Conductor Rafael Payare’s 2025–26 season includes Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust and “Fantastique” recording with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Jimmy López works and Brahms Festival with San Diego Symphony, debut with Royal Concertgebouw, much more

(August 2025) — Conductor Rafael Payare – always “electrifying in front of an orchestra” (Los Angeles Times) – conducts full seasons in 2025–26 as Music Director of both California’s San Diego Symphony (SDS) and Canada’s Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra/OSM), while also debuting with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, returning to the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras and Pittsburgh Symphony, and much more. Following up on performances together of the same composer’s Symphonie fantastique on tour in Europe in November 2024, Payare opens his OSM season with performances of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, (Sep 17, 18). These concerts also precede an October 17 Berlioz release on the Pentatone label. In the spring, Payare leads the San Diego Symphony in a two-week Brahms Festival, featuring Brahms’s A German Requiem (Feb 27, March 1); Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 (Feb 28); and Symphonies Nos. 4 and 3, each paired with the Violin Concerto featuring Leonidas Kavakos (March 6, 7). Both the San Diego and Montreal orchestras have also appointed California-based Peruvian composer Jimmy López to be Composer-in-Residence for the next two seasons; Payare will lead his works on two SDS programs (Oct 11, 12; May 15, 16) and one with OSM (Feb 11–13). As a guest conductor, Payare makes his Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra debut this season, conducting music of Frank Martin, Shostakovich, and Sofia Gubaidulina (Feb 18–20). He returns to the UK’s Philharmonia for concerts pairing Berlioz with the London premiere of Philharmonia Featured Composer Gabriela Ortiz’s trumpet concerto Altar de Bronce (Nov 26, 27), and he also returns to the podiums of the NHK Symphony Orchestra (Nov 20, 21), Philadelphia Orchestra (Feb 5–7), Cleveland Orchestra (March 27, 28), and Pittsburgh Symphony (April 10, 12).

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra/OSM)

After last season’s European tour with OSM featuring Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture and Symphonie fantastique – culminating in live performances in Montreal that were recorded and will be released on the Pentatone label this fall (Oct 17) – Payare opens his fourth season as OSM Music Director with the same composer’s The Damnation of Faust. The concerts feature mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill, tenor Andrew Staples, baritone Sir Willard White, bass-baritone Ashley Riches, the OSM chorus, and the Petits Chanteurs de Laval children’s chorus (Sep 17, 18).

Other season highlights with OSM include the continuation of the Mahler cycle Payare launched in 2022. He conducts the Ninth Symphony in the fall (Oct 15, 16), followed by the Fourth Symphony in the new year (Feb 11–13), sharing the bill with Jimmy López’s Perú Negro and Billy Childs’s Diaspora, Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra. Payare also conducts a program featuring OSM principal trombonist James Box in Samy Moussa’s “Yericho” Concerto and OSM principal cello Brian Manker in Bloch’s Schelomo(Oct 22, 25); an OSM-commissioned world premiere by British-Canadian composer Isabella Gellis, sharing the bill with Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto featuring Emanuel Ax and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony (Jan 15, 17); programs featuring virtuoso clarinetist Kinan Azmeh (March 11, 12); a specially narrated version of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro featuring Ildebrando D’Arcangelo in the title role and Anna Prohaska as Susanna (March 18, 20); and much more.

San Diego Symphony (SDS)

Embarking on his seventh season as Music Director of the San Diego Symphony, Payare opens with a theatrical celebration of France and French music, featuring a roster of vocal soloists that includes mezzo-sopranos Isabel Leonard and Lindsay Ammann and soprano Liv Redpath. Debussy’s The Joyful Isle and The Box of Toys, his charming ballet score for children, are juxtaposed with a semi-staging of Ravel’s comic fantasy The Child and the Magical Spells (L’enfant et les sortilèges) (Oct 3, 5).

