Orchestra Victoria has announced its 2026 season. Under the banner One Season, Many Stories, the orchestra’s mainstage Southbank Series will feature three programs across the course of the year, each led by its own superstar conductor.

Orchestra Victoria. Photo supplied

“What sets Orchestra Victoria apart is the impact of our musicians, their ability to bring powerful stories across art forms to life through music,” said CEO Jacinta Ewars.

“Whether your passion is ballet, opera, a Friday night concert or the magic of video game music, Season 2026 offers something that will speak to everyone.”

Celestial Threads on 11 April sees British conductor Alice Farnham on the podium for George Morton’s chamber arrangement of Gustav Holst’s The Planets, his daughter Imogen Holst’s Suite for Strings and New Zealand composer John Psathas’ Djinn: Marimba Concerto, with Principal Percussionist Mathew Levy stepping up to the plate as soloist. The program also travels to Warrnambool on 17 April.

Umberto Clerici takes on Romantic and modern works in In Full Flight on 5 September. Paul Stanhope pays tribute to Stravinsky in Apollo alongside the Russian composer’s own Dances Concertantes and Beethoven’s First Symphony, and Principal Flute Lisa-Maree Amos tackles Nielsen’s Flute Concerto.

Finally, TSO Chief Conductor Eivind Aadland features in December’s string-heavy Worlds Within with Strauss’s Metamorphosen, Mazzoli’s These Worlds in Us and Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony.

The well-titled Meet @ the Market series also returns in 2026 to North Melbourne’s Meat Market with three bite-sized deep dives into each of its mainstage performances led by their conductors and ABC Classic’s Stéphanie Kabanyana Kanyandekwe.

Walter Kadiki. Photo supplied

Orchestra Victoria also presents two special collaborations across the year. In Music and Me (20 July), stage and screen legend Caroline O’Connor joins the orchestra for a showcase of stories and songs collected over her career.

Next comes Across Silence (8 August), a unique, multi-sensory performance with poet Walter Kadiki, OV and session musician group The Newmarket Collective. Composer Andrea Keller sets the poetry of Kadiki – a Deaf performer and educator who performs in Auslan – in a concert that features haptic technology to allow performers (and select audience members) to feel the music in a striking way.

In demand as accompaniment, Orchestra Victoria lends its sound to a variety of different performances across 2026. It performs with The Australian Ballet in its Melbourne performances of Flora, Romeo and Juliet and Copland Dance Episodes, and is also set to back Canadian band The Tea Party on 6 February, with more gigs to be revealed during the course of the year.

More about Orchestra Victoria’s 2026 season can be found here