The orchestra’s new season opens with movie music this fall and closes out its winter stretch with a full film score performed live, bookending a lineup that ranges from Beethoven’s most heroic concerto to a jazz bassist’s own symphonic debut.
New Jersey Symphony’s 2026-27 Season: From Pirates of the Caribbean to Rachmaninoff’s Final Bow
New Jersey Symphony has released its full 2026-27 season lineup, and the programming makes a genuine case for range, moving from Hollywood blockbuster scores to Baroque oratorio to a jazz legend’s own symphonic writing across just its first several months. The season plays out across the orchestra’s usual rotation of venues statewide, including the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, and the Count Basie Center in Red Bank, giving audiences across the state a genuine shot at catching any given program close to home.
The Season Opens With the Movies
Hollywood Hits: From West Side Story to Spirited Away
The season kicks off with a program built entirely around music written for the screen, pairing Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Gershwin’s An American in Paris with Joe Hisaishi’s score for Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, alongside Dukas’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice as an opening flourish.
Beethoven’s “Emperor” & Schubert’s “Great”
Opening weekend for the orchestra’s core classical series pairs Beethoven’s final, most expansive piano concerto with Schubert’s own sprawling Ninth Symphony, a work so demanding it went unperformed in the composer’s own lifetime.
Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey
The travel broadcaster himself joins the orchestra on stage, pairing romantic era orchestral standards with high definition footage from his own European travels and firsthand historical commentary.
A Jazz Legend Takes the Symphonic Stage
Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances
Part of the TD James Moody Jazz Festival, this program gives New Jersey’s own Christian McBride his first turn as soloist with the orchestra, performing George Duke’s bass concerto written specifically for him alongside his own original composition, before the night closes with Rachmaninoff’s final orchestral work, composed in exile and never performed for the composer in the Russia he never returned to.
Holiday Traditions Return
New Jersey Ballet’s The Nutcracker with New Jersey Symphony
The annual holiday tradition returns with New Jersey Ballet’s full production set to Tchaikovsky’s score, performed live throughout the run rather than to a recording.
Handel’s Messiah
The orchestra’s own holiday staple returns with a full vocal quartet and the Montclair State University Singers joining for the complete oratorio, Hallelujah Chorus included.
Rachmaninoff, Twice Over, and a Lunar New Year Celebration
Mozart & Ravel
A program spanning four genuinely different voices, Anna Clyne’s contemporary Masquerade, Mozart’s own “Turkish” violin concerto written when he was just 19, Ravel’s deceptively simple Mother Goose Suite, and Samuel Barber’s compact but powerful First Symphony.
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Rachmaninoff’s own famous set of variations anchors this program, paired with Wagner’s rousing Meistersinger overture and a rare outing for Zemlinsky’s shimmering Mermaid, a piece music director Xian Zhang has championed directly despite its relative obscurity.
Discover Rachmaninoff (Family Concert)
A family focused version of the Paganini Rhapsody program, built to introduce younger audiences to the piece and the questions behind it, what actually makes a piece of music a rhapsody, and who Paganini even was.
2027 Lunar New Year Celebration
Philadelphia Orchestra assistant conductor Naomi Woo leads a program blending orchestral music, choral performance, and dance to mark the Year of the Goat.
Closing Out With Brahms, Dvořák, and the High Seas
Gil Shaham Plays Dvořák
Violinist Gil Shaham takes on Dvořák’s technically demanding, folk inflected concerto, framed by Brahms’s autumnal Third Symphony and Dvořák’s own festive Carnival Overture.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in Concert
This stretch of the season closes with Klaus Badelt’s swashbuckling score performed live to the full film, giving audiences the complete Jack Sparrow adventure with the orchestra providing every note in real time.
Twelve Programs, Five Venues, One Season Built Around Range
Taken as a whole, New Jersey Symphony’s 2026-27 lineup makes a fairly deliberate case for breadth over a single unifying theme, moving comfortably between full film scores, core classical repertoire, holiday tradition, and genuine genre crossover with figures like Christian McBride and Rick Steves sharing the stage with the orchestra’s regular conductors. Music director Xian Zhang anchors several of the season’s core classical programs directly, while a rotating slate of guest conductors, including Eric Jacobsen, Valentina Peleggi, Naomi Woo, and Lawrence Loh, brings distinct interpretive voices to the individual programs they lead. With performances spread across Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, Morristown, Red Bank, and Montclair, the season gives New Jersey audiences a genuinely wide geographic reach into a lineup built to appeal well beyond the orchestra’s traditional classical subscriber base.
