Stories

On Friday evening, 11 September, we open the 2026-27 season with Opening Night in Oosterpark in Amsterdam East. And everyone is welcome! After a support programme by young talent, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Han-Na Chang, will perform a festive open-air concert featuring overtures by Glinka, Rossini and Wagner, Debussy’s summery Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and music from Bizet’s opera Carmen. Admission is free and no ticket is required.

On Friday evening 12 September, we will open the new season with a festive open-air concert in the Sloterpark in Amsterdam Nieuw-West. Led by the energetic conductor Stéphane Denève, the orchestra will take you on a colourful musical journey full of dazzling dance rhythms. Welcome - admission is free!

From 21 August to 4 September, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra embarks on an extensive summer tour across key European venues and festivals, led by its chief conductor designate Klaus Mäkelä.

For the fifth time, hidden European talents come together for a summer of music and friendship. The Concertgebouworkest Young format: chamber music, rehearsals with orchestra musicians, and concerts led by conductor Elim Chan. Four participants look ahead.

The central square in the University Medical Center’s AMC location is usually a bustling thoroughfare, with hundreds of people passing through it. But last 12 December the mood was very different. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra was seated in a half-circle around honorary guest conductor Iván Fischer, playing Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony.

Our first composers’ workshop took place on 12 June 2025. It was a fantastic opportunity for young promising talent to gain experience with a high-level symphony orchestra! It proved to be a fascinating, valuable learning moment for the orchestra and the young composers alike – and for the audience too.

On June 21st, more than 200,000 people strolled along the A10, which for one day had been transformed into a festival ground celebrating Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary. The Concertgebouw Orchestra was also present, with our brass section performing musical highlights in the heat.

On 19 and 21 June, Han-Na Chang will conduct works by Beethoven, Richard Strauss and Bernd Richard Deutsch in her long-awaited debut with our orchestra. In this interview, she speaks about her passion for the music in this programme and her journey from cellist to conductor.

On 27 and 28 June, during the Holland Festival at the Muziekgebouw, we will be performing new works by young composers from Iran. It features a large ensemble of orchestra members, led by André de Ridder, performing alongside Iranian musicians on Persian instruments.

In Final Score – the Music Game, the player goes through five different worlds that each have lots and lots of music. All of it was played and recorded by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. But you might want to know which pieces are playing when – and why.

With great shock and sadness, we've learned of the sudden passing of Pierre Audi (1957-2025). We will miss him tremendously as an artistic influence in the performing arts and as a cherished partner and friend to our orchestra. We will vividly remember his 1996 production of Schoenberg’s opera Moses und Aron and his role as creative partner from 2021 until 2024. Our thoughts are with his family.

On 1 May, Elena Dubinets will join the management team of the Concertgebouworkest as artistic director. Who is she, what is her background, what will she bring us? “To start with, I need to find out what makes people tick in Amsterdam and the Netherlands.”

Young, our international youth orchestra, is getting together for the fifth time this summer, opening the musical programme on the first day of SAIL Amsterdam with a special performance featuring cellist Julia Hagen and the well-known singers Karsu, Laetitia Gerards, and Lucas van Lierop.

We present our new season featuring a wide variety of imaginative programmes. For the fifth time, the orchestra will open the season with a free open-air concert, this time near the Sloterplasin Amsterdam’s Nieuw-West district. The conductor will be Stéphane Denève.

Young, the youth orchestra of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, is proving to be a great springboard for future talent. Former participants Francisca Galante Vaz and Felipe Manzano are part of the orchestra’s Academy this season. The viola players share their experiences.

This month’s programming features five works by female composers. They include two world premieres: Another Day by Calliope Tsoupaki and Spiri III: Sacred Ritual by Seung-Won Oh. What can we expect to hear in these brand-new commissioned works?

On Friday, January 24, we presented our Annual Gala. Relive the sparkling concert conducted by our future chief conductor Klaus Mäkelä, featuring soloist Janine Jansen, followed by the festive afterparty in various foyers of the Concertgebouw.

On Christmas Day, our future chief conductor, Klaus Mäkelä, has conducted a programme full of love. In addition to Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, the concert featured subito con forza by Unsuk Chin, with which Klaus Mäkelä made his debut with the orchestra in 2020.

Composer Ellen Reid’s residency with The Concertgebouw and the Concertgebouw Orchestra began in late January of 2024, with an apartment close to the canals, plus a bike. During her stay in Amsterdam she worked closely with our musicians. On 13 November, we will premiere her work, Body Cosmic, conducted by Klaus Mäkelä. ‘The musicians can play anything.'

We’re going to America! Between 18 and 24 November we’ll be on tour in the United States. It’s the 25th US tour in our history, and our first time there with our chief conductor designate, Klaus Mäkelä. In seven days the orchestra will play six concerts, and we’ll be away and back again in ten days. Things were different in the 1950s …

We are pleased that the Concertgebouw Orchestra has entered into a partnership with citizenM for our tour across the United States in November, 2024. This collaboration means a great deal to our orchestra, and we are excited to have citizenM supporting us on this international journey.