This weekend, just on the heels of announcing New World Symphony's upcoming season, Artistic Director Stéphane Denève will conduct Davóne Tines in his returns to NWS after a stellar debut in 2022 to perform "Recital No. 1: Mass," Tines' celebrated song cycle that puts Bach in conversation with with Sam Cooke, the King of Soul, Margaret Bonds, Julius Eastman and Caroline Shaw and joined by the Ambassador Chorale of Florida Memorial University.
Davóne Tines returns to NWS after a stellar debut in 2022 to perform "Recital No. 1: Mass," Tines' celebrated song cycle at 7:30 p.m., March 8 and 2 p.m., Sunday, March 9 at the New World Center's Michael Tilson Thomas Performance Hall, Miami Beach. (Photo by Noah Morrison/courtesy of NWS)
Tines will perform with the NWS Fellows at 7:30 p.m., March 8 and 2 p.m., Sunday, March 9 at the New World Center's Michael Tilson Thomas Performance Hall, Miami Beach.
The program also includes J.S. Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 and Abels' "Delights and Dances."
Deneve , announcing the 2025-26 season this week, reflects NWS' pioneering spirit, reimagining the orchestral experience through immersive performances and empowering the creative voices of today. Through music, the season fosters a deeper understanding of the world while enriching the educational journey and advancing the careers of its Fellows.
"Music, now more than ever, remains a powerful unifying force enriching the lives of both our audiences and our Fellows, who are dedicated to developing their craft as a means to understand and connect with the world,” said Deneve. “At NWS, this is at the core of everything we do cultivating the voices that will shape the future of music. From showcasing the extraordinary talent of our Fellows to presenting works by today's most inspiring composers alongside timeless masterworks, we aim to uplift lives both on and off the stage. We are excited to share the gift of music with our community throughout this remarkable season."
In addition to its home at the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center, NWS will perform throughout the 2025-26 season at the Adrienne Arsht Center, and in communities across South Florida and online.
New World Symphony is a laboratory for reimagining the way music is taught, presented, and experienced, especially in a digital world. Within its Knight New Media Center at New World Center, the New World Symphony will continue to push the boundaries of artistic expression.
“At New World Symphony, we create an environment in which our future musical leaders thrive, grow, and make an impact, while welcoming our greater community to enjoy the unparalleled experience of an NWS performance,” said Howard Herring, the president and CEO of NWS. “We are committed to celebrating inclusivity and excellence, bringing many of today’s leading composers and guest artists from around the world to our vibrant cultural hub in Miami, where they collaborate with our Fellows to create extraordinary musical experiences. The educational and artistic work taking place here is truly one of a kind there is nothing else like it in the world.”
Highlights/October
Deneve will lead the Fellows in nine programs including the 2025-26 season-opening concert at New World Center on Saturday, Oct. 4 and Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025 that explores the themes of resilience and courage through three powerful works. "Chuphshah! Harriet’s Drive to Canaan" is a stirring orchestral tribute to Harriet Tubman, capturing the urgency and hope of her journey to freedom.
In addition to its home at the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center, NWS will perform throughout the 2025-26 season at the Adrienne Arsht Center, and in communities across South Florida and online. (Photo courtesy of NWS)
Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" celebrates the enduring ideals of democracy and justice using Abraham Lincoln’s own words. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica,” is a groundbreaking masterpiece that redefined the symphony, embodying heroism and the triumph of the human spirit.
Deneve continues the beginning of the season with a spectacular evening dedicated to the musical magic of John Williams, at the Adrienne Arsht Center on Saturday, Oct 18, 2025. Featuring the unforgettable melodies of Hollywood’s most beloved film scores, this one-night-only performance celebrates the genius of an American icon who, as Deneve says “wrote the soundtrack of our lives.”
On Saturday, Oct. 25 and Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, Denève will lead violinist Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider in his New World Symphony debut, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. A celebrated virtuoso violinist and conductor, Szeps-Znaider regularly appears with the world’s leading orchestras and collaborates with top conductors. The program opens with Connesson’s Maslenitsa and concludes with Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3.
2026 With Deneve
Deneve’s first concert of 2026 welcomes pianist Víkingur Olafsson in his NWS debut in a program dedicated to John Adams, anchored by the composer’s new piano concerto, "After the Fall," written especially for Ólafsson. Known for his visionary interpretations and technical brilliance,
The concert opens with "The Chairman Dances," an exuberant and rhythmic “foxtrot for orchestra” that originated as a companion piece to Adams’ opera "Nixon in China," and continues with "I Still Dance," a work written in honor of NWS Co-Founder and Artistic Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas and his husband, Joshua Robison.
The concert finale is "Doctor Atomic Symphony," a powerful and dramatic orchestral work drawn from Adams’ opera Doctor Atomic, which explores the ethical and emotional turmoil surrounding the creation of the atomic bomb. This concert is the latest reflection of Deneve’s commitment to showcasing modern masterworks, a cornerstone of his vision for the Fellows and NWS.
