In its just-announced 2026–2027 season (its seventy-third) Philharmonic Society of Orange County strikes a deft curatorial balance between the marquee artists — like Vienna Philharmonic (Mar. 5–7, 2027, with an appearance by Yuja Wang), Itzhak Perlman (Jan. 21), and Daniil Trifonov (Nov. 13) — on which it made its name and the emerging or genre-bending artists who keep music evolving.
Founded in 1954 as a local alternative to Los Angeles’ cultural scene, the Philharmonic Society emphasized orchestral performances, venue independence, and local music education (now reaching 80,000 students annually) from the start. By the mid-1960s, the Philharmonic Society was hosting elite orchestras like the Royal Philharmonic, London Symphony, and Chicago Symphony and in the mid-80s it branched into recital and international artist series.
Now, nearly three quarters of a century after its inception, the Philharmonic Society’s orchestral fare still anchors its diverse calendar. Besides the Vienna Philharmonic (led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin), the 2026–2027 season will feature the San Francisco Symphony (Apr. 16), Los Angeles Philharmonic (closing the season with John Williams’ second piano concerto on May 29), San Diego Symphony (Nov. 13), Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (with British phenom-pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason on Nov. 10), Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (Mar. 12), National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (Jan. 22), and Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (Apr. 27).
“Bringing the Vienna Philharmonic to California is a rare and extraordinary opportunity,” Philharmonic Society President and Artistic Director Tommy Phillips commented. “Bringing them back so soon [the Society presented them in March 2025] for repeat engagements is even rarer.”
Today, the Philharmonic Society’s non-orchestral program is nearly as robust. Solo recitals in 2026–27 will showcase Itzhak Perlman (with pianist Rohan De Silva, Jan. 21), Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski (May 9), Louis Lortie (Apr. 11), Yeol Eum Son (Mar. 30), and George Li (Dec. 6). In chamber music, the Society opens its season (October 13) with a star-turn trio of pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violinist Lisa Batiashvili, and cellist Gautier Capuçon, then follows with Festival Strings Lucerne (with Midori, Feb. 17) and the trail-blazing Danish String Quartet (Feb. 26).
The Philharmonic Society’s innovative spirit is represented not only by artists like “period-instrument rock band” Ruckus (Nov. 21) and Bang on a Can All-Stars (celebrating minimalists Steve Reich and Philip Glass, Jan. 15) but by the genre-blind series Eclectic Orange Series and the PSOC-sponsored Laguna Beach Music Festival (Feb, 2–7), which will celebrate its 25th-anniversary season by reuniting its past artistic directors, from Jeremy Denk and Ray Chen to Joyce Yang and Conrad Tao (among others), in a musical summit of performing curatorial talent.
