Umberto Clerici has announced his second season as Chief Conductor of Queensland Symphony Orchestra; a season centred around a musical style and a philosophical theme – an idea that he introduced last year.

“My ambition is to create a web of interconnected programs in which each concert has a clear unique storyline that develops through a unified arc,” says the Italian-born conductor and cellist.

Umberto Clerici in Kabi Kabi Country (Mooloolaba), QSO 2024. Photo © Kris Anderson

Highlights include the continuation of his Mahler cycle with the Mahler 7, a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 which can be viewed for free on screens outside QPAC, a theatrical presentation of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Clerici trading his baton for his cello to play Brahms’ Double Concerto with QSO Concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto, and an expanded regional touring program.

The repertoire for 2024 centres on Romanticism, with music by the German Romantics including Mahler, Strauss, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Schumann, as well as composers such as Puccini, Berlioz, Sibelius, Dvořák and Smetana. There are also a...