On Saturday, March 7, Denève and the NWS Fellows once again perform at the Adrienne Arsht Center with mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor and the Master Chorale of South Florida in Ravel’s "Daphnis and Chloe," a lush, impressionistic ballet score that stands as one of the composer’s most radiant orchestral works. A sweeping musical depiction of the ancient Greek love story between a shepherd and shepherdess, the piece is often described as Ravel’s most ambitious composition.
O’Connor will also perform Peter Lieberson’s "Neruda Songs," composed for his wife, mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. The "Neruda Songs" are settings of five sonnets written by Chilean-born Pablo Neruda, one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, known chiefly for his poems about love and loss. In his original program note, Lieberson described each sonnet as reflecting “a different face in love’s mirror.” O'Connor was the first to perform "Neruda Songs" after Lorraine Hunt Lieberson’s passing, with the composer himself teaching her the work.
The glamour and grandeur of Hollywood’s Golden Age take center stage in a program led by Denève that celebrates three film composers who defined an era. The evening features Max Steiner’s "King Kong" theme, Richard Strauss’ "Also sprach Zarathustra," forever linked to Stanley Kubrick’s "2001: A Space Odyssey," and three works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," "The Sea Hawk Overture," and his Violin Concerto. Violinist Augustin Hadelich, returning to NWS, performs the concerto, whose three movements draw on themes from films produced between 1937 and 1939. Together, these iconic works showcase the sweeping orchestral sound that brought classic films to life.
Celebrating Today’s Composers And Artists
An important part of the NWS Fellowship is the opportunity to explore works by today’s most compelling composers. Throughout the 2025-26 season, NWS Fellows will perform music by Michael Ables, John Adams, Anna Clyne, Valerie Coleman, Guillaume Connesson, Juan Pablo Contreras, Detlev Glanert, Jennifer Higdon, James Lee III, Meredith Monk, Jessie Montgomery, Rene Orth, Kevin Puts, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pande Shahov, Caroline Shaw, Carlos Simon, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Davóne Tines, Joan Tower, Alejandro Viñao and John Williams. Many of these composers will connect with Fellows for rehearsal mentorship and to share insight into their craft and compositions.
Stéphane Denève will lead the Fellows in nine programs including the 2025-26 season-opening concert at New World Center on Saturday, Oct. 4 and Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025 that explores the themes of resilience and courage through three powerful works. (Photo courtesy of NWS)
The NWS Fellows also have the opportunity to collaborate with many acclaimed artists making their NWS debut including Ryan Bancroft, conductor; Martin Beaver, violin; Kalena Bovell, conductor; Claire Chase, flute; Meredith Kufchak, viola; Tianyi Lu, conductor; Jon Manasse, clarinet; Marcus Roberts Trio; Thomas Meglioranza, baritone; Víkingur Ólafsson, piano; and Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, violin. Returning guest artists include Karen Gomyo, violin; Andrew Grams, conductor; Augustin Hadelich, violin; Domingo Hindoyan, conductor; Manfred Honeck, conductor; Johannes Moser, cello; Kelley O’Connor, soprano; Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor; Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano; and Davone Tines, baritone.
"I Dream A World Festival" Returns
Now in its fifth year, New World Symphony’s "I Dream A World Festival" returns with a focus on Black music and culture during the Civil Rights Movement. Panamanian-American conductor Kalena Bovell, making her NWS debut, leads the festival’s orchestral program that explores themes of resilience and belonging in the context of the Civil Rights Movement. Jessie Montgomery’s "Banner," written in 2014 as a tribute to the 200th anniversary of “The Star Spangled Banner,” reimagines the national anthem through a multicultural lens. Davóne Tines’ "ANTHEM," also a response to the traditional national anthem, addresses issues of race and social justice.
The Festival culminates in Margaret Bonds’ The Montgomery Variations, a crowning work in her extraordinary career, composed as a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., after her visit to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1963. Based on the spiritual “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me,” also to be performed, her Montgomery Variations is a set of freestyle ruminations on Montgomery as a focal point of the Civil Rights Movement, and a powerful tribute to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This performance honors the 70th anniversary of this historic boycott. Festival curator, Dr. Tammy Kernodle, Miami University of Ohio Distinguished Professor and Park Creative Arts Endowed Professor in the Department of Music, notes, “While titled The Montgomery Variations, the programmatic theme of this work extends beyond that city and the Montgomery movement. Rather, it is a sonic documentation of the sites, sentiment, sounds, and activity that defined the first two chapters of the mid-century Black civil rights struggle.”
Collaborations
Two of Miami’s cornerstone cultural institutions come together when New World Symphony and Miami City Ballet collaborate for "American Dance Odyssey." This celebration of American music and dance includes a tribute to Jerome Robbins featuring highlights from "West Side Story," "Fancy Free" and others. Its grand finale features the world premiere of a choreographic concerto, the brainchild of ten visionary 21st-century choreographers and composers, including five of America’s leading musical voices: Kevin Puts, Jennifer Higdon, Michael Abels, Carlos Simon and Sarah Kirkland Snider.
