Payare & OSM Announce 60th and 61st Tours

Apr 15, 2026

From August 15 to 29, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal will undertake its 60th international tour; less than two months later, the OSM will land in California to commence its 61st. After South Korea, Europe, and the United States, these will be the OSM’s fifth and sixth tours under the baton of Rafael Payare.

Says Payare:

“To lead the OSM on its 60th international tour, within major European festivals, marks a deeply meaningful milestone—a moment to reflect on the Orchestra’s extraordinary journey while bringing our sound to places where musical tradition feels almost tangible. As we continue with the 61st tour in California, particularly in San Diego, the experience becomes more personal, where different parts of my musical life come together. These tours bring Canadian composers and soloists into dialogue with the international repertoire, fulfilling our mission to share Montréal’s unique musical voice with audiences around the world.”

On August 15, the orchestra embarks on a tour of European festivals in Edinburgh, Warsaw, Aarhus, and Hamburg, under the direction of Payare. The OSM will be joined by several distinguished soloists for this tour featuring various programs. In two concerts at the Edinburgh International Festival, the OSM will perform Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s monumental Song of Hiawatha with the Festival Chorus. Indigenous sopranos Elisabeth St-Gelais and Emma Pennell will then join the orchestra in a performance of two Canadian works by Ana Sokolović and Ian Cusson, set to libretti by Indigenous poets Michelle Sylliboy and Natasha Kanapé Fontaine. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein will also team up with the OSM in a performance of Gabriela Ortiz’s Dzonot, which recently won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition. She will perform this same work with the OSM in Aarhus, during the orchestra’s first visit to Denmark, and again in Hamburg. On a final stop in Warsaw, Chopin will be celebrated in two concerts: on August 23, Canadian pianist Kevin Chen, second prize winner of the most recent Chopin Competition, will join the orchestra; then on August 24, Eric Lu, winner of the same competition, will share the stage.

From October 24 to 31, the OSM will return to California to give three concerts, respectively in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The OSM will perform as a guest of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony for the first time in 37 years—an honor for the Orchestra. For this occasion, violinist Leonidas Kavakos will join the OSM to perform Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, op. 35, and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64. Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 10 is also on the program for these two concerts, and the orchestra will present Elysium by Montreal composer Samy Moussa at the concert on October 27 in Los Angeles. To conclude this California tour, Payare will have the pleasure of conducting the OSM for the San Diego public, who already know him well as the Musical and Artistic Director of the San Diego Symphony. For this concert, the OSM will perform Stravinsky’s The Firebird, as well as Moussa’s Elysium and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, op. 35, with Kavakos.