The Canberra Symphony Orchestra (CSO) has announced its 2026 season. Subtitled Life Force: In the Stream of Life, this season celebrates notions of continuity and “interconnectedness between nature and humanity”.

Now in her fifth year at the helm of the orchestra, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Jessica Cottis says she was deeply moved by Rabindranath Tagore’s poem Stream of Life, whose imagery of flowing energy and interconnection shaped the season’s narrative arc.

Jessica Cottis. Photo © Kaupo Kikkas

“From one tiny blade of grass to the vast oceans: these – and all in between – are places of connection, transformation and flow,” said Cottis.

Young superstar cellist (and 2024 YCAT Artist) James Morley makes his CSO debut at its head in Enigma Variations (18 & 19 Mar), and Tamara-Anna Cislowska joins for Sea and Stars (20 & 21 May) in a program that features Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Debussy’s La Mer and Deborah Cheetham Fraillon’s Dutala – Star Filled Sky.

Psycho (16 & 17 September) screens Hitchcock’s thriller...