The 2025/26 season of concert programming at Koerner Hall, the venue’s 17th, offers a range of experiences for audience members from international stars to homegrown talent. Superstar soprano Renée Fleming performs at a special event, Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra come to visit — and Toronto’s own The Happenstancers headline a concert at the annual 21C Music Festival.
The season will feature new works by composers Danilo Pérez, Gabriela Montero, Osvaldo Golijov, Stewart Goodyear, Vincent Ho, Katharine Petkovski, Dean Burry, and Scott Tixier.
“The Royal Conservatory’s 2025-26 concert season is a vibrant celebration of musical excellence, presented across our three stages — Koerner Hall, Mazzoleni Concert Hall, and Temerty Theatre,” said Alexander Brose, Michael and Sonja Koerner President & CEO of The Royal Conservatory of Music in a statement.
“This year, we are especially proud to honour the 100th birthday of legendary jazz pianist and RCM alumnus Oscar Peterson with special programming that celebrates his enduring legacy. We are also extremely excited to launch our new Orchestrated series that showcases our Glenn Gould School students side-by-side with genre-bending performers. From internationally acclaimed artists to emerging voices, our carefully curated season reflects The Royal Conservatory’s deep commitment to transformative cultural experiences that inspire and connect us all.”
Here’s a look at the season highlights for classical music lovers.
Executive Director of Performing Arts Mervon Mehta comments, “As we embark on our 17th season (can you believe it!) of presenting great artists for a discerning audience, I am struck by how many supremely talented artists are eager to play in our magnificent Koerner Hall. It allows us to confirm a singular truth that, as a species, we will always have the need to gather for shared experiences.
“It is a primal need. This is not anything new… Greeks and Romans knew this and built their impressive amphitheatres for that purpose. Studies show that experiencing music, or art or sports or religion, as a group is a vastly different and more satisfying experience than watching alone on a screen. Part of that is the validation of those around you. We also know that when groups gather and are engaged with their whole selves — mind, body, and soul — human connections happen, serotonin and endorphins are released, joy and sometimes sadness abound, and heart rates synchronize between us and with the artists who invite us into their worlds. In short, it creates community. In these challenging times, we look forward to creating a beautiful community with you.”
Exclusive Signature Event
Superstar soprano Renée Fleming presents An Intimate Evening with Renée Fleming: Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene Recital accompanied by the Royal Conservatory Orchestra on November 1. The program is inspired by Fleming’s 2023 Grammy Award-winning album, with repertoire that ranges from Handel to Björk tonThe Lord of the Rings.
International Orchestra Series
Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, with mezzo-soprano Gerhild Romberger, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and the Toronto Children’s Chorus, perform Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 3 for orchestra, mezzo-soprano, women’s choir, and children’s choir on February 12.
Orchestrated
This new series with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra blends sound and style in a full-immersion experience for the audience that will include a night of specialty cocktails and meet-ups at pre-concert receptions, spotlighting new sounds from three artists who blur the lines between genres:
Pianist Gabriela Montero improvises with the audience in Hong Kong:
The 13th iteration of the 21C Music stretches from January to May of 2026, and highlights music composed during the 21st century, often with a fluid sense of genre.
Pop & Beyond
Piano Recitals
Vocal
String and Chamber Music Concerts
James Anagnoson, Dean of The Glenn Gould School, comments, “The Glenn Gould School will once again present an array of talent in performances of the Royal Conservatory Orchestra, the Glenn Gould School Opera, the Mazzoleni Masters Series, the Discovery Series, The Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists, and The Rebanks Family Fellowship Concert series — which feature the students, faculty, and friends of The Glenn Gould School.”
The Royal Conservatory Orchestra will be conducted by JoAnn Falletta, Mei-Ann Chen, Peter Oundjian, and Earl Lee during the season.
The Glenn Gould School Operas include Menotti’s The Telephone and Canadian composer Dean Burry’s Baby Kintyre, presented by students from The Glenn Gould School’s vocal program on November 7 and 8, conducted by Jennifer Tung and directed by Liza Balkan.
For the GGS Spring Opera: Serenata Italiana on March 18 and 20, the artists of The Glenn Gould School’s vocal program and the Royal Conservatory Orchestra present an Italian comedic double bill of Rossini’s La cambiale di matrimonio and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, conducted by Gordon Gerrard and directed by Robert McQueen.
Along with Koerner Hall, some RCM concert series take place in Mazzoleni Concert Hall and Temerty Theatre, and there are other series (jazz, world music), we just couldn’t fit in this list.
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