The Ulster Orchestra’s 2026/27 Season is on sale now.
And the Orchestra has plenty to celebrate! Not only does the 2026/27 Season see it celebrate its 60th anniversary, it is also thrilled to be welcoming Anna Handler as their new Chief Conductor. Anna will join the Orchestra for seven concerts across the Season, including the opening concert which absolutely bursts with youthful joy, as a host of young performers and singers from across Northern Ireland perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. She also takes the stage for BBC Radio 3’s Friday Night Is Music Night – Live!, to conduct works such as Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, Brahms’s Violin Concerto and to helm a once-in-a-generation performance of Stravinsky’s groundbreaking The Rite Of Spring in the Waterfront Hall.
Celebrations are also scheduled for Steve Reich’s 90th birthday and Beethoven’s 200th anniversary, most notably as Jean-Efflam Bavouzet takes on the Herculean challenge of performing ALL FIVE of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos across two nights. Friends such as Jac van Steen, Michael Collins, Barry Douglas, Francesca Dego and Daniele Rustioni return to celebrate the anniversary, while excitement is already growing for new guests such as leading British jazz pianist Julian Joseph playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue, legendary horn player Stefan Dohr and guitarist Plínio Fernandes, who performs Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.
Pops Concerts at the Waterfront Hall always provide a memorable evening, and this year is going to prove no different. So if you want to celebrate Steven Spielberg's 80th birthday by enjoying some of the music from his best-loved films, you’ve ever wondered How To Train Your Dragon, you fancy revisiting your misspent youth in the 1990s or imagine you're that most debonair of spies, James Bond, there’ll be a concert waiting for you to take your seat.
No Christmas would be complete without our annual live play-along to The Snowman and performances of Messiah and The Magic of Christmas, while our regular concert partners, Belfast Philharmonic Choir, join us for a concert featuring another once-in-a-generation performance, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius.
Ulster Orchestra concerts remain a fantastic value night out. So take the plunge and book your seats now; don’t miss this 60th celebration with the Ulster Orchestra and Anna Handler.