Composer-in-Residence Jimmy López is represented by two works with the SDS this season: his piano concerto Ephemerae, written for and featuring Spanish pianist Javier Perianes (Oct 11, 12); and his Perú Negro, on a program with Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony and Berg’s Violin Concerto with soloist Jeff Thayer (May 15, 16). The SDS has also co-commissioned, along with OSM, López’s Sixth Symphony, which is inspired by the migratory patterns of Monarch butterflies and will premiere in 2026–27.

Other highlights of Payare’s SDS concerts include Bruckner’s Fourth “Romantic” Symphony paired with selections from Mahler’s The Boy’s Magical Horn (Des Knaben Wunderhorn) sung by baritone Matthias Goerne, both works prominently featuring Payare’s first instrument, the French horn (Nov 7, 8); violinist Augustin Hadelichperforming the Sibelius Violin Concerto (Nov 14, 15); and a pairing of Beethoven’s First Symphony with Shostakovich’s Eighth (Jan 24, 25). Mahler’s Seventh Symphony (Jan 31, Feb 1) and Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra (May 22, 24) continue Payare’s focus on both composers in recent seasons, and another Strauss tone poem, Ein Heldenleben, is paired with Gabriela Ortiz’s new cello concerto Dzonot, written for and featuring Alisa Weilerstein (May 9, 10).

In spring of 2026, Payare leads the San Diego Symphony in a two-week Brahms Festival, comprising four programs of iconic works. Payare’s way with Brahms was recently praised by San Francisco Classical Voice as “electrifying,” reminiscent of “the young Michael Tilson Thomas back in the day, when MTT was all motion and footwork.” The festival will feature Brahms’s A German Requiem with soloists Julie Boulianne and Michael Sumueland the San Diego Symphony Chorus (Feb 27; March 1); Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 (Feb 28); and Symphonies Nos. 4 and 3 in consecutive performances, each paired with the Violin Concerto featuring Leonidas Kavakos, whose 2017 recording of the Brahms Piano Trios with Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax was lauded by The Guardian as “faultless, larger-than-life music making” (March 6, 7).

These engagements come on the heels of a landmark 2024–25 season for Payare, who led the triumphant return of the San Diego Symphony to its renovated home, the Jacobs Music Center.  The San Diego Union-Tribune declared that the SDS “finally has a San Diego venue that permits it to sound like the world-class orchestra they’ve been since Payare took over.” The Wall Street Journal described the hall as “a former movie palace whose acoustic shortcomings were recently rectified in a renovation that allows the ensemble’s artistry to shine.” About Payare himself, they noted: “Exuding a podium manner of extreme, yet unforced, exuberance … Payare puts a high premium on bringing joy to concert audiences.”

Guest conducting engagements

In the spring, Payare makes his Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra debut leading violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann in Frank Martin’s Violin Concerto, on a program with Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony and the Russian composer’s younger colleague Sofia Gubaidulina’s Fairytale Poem, inspired by Miloš Macourek’s The Little Piece of Chalk, an allegory of artistic perseverance (Feb 18–19)​.​​ When Payare conducted the New York Philharmonic’s first performance of Fairytale Poem this past spring, The New York Times praised it as being “played with evocative regard to piquant details.” Following these performances, Payare conducts the Shostakovich by itself in the orchestra’s “Essentials” series (Feb 20).

Payare’s first guest appearance of the season is with Japan’s NHK Symphony, where he conducts soloist Emanuel Ax in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 along with Strauss’s tone poem Ein Heldenleben and Schumann’s incidental music to Manfred (Nov 20, 21).

The following week, Payare guest conducts the UK’s Philharmonia in Leicester and London, performing Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture and Symphonie fantastique, along with the London premiere of Philharmonia’s Featured Composer Gabriela Ortiz’s trumpet concerto Altar de Bronce. Celebrated Latin Grammy Award-winning Venezuelan trumpeter Pacho Flores, for whom the concerto was composed, is the featured soloist (Nov 26, 27).

For a return engagement with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Payare leads Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with concertmaster David Kim as the soloist, on a program with Manuel de Falla’s El Amor Brujo – of which The Philadelphia Orchestra gave the U.S. premiere in 1922 – and pioneering Indigenous American composer Louis Wayne Ballard’s Devil’s Promenade (Feb 5–7).

