A foremost cultural ambassador for Montreal, Quebec and Canada on the world’s leading stages, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) unveils a major Asian tour for February 2027, its 62nd to date. After recent tours in South Korea, Europe and the United States, this new destination will represent the Orchestra’s seventh tour under Rafael Payare’s direction.
Says Payare:
“Our Asia tour will open an exciting new chapter in our shared journey, with first-time visits under my direction to Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Busan, and Tokyo. Above all, these tours are an opportunity to share with new audiences the energy, artistic chemistry, and distinctive voice we have cultivated over the years, through programs that showcase the OSM’s remarkable richness, versatility, and character.”
From February 17 to March 3, the OSM heads to Asia for seven concerts in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Busan, Seoul, and Tokyo. Except for Seoul, where the OSM performed in July 2022, these cities will be hosting the OSM under Rafael Payare’s direction for the first time. The programs feature major works from the symphonic repertoire and concertos showcasing internationally renowned soloists, as well as a strong Quebec presence with La Traversée by Montreal composer Denis Gougeon, the latter work receiving its Asian premiere at five of the tour’s six concerts. In Hong Kong, Shanghai, Busan, Seoul, and Tokyo, the orchestra will perform Dmitri Shostakovich’s monumental Symphony no. 8, while audiences in Hong Kong and Beijing will hear Richard Strauss’ symphonic poem Ein Heldenleben.
This tour opens with an artistic encounter between East and West: Prelude and Village Opera—an excerpt from Chinese composer Ye Xiaogang’s Symphony no. 5: Lu Xun—will be featured at the tour’s first concert in Hong Kong, which also inaugurates the 55th Hong Kong Arts Festival. The celebration of intercultural dialogue will continue with La Traversée by Montreal composer Denis Gougeon. Through this work and the participation of Canadian pianists Bruce Liu and Jaeden Izik-Dzurko—both past laureates of the OSM Competition—the Orchestra reaffirms its commitment to supporting emerging artists, promoting Quebec and Canadian creative work, and showcasing Montreal’s musical excellence on the world’s greatest stages.
Several prominent artists will join the Orchestra over the course of the tour. Montreal pianist Bruce Liu will perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no. 2 in Hong Kong, Busan, and Seoul, while Canadian pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko will appear in Hong Kong as the soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 4. In Beijing and Shanghai, pianist Haochen Zhang will perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 4 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no. 2. Finally, in Tokyo, violinist Leonidas Kavakos will join the OSM in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
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Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra/OSM) embarks on its 61st international tour this fall, visiting three destinations on the West Coast of the U.S.: San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego (Oct 25–30). Led by Music and Artistic Director Rafael Payare, whose contract was recently extended through the 2031–32 season, they perform as guests of the San Francisco Symphony (Oct 25) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Oct 27) for the first time in 37 years, joined by violinist Leonidas Kavakos for Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major in the former city and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor in the latter. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 is also on both programs, and in Los Angeles the orchestra adds Elysium by Montreal composer Samy Moussa. Finally, Payare takes the OSM to his other home territory of San Diego, where they reprise Moussa’s Elysium and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Kavakos, as well as performing Stravinsky’s complete Firebird ballet (Oct 29). A more direct collaboration between Payare’s two orchestras will also take place in San Diego: the OSM will be hosted at San Diego’s Rady Shell, SDSO’s summer home on the waterfront, for a joint performance with both orchestras. OSM will perform Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé by themselves, as heard on the upcoming Pentatone recording that will be released that same day; the SDSO will perform Bartók’s Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin; and members of both orchestras will participate in two works scored for particularly large forces: Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite and Respighi’s Pines of Rome (Oct 30).
Immediately after the tour, Payare and the OSM release a new album on Pentatone that marks their fifth recording together, featuring Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (Le sacre du printemps) (Oct 30). These two landmark works have in common that they were both created for Sergei Diaghilev’s legendary Ballets Russes, a groundbreaking ballet company that played a decisive role in ushering in the norm-challenging artistic modernity of the early decades of the 20th century. Learn more about the album here.
Rafael Payare and the San Diego Symphony are launching Beyond Borders: North American Music Initiative, a growing network of artistic relationships connecting San Diego with communities and cultural institutions in Mexico and Canada. The initiative builds on the Symphony’s sustained work in Baja California and expands that cross-border perspective north through a new artistic relationship with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM). Together, the relationships create new opportunities for musicians, young artists, cultural institutions and audiences to connect across Mexico, the United States and Canada, with San Diego as a meeting point.
The initiative’s first major collaboration with Montréal takes place October 29–30, when OSM and San Diego Symphony musicians come together in San Diego under the leadership of Payare, Music and Artistic Director of the San Diego Symphony and Music Director and Artistic Director of OSM. On Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m., Payare will conduct OSM at Jacobs Music Center in a program featuring Montréal-based composer Samy Moussa’s Elysium, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with internationally acclaimed violinist Leonidas Kavakos, and Stravinsky’s The Firebird. The following day, Friday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m., Payare will bring his two ensembles together on one stage for a free concert at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. Titled “Sound of Two Cities,” the performance will offer San Diego audiences a unique opportunity to experience the distinct musical perspectives of San Diego and Montréal while bringing musicians of the San Diego Symphony and OSM together for a meaningful artistic exchange. The program features works by Bartók and Ravel performed by each orchestra individually, followed by Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite and Respighi’s Pines of Rome, performed by the combined ensembles. The concert is free and open to the public, but it is recommended that people RSVP at sdsymph.org/sdso-osm26.
