Daniel Hope returns to U.S. this spring for two Bay Area tours with New Century Chamber Orchestra, plus chamber concerts in Kansas City, Detroit, & at Wolf Trap

(February 2026) — As Music Director and Concertmaster of San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra, Daniel Hope – the Switzerland-based violinist whose “thriving solo career” is “built on inventive programming and a probing interpretive style” (The New York Times) – leads the ensemble on two Bay Area tours, with programs featuring the world premieres of new commissions from Nathaniel Stookey (March 13–15) and Henry Dorn (April 23–25). While in the States, Hope also gives chamber concerts in Kansas City (March 6), Detroit (March 7), and, in his new role as Artistic Advisor for Chamber Music at The Barns, at Viriginia’s Wolf Trap (March 8). Back in Switzerland, he completes his 2025–26 lineup as Music Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, before presiding over this summer’s landmark 70th anniversary season of the Menuhin Festival & Academy Gstaad, where Hope is now in his inaugural season as Intendant & Artistic Director.

Bay Area tours with New Century Chamber Orchestra

San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO) is one of the world’s few conductorless ensembles. Since becoming its Music Director and Concertmaster in 2018, Hope and the NCCO have won praise in a wide range of repertoire. A live all-Mozart program induced “thrills and chills” (San Francisco Classical Voice), while their recording of new commissions prompted Strings magazine to marvel:

“I can’t speak highly enough of Hope’s solo abilities and of New Century as a model of professionalism and unwavering advocacy of contemporary music. For those in search of inspiration – or just looking to stimulate the mind – Music for a New Century beckons.”

Last year, Hope appeared with a quintet from NCCO on Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, the live weekly Netflix talk show, and this spring he leads the orchestra from the violin on two Bay Area tours. At concerts in Berkeley (March 13), San Francisco (March 14), and Belvedere Tiburon (March 15), they give the world premiere of Bubble Chamber, a new NCCO commission from San Francisco composer Nathaniel Stookey, best-known for The Composer Is Dead, one of the 21st century’s most performed works. This will be heard alongside an earlier NCCO commission from another San Francisco native – Overture by Jake Heggie, Musical America’s Composer of the Year 2025; Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence; and, with Hope as soloist, the Second Violin Concerto by French polymath Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

Hope and the orchestra complete their season in collaboration with Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, “the global ambassador of Spanish guitar” (Billboard magazine), who joins them in Rohnert Park (April 23), Berkeley (April 24), and San Francisco (April 25) for guitar concertos by Joaquín Rodrigo and six-time Grammy winner Michael Daugherty. These share a program with music for strings by Argentina’s Alberto Williams and “new tango” master Astor Piazzolla, together with the world premiere of a new piece commissioned by the NCCO from Henry Dorn, “a composer we should hear more from” (Chicago Classical Review), through the Emerging Black Composers Project.

New Wolf Trap position and spring chamber concerts in U.S.

A dedicated chamber artist, Hope gives three chamber performances in the States this spring. His collaborations with cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han have been called “exceptionally sympathetic” (Classics Today), and the three reunite in Kansas City for Haydn’s Piano Trio in A, Beethoven’s First Piano Trio, and Dvořák’s beloved “Dumky” (March 6). They repeat this program two days later at Wolf Trap, where Hope has just succeeded Wu Han as Artistic Advisor for Chamber Music at The Barns (March 8). Presented in partnership with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the season-long Virginia series brings world-class soloists and ensembles to the rustic venue.

These appearances bookend Hope’s return to Chamber Music Detroit for an evening of Dvořák with the Garth Newel Piano Quartet, featuring his account of the “Indian Lament” from the Czech composer’s Sonatina in G (March 7).

Zurich Chamber Orchestra & more in Europe

In Europe, the present season marks Hope’s ninth with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (ZCO), where he took over from Sir Roger Norrington as Music Director in 2016. Their rapport is such that, as The Strad puts it, “Hope and his Zurich players respond to each other like chamber musicians.” After an extensive German tour this February, Hope and the conductor-less ensemble conclude their season together at the Zurich Tonhalle, where, alongside works by Elgar and Virgil Thomson, he is the soloist in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (June 4).

Hope’s other upcoming European engagements include renditions of his signature “Irish Roots” program in Bern, Switzerland (March 22) and Wiesbaden, Germany (May 28), as well as a solo recital at Germany’s Frauenkirche Dresden (March 27), where his tenure as Artistic Director has been extended through 2031. He and the ZCO will subsequently reunite this summer at Gstaad (see below) and at the Frauenkirche, where nonagenarian guest conductor Zubin Mehta will lead a performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, with Hope as violin soloist and two-time Grammy winner Pinchas Zukerman on viola (July 11).