In addition to its partnership with Miami City Ballet, NWS Fellows will perform alongside NWS alumni, and will partner with the Master Chorale of South Florida and its artistic director Brett Karlin in a performance of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé at the Adrienne Arsht Center. (Photo courtesy of NWS)
Denève returns to lead NWS’s "Side-by-Side program," an annual hallmark of the season that pairs NWS Fellows with South Florida’s talented youth in performance at the New World Center and will conclude New World Symphony’s 2025-26 season with his longtime friend and collaborator Jean-Yves Thibaudet in a piano-driven program of two of America’s greatest composers, Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin, featuring Bernstein’s Overture to "Candide" and "The Age of Anxiety," and Gershwin’s "I Got Rhythm" and "An American in Paris."
In addition to its partnership with Miami City Ballet, NWS Fellows will perform alongside NWS alumni, who return to Miami Beach throughout the 2025-26 season for visiting faculty residencies that culminate in a side-by-side concert experience. NWS will also partner with the Master Chorale of South Florida and its artistic director Brett Karlin in a performance of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé at the Adrienne Arsht Center.
On Friday, March 27 and Saturday, March 28, 2026, at the Adrienne Arsht Center, NWS Fellows will share the stage with conductor and San Diego Symphony Music Director Rafael Payare, in a joint side-by-side concert with The Cleveland Orchestra (TCO) and violinist Sergey Khachatryan. The program opens with Jean Sibelius’s "The Swan of Tuonela" and concludes with Stravinsky’s "The Rite of Spring." Khachatryan will perform Sibelius’s Violin Concerto. This marks the fourth year of the side-by-side partnership between NWS and TCO. The inaugural side-by-side performance was led by NWS Co-Founder and Artistic Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas in 2022. The collaborative relationship stems from the many TCO musicians–many of whom are NWS alumni–who annually serve on New World Symphony’s visiting faculty roster, mentoring Fellows on and off the stage.
Nws Blue Projects
Standing for Build, Learn, Understand, and Experiment, NWS’s BLUE program is a combination of sophisticated leadership and entrepreneurship training and hands-on experimentation that provides NWS Fellows and alumni with a comprehensive skill set to complement their musical training.
NWS BLUE Projects during the 2025-26 season will take place at the New World Center, across South Florida, and online. The impacts and value of theunique NWS BLUE program are currently beingstudiedas part of a long-termresearchprojecton sustainable entrepreneurship in the performing arts supported byNEA Research Labs: The Arts, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation.
Throughout the 2025-26 season, NWS will present a series of WALLCAST® Concerts in SoundScape Park, where audiences experience live NWS performances through a striking use of visual and audio technology on the soaring, 7,000-square-foot projection wall of the New World Center. (Photo courtesy of NWS)
Commitment To Access
NWS continues to deliver on its vision to redefine, reaffirm, express, and share the traditions of orchestral musicwith as many people as possible. Nearly 40 percent of NWS’s 60+ performances are free or pay-what-you-wish for the public. Throughout the 2025-26 season, NWS will present a series of WALLCAST® Concerts in SoundScape Park, where audiences experience live NWS performances through a striking use of visual and audio technology on the soaring, 7,000-square-foot projection wall of the New World Center.
NWS’s Mobile WALLCAST® Concert Series is an essential part of its commitment to make symphonic music accessible to audiences beyond the New World Center. The series brings NWS’s groundbreaking WALLCAST® concerts on the road and into communities around Miami. Currently the largest mobile wall in South Florida, the 23x13 screen consists of state-of-the-art LED panels and sound system, offering a local and captivating way to experience WALLCAST® concert content.
NWS will continue to livestream select concerts throughout the season on "NWS Inside," its concert streaming platform, available to worldwide audiences for free, making world-class music accessible to everyone. Featuring performances from NWS’s talented roster of Fellows, NWS Inside gives viewers a front-row seat to the future of music. Also included is access to archival concerts from seasons past, and behind-the-scenes interviews with guest artists, Fellows, and staff.
NWS provides family-friendly performances with a two-concert series designed for children aged 4 to 9, including a celebration of "Día de Muertos" on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025.
NWS’s annual holiday concert, “Sounds of the Season,” takes place Saturday, December 20, 2025 and is an audience favorite. The Friday, December 19, 2025 performance is presented by the City of Miami Beach for its residents.
Conductor and visionary composer Steve Hackman returns for Late Night at NWS for Beethoven X Beyoncé, where he’ll weave 15 of the celebrated singer’s greatest hits into Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
Subscriptions for the 2025-26 season are now available for current subscribers, including NWS’s compose-your-own subscribers, who can renew online beginning March 5, 2025 at nws.edu/subscribe; new subscriptions are available now by calling 305-673-3331 and online starting March 15, 2025; single tickets go on sale July 25, 2025. Subscription packages include orchestral series, three concerts at the Arsht Center, chamber music at the New World Center, and a series of Concerts for Kids tailored for children aged 4-9.
More Info at www.nws.edu/.