In March, Payare conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in Miami with members of the New World Symphony. The program of Sibelius and Stravinsky comprises the former composer’s Swan of Tuonela and Violin Concerto in D minor with Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan as soloist, along with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (March 27, 28).

For Payare’s last guest appearance of the season, he joins the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva for performances of Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto, sharing the bill with a second interpretation of the Rite of Spring and Jimmy López’s Perú Negro (April 10, 12).

Rafael Payare: 2025–26 season engagements

Sep 17, 18
Montreal, QC
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano (Marguerite)
Andrew Staples, tenor (Faust)
Sir Willard White, baritone (Méphistophélès)
Ashley Riches, bass-baritone (Brander)
OSM Chorus (Andrew Megill, chorusmaster)
Petits Chanteurs de Laval (Philippe Ostiguy, chorusmaster)
BERLIOZ: The Damnation of Faust, Op. 24

Oct 3, 5
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano
Liv Redpath, soprano
Lindsay Ammann, mezzo-soprano
Meridian Prall, mezzo-soprano
Tasha Hokuao Koontz, soprano
Angel Raii Gomez, tenor
Elliot Madore, baritone
Christian Simmons, bass-baritone
San Diego Symphony Chorus
San Diego Children’s Choir
Directed by Gerard McBurney
DEBUSSY: The Joyful Isle (L’isle joyeuse)
DEBUSSY (orch. Caplet): The Box of Toys (La boîte à joujoux)
RAVEL: The Child and the Magical Spells (L’enfant et les sortilèges)

Oct 11, 12
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Javier Perianes, piano
CHABRIER: España, Rhapsody for Orchestra
Jimmy LÓPEZ: Ephemerae, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
SCHUMANN: Symphony No. 2, Op. 61, in C

Oct 15, 16
Montreal, QC
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
MAHLER: Symphony No. 9

Oct 17
Berlioz/OSM album release (Pentatone)

Oct 22, 25
Montreal, QC
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
James Box, principal trombone
Brian Manker, principal cello
WAGNER: Overture to Tannhäuser
Samy MOUSSA:  Concerto for Trombone (“Yericho”)
BLOCH:  Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Violoncello and Orchestra, B. 39
R. STRAUSS: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Op. 30

Nov 7, 8
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Matthias Goerne, baritone
MAHLER: Selections from The Boy’s Magical Horn (Des Knaben Wunderhorn)
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 4, “Romantic” in E-flat

Nov 14, 15
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Augustin Hadelich, violin
MENDELSSOHN: The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave), Op. 26
SIBELIUS: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 9 in C, D 944, “The Great”

Nov 20, 21
Tokyo, Japan
Suntory Hall
NHK Symphony
Emanuel Ax, piano
SCHUMANN: Manfred incidental music, Op. 115, Overture
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, K. 503
R. STRAUSS: Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 (A Hero’s Life)

Nov 23
Tokyo, Japan
Toyota City Concert Hall
NHK Symphony
Emanuel Ax, piano
SCHUMANN: Manfred incidental music, Op. 115, Overture
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, K. 503
R. STRAUSS: Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 (A Hero’s Life)

Nov 26
Leicester, UK
Philharmonia
Pacho Flores, trumpet
BERLIOZ: Roman Carnival Overture
Gabriela ORTIZ: Trumpet Concerto, “Altar de Bronce” (London premiere)
BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique

Nov 27
London, UK
Philharmonia
Pacho Flores, trumpet
BERLIOZ: Roman Carnival Overture
Gabriela ORTIZ: Trumpet Concerto, “Altar de Bronce” (London premiere)
BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique

Dec 2, 3
Montreal, QC
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Simone Lamsma, violin
DEBUSSY: L’isle joyeuse (arr. B. Molinari), L. 106
KORNGOLD: Concerto for Violin, Op. 35
BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra, Sz.116, BB 123

Dec 11, 12
Montreal, QC
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Lucy Crowe, soprano
Luciana Mancini, alto
Levy Sekgapane, tenor
Roderick Williams, bass
OSM Chorus (Andrew Megill, chorusmaster)
HANDEL: Messiah, HWV 56