Menuhin Festival Gstaad’s 70th anniversary season

Hope is now in his first season as Intendant & Artistic Director of Switzerland’s Menuhin Festival & Academy Gstaad, having been unanimously elected to the role, in view of his 21 years of curatorial experience and deep musical associations with Gstaad and the late Yehudi Menuhin himself. In this new post, Hope will preside over the Menuhin Festival Gstaad’s landmark 70th anniversary season this summer. He explains:

“The summer of 2026 marks a new era and homecoming for the Menuhin Festival Gstaad. For nearly seven decades, this beloved place has been more than a festival – it has been a family. Under the theme ‘Family Matters,’ we celebrate the many forms of family – those we are born into and those we find through music. Family means trust, continuity, and belonging – values that Yehudi Menuhin embodied like few others. These values live on in Gstaad: in encounters across generations, in friendships formed on and off stage, and in the sharing of knowledge and inspiration. Our 2026 program celebrates the many ways we connect with one another. … In a rapidly changing world, we aim to show that music can unite us, offer hope, and create a shared sense of belonging beyond all boundaries.”

Under Hope’s auspices, highlights of the anniversary season (July 16–Sep 5) will include an opening-night concert featuring living legends Zubin Mehta and Pinchas Zukerman; a collaboration between Jaap van Zweden and the Gstaad Festival Orchestra, culminating with a European tour this fall; performances by London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko, as well as by the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Royal Danish Orchestra, and Zurich Chamber Orchestra; guest appearances by artists including Daniil Trifonov, Sir András Schiff, Iván Fischer, Khatia Buniatishvili, Thomas Hampson, Gabriela Montero, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Steven Isserlis, Regula Mühlemann, Bomsori Kim, Isata Kanneh-Mason, and Marie Jacquot; and a new production of Puccini’s La bohème, starring Benjamin Bernheim under Marco Armiliato’s leadership. See the full festival lineup here.

Daniel Hope: upcoming engagements

March 6
Kansas City, KS
Chamber concert with Wu Han, piano; David Finckel, cello
HAYDN: Trio in A, HOB.XV:18
BEETHOVEN: Trio in E-flat, Op. 1, No. 1
DVOŘÁK: Trio in E minor, “Dumky”

March 7
Detroit, MI
Chamber concert Garth Newel Piano Quartet
DVOŘÁK: “Indian Lament” from Sonatina in G for violin and piano
DVOŘÁK: Piano Quintet

March 8
Vienna, VA
Wolf Trap
Chamber concert with Wu Han, piano; David Finckel, cello
HAYDN: Trio in A, HOB.XV:18
BEETHOVEN: Trio in E-flat, Op. 1, No. 1
DVOŘÁK: Trio in E minor, “Dumky”

March 13–15: Bay Area concerts with New Century Chamber Orchestra (Music Director & Concertmaster)
   March 13: Berkeley, CA (First Congregational Church)
   March 14: San Francisco, CA (Presidio Theatre)
   March 15: Belvedere Tiburon, CA (St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church)
“Luminaries”
Jake HEGGIE: Overture (NCCO commission)
BOLOGNE: Violin Concerto No. 2
Nathaniel STOOKEY: Bubble Chamber (world premiere of NCCO commission)
TCHAIKOVSKY: Souvenir de Florence

March 22
Bern, Switzerland
Zentrum Paul Klee
“Irish Roots”
Traditional Irish music; works by ROSEINGRAVE, PURCELL, OSWALD, O’CAROLAN, and others
With AIR Ensemble

March 27
Dresden, Germany
Dresden Frauenkirche
Solo recital

April 23–25: Bay Area concerts with New Century Chamber Orchestra (Music Director & Concertmaster)
   April 23: Rohnert Park, CA (Green Music Center)
   April 24: Berkeley, CA (First Presbyterian Church)
   April 25: San Francisco, CA (Presidio Theatre)
“Radiance in Rhythm”
PIAZZOLLA: Fuga y misterio (version for strings)
Henry DORN: new work (world premiere of new NCCO commission as part of the Emerging Black Composers Project)
Michael DAUGHERTY: Bay of Pigs (with Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, guitar)
WILLIAMS: Primera Suite Argentina
RODRIGO: Concierto de Aranjuez (with Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, guitar)

May 28
Wiesbaden, Germany
Kurhaus
“Irish Roots”
Traditional Irish music; works by ROSEINGRAVE, PURCELL, OSWALD, O’CAROLAN, and others
With AIR Ensemble

June 4
Zurich, Switzerland
Tonhalle
Zurich Chamber Orchestra (Music Director)
ELGAR: Serenade for Strings
THOMSON: Cantabile for strings
VIVALDI: The Four Seasons (with Hope, violin)

July 11
Dresden, Germany
Frauenkirche Dresden
Zurich Chamber Orchestra / Zubin Mehta
MOZART: Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola, & orchestra (with Pinchas Zukerman, viola)

July 16–Sep 5
Gstaad, Switzerland
Menuhin Festival Gstaad (Artistic Director)
See full program here.