This season, Michael Stern conducts concerts that will include 23 works by living composers as well as masterpieces of the classical canon and concludes his 19-year tenure with the Kansas City Symphony.  He has long been devoted to building and leading highly acclaimed orchestras known not only for their impeccable musicianship and creative programming, but also for collaborative, sustainable cultures and for his work with young musicians. 

 After nearly two decades, Mr. Stern concluding his tenure with the Kansas City Symphony on a high note, with new music, beloved repertoire and very special guests Joshua Bell and Yo-Yo Ma. He continues as Music Director of the National Repertory Orchestra (NRO), a summer music festival in Breckenridge, CO, and Music Director of the recently rebranded Orchestra Lumos (formerly the Stamford Symphony), where he opens the season with Midori joining the orchestra for Dvořák’s Violin Concerto and an orchestral work by Mexican-Canadian composer Alejandra Odgers. He serves Artistic Advisor to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the newly reimagined Iris Collective, which he founded and where he served as Artistic Director for over two decades (when it was the Iris Orchestra).  

This is Michael Stern’s third season as Music Director of the NRO, which for 60 years has provided an intensive fellowship program for aspiring young musicians who have gone on to populate every major orchestra across the United States. The 2023 summer season opened with a newly commissioned work by David Dzubay, Ridgeline, inspired by the mountain peaks visible from Breckenridge, CO, and featured the premiere of Chen Yi’s Transplanted Seeds, as well as music by Adolphus Hailstork, Timothy Higgins, Gabriel Kahane, Vivian Fung, Ivan Enrique Rodriguez and Christopher Theofanidis. 

October 6-8 KC Symphony
Jessie Montgomery: Hymn for Everyone (2021)

October 14 Lumos
Alejandra Odgers: Toni alossaan (2007)

October 27-29 KCS
Quinn Mason: A Joyous Trilogy (2019, rev. 2021)

November 11-12 Lumos
Gabriela Lena Frank: Elegia Andida (2000)

January 12-14 KC Symphony
Chen Yi: Transplanted Seeds (2023)
Joel Thompson: The Places We Leave (2022)

February 2-4 KC Symphony
Shelley Washington: Both (2023) Premiere

March 22-24 KC Symphony
Angel Lam: New Work (2024) Premiere
Xavier Foley: Bass Concerto (2022) Premiere

May 4-5 Lumos
Quinn Mason: A Joyous Trilogy (2019, rev. 2021)

May 18-19 Edmonton Symphony
Avner Dorman: Piano Concerto No. 3 (2021)

May 31-June 2 KCS
Kevin Puts: Earth (2023) | Edgar Meyer: Water (2023)
Jake Heggie: Fire (2023) | Guillaume Connesson: Flammenschrift (2012)

2023-2024 Season Highlights

October 6, 7, 8, 2023
KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY OPENING NIGHT
Yefim Bronfman, Piano
Every concert in Michael Stern’s final season is a celebration of his visionary artistic leadership. A testament to his dedication to championing contemporary American composers, this opening night performance features Jessie Montgomery’s Hymn for Everyone, alongside Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto played by Yefim Bronfman.
Event page with full program 

October 14, 15, 2023
ORCHESTRA LUMOS OPENING NIGHT: A BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
Midori, Violin
At The Palace Theatre in Stamford, CT, Orchestra Lumos opens its season with Mexican-Canadian composer Alejandra Odgers’ “Toni alossaan” (Where are you going?), which incorporates indigenous melodies of the Abenaki people. “With this work, Odgers noted, “I wanted to pay a modest tribute to all who help maintain the songs, traditions and legends across time.” The extraordinary violinist Midori joins the orchestra for Dvořák’s Violin Concerto. Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 rounds out the program. 
More information at Orchestra Lumos

October 27, 28, 29, 2023
KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY
Mark Gibbs, Cello
Stern conducts A Joyous Trilogy by the young Dallas-based composer Quinn Mason, whom the Dallas Morning News described as “a most impressive talent.” The orchestra performs Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra, and is joined by cellist Mark Gibbs for Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote. 
Event page with full program

November 2 & 4, 2023
EDMONTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: TCHAIKOVSKY & MOZART
Tony Siqi Yun, Piano
Maestro Stern conducts ESO and the dazzling young pianist Tony Siqi Yun in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and leads the orchestra in Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter,” and Kodály’s Dances of Galánta. 
Event page with full program

November 11, 12, 2023
ORCHESTRA LUMOS: ENIGMATIC ELGAR
Tony Siqi Yun, Piano
Edward Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme anchors this program. The orchestra is joined by dazzling young pianist Tony Siqi Yun for Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Gabriela Lena Frank’s Elegia Andida rounds out the program. 

January 12, 13, 14, 2024
KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY
Joyce DiDonato, Mezzo-Soprano
This program brings Joyce DiDonato’s luminous voice to Ives’ “The Unanswered Question” (which appears on DiDonato’s CD “Eden”), Joel Thompson’s 2022 song cycle “The Places We Leave,” and two sets of lieder by Mahler. The program opens with Chen Yi’s “Transplanted Seeds,” which Stern premiered in July with the NRO in Breckenridge. The program concludes with Johann Strauss Jr.’s Overture to Die Fledermaus. 
Event page with full program

February 2, 3, 4, 2024
KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY 
Composer Shelley Washington was raised in Kansas City, and her music is known for blending elements of jazz, rock, and American folk, as she does in Both, a work co-commissioned by the Kansas City Symphony, which opens this concert. The program continues with Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes and Pamela Frank joining the orchestra for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. 
Event page with full program

April 5, 6, 7, 2024
KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY: XAVIER FOLEY’S BASS CONCERTO & WORLD PREMIERE BY ANGEL LAM
Bassist and composer Xavier Foley joins the orchestra to perform his own Bass Concerto, and the orchestra presents the world premiere of a new work by Angel Lam, co-commissioned by Kansas City Symphony. Also on the program is music by Ravel and Britten. 
Event page with full program

May 4, 5, 2024
ORCHESTRA LUMOS: CLOSING NIGHT 
The final concert of Lumos’s season is anchored by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s masterpiece, Scheherazade, alongside Quinn Mason’s A Joyous Trilogy and, with pianist Chelsea Guo, Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto. 

FINAL KANSAS CITY APPEARANCES
May 31, June 1 & 2, 2024
KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY WITH JOSHUA BELL
Joshua Bell joins the orchestra for The Elements, a work he commissioned from three esteemed composers: Kevin Puts, Edgar Meyer, and Jake Heggie. Stern continues the elemental theme with contemporary French composer Guillaume Connesson’s Flammenschrift (Flame Writing); Haydn’s Fire Symphony; Henri Vieuxtemps’ Violin Concerto No. 5; and Ravel’s Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloé. 
Event page with full program

June 6, 2024
KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY: AN EVENING WITH YO-YO MA: HIS TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL STERN
For one night only, the incomparable Yo-Yo Ma joins the Kansas City Symphony to honor his close friend, Conductor Michael Stern, in a very special performance.  
Event page (program to be announced)

June 21, 22, 23, 2024
KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY: CLOSING NIGHT, STERN’S FAREWELL
Michael Stern’s final season comes to a close with this virtuosic program: Felix Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Samuel Barber’s Symphony No. 1, and Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2.
Event page with full program