Jan 15, 17
Montreal, QC
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Emanuel Ax, piano
Isabella GELLIS: New Work (world premiere of OSM commission)
BEETHOVEN: Concerto for Piano No. 3, Op. 37
PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 5, Op. 100

Jan 24, 25
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 1 in C, Op. 21
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65

Jan 31, Feb 1
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
MAHLER: Symphony No. 7

Feb 5–7
Philadelphia, PA
The Philadelphia Orchestra
David Kim, violin
BALLARD: Devil’s Promenade
TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto
FALLA: El amor brujo (first version, 1915)

Feb 11, 12, 13
Montreal, QC
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Steven Banks, saxophone
Vuvu Mpofu, soprano
Jimmy LÓPEZ: Perú Negro
Billy CHILDS: Diaspora, Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra
MAHLER: Symphony No. 4

Feb 18–20
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (debut)
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin
GUBAIDULINA: Fairytale Poem (Feb 18, 19)
MARTIN: Violin Concerto (Feb 18, 19)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10

SDS BRAHMS FESTIVAL
Feb 27, March 1
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Julie Boulianne, soprano
Michael Sumuel, bass-baritone
BRAHMS: A German Requiem (Ein deutsches Requiem), Op. 45

Feb 28
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 2

March 6
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
BRAHMS: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 4

March 7
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 3
BRAHMS Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77

March 11
Montreal, QC
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Timothy Hutchins, principal flute
Kinan Azmeh, clarinet
Dinuk Wijeratne, piano
BARTÓK: Six Romanian Folk Dances
C.P.E. BACH: Concerto for Flute in D minor, H. 425, W. 22
Kinan AZMEH: Suite for Improvisor and Orchestra
MOZART: Symphony No. 39, K. 543

March 12
Montreal, QC
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Kinan Azmeh, clarinet
Dinuk Wijeratne, piano
BARTÓK: Six Romanian Folk Dances
Dinuk WIJERATNE/Kinan AZMEH: After Béla, for clarinet and piano
Kinan AZMEH: Suite for Improvisor and Orchestra

March 18, 20
Montreal, QC
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Anna Prohaska, soprano (Susanna)
Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, soprano (Countess Almaviva)
Avery Amereau, mezzo-soprano (Cherubino)
Luca Pisaroni, baritone (Count Almaviva)
Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, baritone (Figaro)
OSM Chorus (Andrew Megill, chorusmaster)
MOZART: The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492

March 27, 28
Miami, FL
The Cleveland Orchestra
Sergey Khachatryan, violin
With members of the New World Symphony
SIBELIUS: The Swan of Tuonela, Op. 22, No. 2
SIBELIUS: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
STRAVINSKY: The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps)

April 10, 12
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Yulianna Avdeeva, piano
Jimmy LÓPEZ: Perú Negro
PROKOFIEV: Piano Concerto No. 2
STRAVINSKY: The Rite of Spring

April 15, 16
Montreal, QC
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 8, Op. 93
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 7, Op. 60 (“Leningrad”)

April 22, 23
Montreal, QC
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Bruce Liu, pianist
Denis GOUGEON: New Work (world premiere of OSM commission)
TCHAIKOVSKY: Concerto for Piano No. 1, Op. 23
STRAVINSKY: The Rite of Spring

May 9, 10
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Gabriela ORTIZ: Dzonot
R. STRAUSS: Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40

May 15, 16
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Jeff Thayer, violin
Jimmy LÓPEZ: Perú Negro
BERG: Violin Concerto
MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 3, “Scottish” in A minor, Op. 56, MWV N 18

May 22, 24
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano
Christopher Purves, baritone
R. STRAUSS: Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30
BARTÓK: Bluebeard’s Castle

May 27, 28
Montreal, QC
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Yefim Bronfman, piano
SCHUMANN: Concerto for Piano, Op. 54
WAGNER: The Ring Without Words

June 7
Berlin, Germany
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Steven Banks, saxophone
Billy CHILDS: Diaspora: Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 7