The Sydney Symphony Orchestra‘s 2025 season is launched, an offering of 44 concert programs featuring a host of Australian and international artists, 11 of whom make their SSO debuts.

SSO Chief Conductor Simone Young will lead the orchestra in six major programs during the year, beginning with Mahler’s Third Symphony (19–22 February) and concluding with Beethoven’s Ninth (26–29 November).

Simone Young and musicians of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Photo © Jay Patel

Briefing a gathering of arts journalists at the Sydney Opera House on the contents of what will be her fourth SSO season, Young said she was “having a great time with the orchestra, and they seem to be having a great time with me. Long may it last!”

Among Young’s roster of guest artists will be pianists Lang Lang (in recital, 18 and 22 June), Daniil Trifonov (accompanying baritone Matthias Goerne in Schubert’s Winterreise, 26 March), Stephen Hough (playing Brahms and Mendelssohn in May and June), Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (in recital, 20 October) and Javier Perianes, who returns to Sydney to perform works...