Daniel\u00a0Raiskin\u00a0has one word to describe the\u00a0upcoming season from the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra: spectacular.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that every concert is going to be a highlight of its own,\u201d he\u00a0says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The season, which was officially unveiled on Thursday morning, features a rebrand of symphony programming that regular\u00a0concertgoers\u00a0will be able to enjoy. The previous Thursday Classics series becomes the BMO Masterworks series\u00a0(the bank had previously supported the orchestra\u2019s movie series), while the Saturday and Sunday Classics will now be known as Symphonic\u00a0Sessions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt offers a very streamlined opportunity to our patrons to decide whether they want to go out for Saturday night or a Sunday afternoon concert,\u201d explains\u00a0the symphony’s music director and conductor.\u00a0\u201cFor the orchestra,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0always wonderful to be able to relive the same energy of the same music again over the course of two concerts, creating\u00a0maybe a\u00a0different take on the same pieces on Sunday.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both the BMO Masterworks and the Symphonic Sessions series will\u00a0contain\u00a0five concerts each, along with the orchestra\u2019s specials, movie offerings,\u00a0and\u00a0Pops concerts.\u00a0Raiskin\u00a0adds that the orchestra themselves have plenty of input into what goes into their season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[The programs] come together out of the process of exchanging the ideas,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe have the programming committee with the musicians of the\u00a0orchestra,\u00a0we organize the pool of asking questions\u00a0– \u2018What is it you want to play?\u2019 – and then, all kinds of suggestions come in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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BMO Masterworks\u00a0<\/p>\n
The WSO\u2019s 2026-2027 season begins on September 26 with two familiar symphonies joining forces with\u00a0a new voice in the organization\u2019s ranks. The fifth symphonies of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky will be paired with \u201cDark Nights, Brights Stars, Vast Universe\u201d by the orchestra\u2019s new composer-in-residence, Kelly-Marie Murphy, who will also be the new curator of the Winnipeg New Music Festival.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can tell you that she\u2019s bursting with ideas and great music and great energy and a wonderful look at ways we present new music,\u201d\u00a0Raiskin\u00a0shares.\u00a0\u201cI think\u00a0that\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0both logical but also exciting that we can introduce her \u2013 though she is\u00a0absolutely not\u00a0an unknown entity to the Winnipeg audience \u2013 also at our main series during the first concert that features two\u00a0absolutely outstanding\u00a0masterworks \u2013 both symphonies of fate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Raiskin\u2019s\u00a0influence over the programming of the WSO\u2019s upcoming season also comes from\u00a0his other engagements all over the world. The conductor recently took over\u00a0as\u00a0the music and artistic director of the\u00a0Jan\u00e1\u010dek Philharmonic in\u00a0Ostrava, Czech Republic, and having been steeped in the repertoire of the composer for which the orchestra is named, he will bring that music to Winnipeg in the form of his\u00a0Sinfonietta.\u00a0The Royal Canadian Air Force Band will be joining the WSO on this concert to help bring Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s music to life along with two works by Bedrich Smetana and Dvorak\u2019s Cello Concerto in B minor, which will feature\u00a0French\u00a0cellist\u00a0Edgar Moreau\u00a0as soloist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[The Sinfonietta] is one of these remarkable pieces that requires almost ten trumpets to be on stage, and we don\u2019t have so many in this symphony,\u201d explains\u00a0Raiskin\u00a0of the RCAF Band\u2019s involvement, \u201cand instead of trying to hand-pick from freelance, we decided, \u2018Why don\u2019t we go\u00a0to a collaboration with a well-established and well-sounding military band here in town where some of our former musicians now play?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another local collaboration shines in the third BMO Masterworks offering from the WSO \u2013 one that\u00a0Raiskin\u00a0only had to look to his left to find. Fresh off his first year as the WSO\u2019s concertmaster,\u00a0Karl Stobbe will perform Beethoven\u2019s violin concerto as the soloist, an idea that\u00a0occurred\u00a0to\u00a0Raiskin\u00a0during Stobbe\u2019s blind audition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring this audition, he played Beethoven that absolutely \u2013 you know, my jaw dropped,\u201d says\u00a0Raiskin. \u201cI said, \u2018What if\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0an opportunity for us to do it \u2013 the real thing \u2013 with real orchestra in front of the audience that all love and respect him? It would be a gift.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
RELATED STORES<\/p>\n