Says Payare:
“Music reminds us that we are connected. When we cross borders with an orchestra, we are not just bringing a concert—we are creating a conversation. We celebrate our neighbors, learn from one another, and create a future through collaboration and creativity. We believe cultural exchange can bring our continent closer together. From Mexico to the United States to Canada, we share so many stories, traditions, and hopes. Through music, we can listen to one another and inspire the next generation of artists and audiences.”
The artistic relationship between San Diego and Montréal continues beyond the OSM’s West Coast visit. Jimmy López serves as composer-in-residence with both the San Diego Symphony and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. The two orchestras have co-commissioned López’s Symphony No. 6, Monarch, which both ensembles will perform in 2027.
López described the symphony’s poetic concept using the migration patterns of monarch butterflies as a metaphor. “They encompass all of North America. Their breeding grounds are in the Midwestern United States, then they go all the way to Southern Canada, and then they fly all the way to their wintering sites in Mexico, and back to the States. This cycle happens within a year and over three generations of monarch butterflies. He continued, “It reminds us that borders are something that we humans invented, but that actually, the natural world doesn’t acknowledge.”
In San Diego, Monarch will receive its U.S. premiere and close the Symphony’s 2026–27 season, performed alongside Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Choral at Jacobs Music Center June 4–6, 2027. “Monarch is a wonderful symbol of what can happen when artistic relationships cross borders,” says Payare. “It is a work shared by two orchestras, written by a composer whose life and work cross cultures, and it will be performed for audiences in two countries. That is the kind of connection we want to keep building.”The Symphony’s North American vision will continue to develop in the seasons ahead, with additional exchanges and performances planned with partners in Mexico and opportunities to expand its cultural relationships in Canada.
Conductor Rafael Payare leads full seasons of performances in 2026–27 as Music and Artistic Director of both California’s San Diego Symphony (SDSO) and Canada’s Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra/OSM), while also returning to the New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and San Francisco Symphony.
Highlights of Payare’s season with the SDSO include their recent release of Shostakovich’s Seventh “Leningrad” Symphony on Delos / Outhere, named an “Editor’s Choice” in the upcoming October issue of Gramophone. Continuing and expanding the Shostakovich theme, the orchestra’s eighth season under Payare’s baton emphasizes performances of the late-Romantic and early 20th-century masterpieces. A starry roster of concerto soloists joins them in the SDSO’s recently renovated home, the Jacobs Music Center. Their opening program this season pairs Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, performed by soloist Yefim Bronfman (Oct 3 & 4). Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony shares the bill with violinist Sergey Khachatryan’s performance of Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto (Oct 10 & 11), and Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony is programmed with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto performed by Daniil Trifonov, making his long-awaited SDSO debut (Nov 14 & 15). Payare’s expertise as a Mahler interpreter is on display this season when he conducts Mahler’s “Tragic” Symphony No. 6 along with Liszt’s First Piano Concerto – quoted in Mahler’s symphony – featuring Inon Barnatan (Nov 20 & 22); and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique is paired with Alisa Weilerstein’s performance of Elgar’s Cello Concerto (Jan 29 & 30). Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto is also featured in multiple settings this season, first marking the SDSO debut of violinist Joshua Brown, a 2025 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant (March 20 & 21) and then performed by Leonidas Kavakos at most of the stops on the orchestra’s first European tour next spring. The remainder of the tour repertoire, in various combinations, comprises Schumann’s Piano Concerto performed by Spanish pianist Javier Perianes, Grammy Award-winning Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari, Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story, Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin, and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (April 28–May 6).
Payare and the OSM open their 2026–27 season with an all-Mahler concert featuring selections from the song cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“The Boy’s Magic Horn”) and the rarely performed cantata Das klagende Lied in its full three-part version. Soloists are soprano Miah Persson, contralto Rose Naggar-Tremblay, tenor Clay Hilley, and baritone Matthias Goerne (Sep 16 & 17). Their California tour in October includes Leonidas Kavakos performing, at different destinations, both Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. Tour repertoire also includes Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, which Payare led on OSM’s European tour in 2022; Montreal composer Samy Moussa’s Elysium; and Stravinsky’s complete Firebird ballet (Oct 25–29). In the spring, Payare and OSM are joined by Alisa Weilerstein for performances of Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote, a tone poem with cello and viola soloists respectively portraying the title character and his squire. The program also features two other Strauss tone poems: Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks and Don Juan (May 19 & 20). Payare and the OSM release their fifth recording on the Pentatone label on October 30, comprising Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.
Payare’s two orchestras close out their respective seasons with the same program, featuring a work they co-commissioned: the Symphony No. 6, “Monarch” by Jimmy López, who recently completed a two-year residency with both ensembles. The symphony draws inspiration from the migration of monarch butterflies and reflects on the fragile harmony between life and environment; the Montreal performance marks the world premiere of the work (May 25–27), followed by the U.S. premiere in San Diego (June 4–6). Also on both programs will be Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with separate soloists and chorus at each location: Montreal soloists are soprano Lauren Margison, mezzo-soprano Fleuranne Brockway, tenor Robert Watson, and bass Alexander Vinogradov; while the San Diego performance will feature the SDSO debuts of mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz and baritone Hansung Yoo, along with the returns of tenor Viktor Antipenko and soprano Tasha Hokuao Koontz.
