ode to Joy.”

Additionally, Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov has programmed masterworks by Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, and Igor Stravinsky, contemporary pieces by Joan Tower and Michael Abels, plus a new work by Gregory Spears co-commissioned by the PSO.

“I’m particularly enthusiastic about this coming season,” said Maestro Milanov, “as it combines amazing artistry with varied angles for musical expression. The season takes patrons through an arc of emotional intensity, culminating in the triumphal joy expressed in Beethoven’s ninth symphony.”

All performances take place on select Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 4:00pm, at Richardson Auditorium on the campus of Princeton University. Rossen Milanov conducts all but the March concerts. 

The season opens with a high-energy program October 17-18. Pianist Dmitry Shishkin, a formidable technician, takes on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The orchestra’s virtuosity is on display in Joan Tower’s propulsive Suite from Concerto for Orchestra, which premiered at Carnegie Hall in January 2025, and Béla Bartók’s celebrated Concerto for Orchestra.

Simone Porter, violin. Photo by Elisha Knight

On November 14-15, Simone Porter marks her return to the PSO, and first performance with the orchestra in Richardson Auditorium, as soloist in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Turkish” Violin Concerto No. 5. Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Overture in C and Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 88, with its lyrical second movement theme played by solo oboe and cello, complete the program.

On January 23-24, American dramatic soprano Christine Goerke performs Gustav Mahler’s poignant Kindertotenlieder song cycle and Richard Wagner’s “Liebestod,” from his opera Tristan und Isolde. A new work by Gregory Spears which the PSO co-commissioned rounds out the program.

Cellist Joshua Roman last appeared with the PSO in 2018. At concerts February 13-14, he performs Dmitri Shostakovich’s intense first cello concerto, bookended by Michael Abels’ Liquify, a tone poem depicting riverfront scenes, and Igor Stravinsky’s showpiece The Firebird: Suite (1919).

March 6-7 sees the return of popular pianist Maxim Lando performing Johannes Brahms’ romantic first piano concerto. John Devlin conducts the program which includes Felix Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave) and Franz Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8. 

The season concludes May 8-9 on an emotional high with Westminster Symphonic Performing Beethoven’s “Choral” Symphony No. 9. Soloists will be announced over the summer.

Initially, these concerts are available only by subscription, with single tickets going on sale mid-summer. Concerts will take place Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 4pm. Full Season subscriptions start at $198 with the option of adding Holiday POPS! tickets at a discount. Youths 5-17 receive a 50% discount with an adult purchase. To subscribe, visit the Princeton Symphony Orchestra website at princetonsymphony.org or call 609-497-0020.