Former Berkeley Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Music Director Kent Nagano had an extraordinary tenure of 31 years there, from 1978 to 2009, before he left for a succession of major music positions around the world.
Now, after an absence of 17 years, Music Director Laureate Nagano will return to conduct BSO’s season-opening concert of 2026-2027 on Oct. 18, at the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts.
Though known for his advocacy for new and infrequently performed music, Nagano’s BSO program balances a new work by Argentine composer Alex Nante, based on a Bach chorale, with music by Felix Mendelssohn: an overture, his Piano Concerto No. 1 (Mari Kodama, soloist), and Symphony No. 5 (“Reformation”).
Nagano, 74, was born in Berkeley, and although he has maintained residence in San Francisco, Nagano spent decades leading orchestras and opera companies in Lyon, Berlin, Manchester, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Montreal, and elsewhere.
His current appointments include the National Orchestra and Chorus of Spain, where he is artistic director and chief conductor with an initial contract of five seasons; and principal artistic partner of the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma with a three-year contract.
Asked about his musical homecoming, Nagano sidestepped personal aspects of the event, speaking instead of the orchestra’s community:
“Together, the University of California [and] Berkeley’s diverse and vibrant community bring to life the essential nature of the Age of Reason, marked by its emphasis upon empirical scientific methods, and ideals of liberty, equality, tolerance, progress, and human rights.
“While at times problematic, challenging and controversial, this stimulating environment and its eternal relevance remain alive and active in the Berkeley community.
“The Berkeley Symphony audiences with their engagement are representatives of the actuality of this special and unique Berkeley tradition. The perspectives, knowledge, and experiences they bring, combined with curiosity and openness, create a rich and fertile environment in which the social dialogue that creativity requires flourishes with vitality.”
BSO, led by Joana Carneiro (2009–2018) and Joseph Young (2019–2025) after Nagano, has been without a music director since Young left last year. The orchestra tried a rotation of guest conductors last season — Dina Gilbert, Edwin Outwater, and Ming Luke — but will not repeat that in the coming season.
Berkeley Symphony Executive Director Marion Atherton told SF Classical Voice: “This season, we built our programs around a range of artists and musical ideas that we were excited to explore.”
The season includes chamber music programs, at the Hillside Club, first on Nov. 15, when Nicole Paiement will curate music by Philip Glass, Bach, Missy Mazzoli, and Claude Debussy Then, on April 4, 2027, Viet Cuong presents works by himself, Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, and Caroline Shaw
On Feb. 27 and 28, 2027, in Littlefield Concert Hall, Berkeley-born composer Gabriella Smith’s Desert Ecology will be performed, featuring violinist Nick Kendall, who will also lead Max Richter’s The Four Seasons Recomposed.
Conductor Kwamé Ryan is leading the local premiere of the orchestral version of Jake Heggie’s Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope, inspired by six instruments owned by Jewish musicians before and during the Holocaust. The June 6, 2027, performance in Zellerbach Hall is slated to feature mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce and violinist Benjamin Beilman. Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 is also on the program.
According to information from the BSO administration, the orchestra consists of 48 professional musicians, engaged on a per-service basis through a contract with Musicians Union Local 6. In addition, some 12 community musicians also perform with the orchestra as volunteers.
“The combination of professional and community musicians is a longstanding feature of Berkeley Symphony, and we see it as part of what makes the orchestra distinctive within the Bay Area,” stated the BSO announcement.
The organization’s current operating budget is $1.2 million. The announcement says that “after speaking candidly with our community last year about our financial challenges, Berkeley Symphony raised over $1.5 million to sustain the orchestra, including a significant legacy gift from a longtime supporter, and all eight of our concerts were sold out.”
Following orchestra tradition, living composers are represented in more than half of the season’s works.
BSO’s Music in the Schools serves over 4,000 elementary school students.