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Two pianists will be the soloists for the final two concerts of the BMO Masterworks series.\u00a0Fresh off releasing her latest album\u00a0Invitation a la Valse, pianist Janina Fialkowska joins the symphony alongside guest conductor Otto\u00a0Tausk\u00a0(music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra) to perform Mozart\u2019s 27th\u00a0piano concerto in a program that also features Anton Bruckner\u2019s \u201cRomantic\u201d Symphony no. 4 and \u201cStrange Loop\u201d by the late Manitoban-born composer Jocelyn Morlock.\u00a0Following that, Anna\u00a0Genuishene\u00a0will return to Winnipeg to perform the first piano concerto of Johannes Brahms \u2013 a work that she was supposed to perform two seasons ago before an injury forced her to withdraw.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not going to escape the fate trying to fool it,\u201d says\u00a0Raiskin\u00a0with a wry smile. \u201cWe love the piece. She loves the piece.\u00a0Let\u2019s\u00a0bring it together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Genuieshene\u2019s\u00a0performance will be paired with Mussorgsky\u2019s Pictures at an Exhibition orchestrated by Maurice Ravel which will close out the series\u00a0on\u00a0May 8 and 9.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Source: Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n
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Symphonic Sessions\u00a0<\/p>\n
The warmth of summer will shine through the first Symphonic Sessions concert of the autumn as the first two concerts skew more towards the influence of vocal music. Local favourite Andriana\u00a0Chuchman\u00a0will join the orchestra to perform Hector Berlioz\u2019s Les\u00a0nuits\u00a0d\u2019\u00e9t\u00e9\u00a0in a program\u00a0led by\u00a0German-Iranian\u00a0conductor Hossein\u00a0Pishkar\u00a0that also includes Schubert\u2019s \u201cTragic\u201d Symphony no. 4.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[Pishkar] has been one of my\u00a0assitants\u00a0and apprentices during my time in Germany,\u201d says\u00a0Raiskin,\u201d and he has grown into a very respected and fully mature conductor himself, working with some of the finest orchestras around the world and in Europe. It just fills my heart with joy to see that my former students,\u00a0assistants\u00a0and apprentices\u00a0making it so well in this demanding and competitive circuit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another emerging conductor on the world stage, Chloe Rooke, will join the WSO in November for an all-English program that features\u00a0Edward Elgar\u2019s Enigma Variations along with\u00a0two pieces inspired by Benjamin Britten\u2019s most enduring\u00a0opera, Peter Grimes. \u201cShe has a great energy of uniting people around [herself] as a kind of community builder,\u201d\u00a0Raiskin\u00a0says, \u201cso, I think that connecting it to her English heritage and DNA is the right thing to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The third and final guest conductor in the Symphonic Sessions\u00a0is Ryusuke\u00a0Numajiri. Joined by the fast-rising Canadian pianist Elisabeth Pion, he will lead the WSO in Robert Schumann\u2019s \u201cRhenish\u201d Symphony no. 3, Dai Fujikura\u2019s “Banitza\u00a0Groove”, and Franz Liszt\u2019s\u00a0second piano concerto.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Raiskin\u00a0notes that even though this will be\u00a0Numajiri\u2019s\u00a0first time in Winnipeg, he will already have a sense of the orchestra\u2019s calibre and capability. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0interesting that the orchestra\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0music director of currently [the\u00a0Nagoya Philharmonic] ,\u00a0their artist in residence, their principal guest conductor is one of my predecessors here… Maestro [Kazuhiro] Koizumi.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0these unusual parallels in the world that seems to be so disconnected, but also so connected at the same time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Raiskin\u00a0himself will return to the Symphonic Sessions podium\u00a0on April 1,\u00a02027\u00a0for a program starring violinist\u00a0Sueye Park sharing Mendelssohn\u2019s violin concerto as well as Igor Stravinsky\u2019s Petrushka.\u00a0\u201cPetrushka, in Russian folklore, is that kind of fair and market fool who runs around and doodles around and does all kinds of naughty jokes and things,\u201d he explains.\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s\u00a0very joyful, but also, at the same time, there\u2019s tragic undertones as always in life where\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0light and\u00a0darkness and sadness\u00a0and joyfulness around. I thought that it would be a fitting work for this concert.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Symphonic Sessions will close the WSO\u2019s 2026-2027 season on May 13 with horn soloist Radek\u00a0Baborak\u00a0joining the orchestra for Reinhold\u00a0Gliere\u2019s\u00a0horn concerto paired with pieces that are still being chosen by members of the orchestra.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra will once again share the Centennial Concert Hall stage in From the Inside Out. (Photo: Nolan Kehler\/PNN)<\/p>\n
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Movies,\u00a0Pops\u00a0and community collaborations\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alongside the two\u00a0newly-branded\u00a0signature series being shared by the orchestra, audiences will be able to enjoy many other offerings geared towards a wide range of music lovers. The movie scores series (now sponsored by\u00a0Leon and Cecilia Asper) will offer five\u00a0productions including Skyfall and Barbie, while the Pops series will share music of Billy Joel, Elton\u00a0John\u00a0and Pink Floyd. The orchestra will also work with local performing arts groups including Rainbow Stage while also inviting former RBC\u00a0Assistant Conductor Naomi Woo to return to the WSO\u2019s ranks to lead the third annual From the Inside Out performances, which invite audience members onto the stage to sit amongst the orchestra.\u00a0<\/p>\n