Artistic Vision

Welcome to another season with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra!

This season is particularly special because it marks the 125th season anniversary, a monumental season focused on change - change that will push our institution onto a new horizon. As we travel further into the 21st century, the music realm is churning out contemporary and pop masterpieces that are captivating audiences. However, institutions must continue to do orchestral music justice by preserving the classics while integrating these new works into the canon. In this way, we aim to live out the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's 125th anniversary goal of supporting diverse audiences by offering something for all ages, races, and genders.,

As always, the institution will be serving the Greater Pittsburgh Area and afar, not only through quality performances but through community engagement and arts education opportunities.

We see a future where...

• classical music finds a balance between the genres of classical, contemporary and pop
• our music selection incorporates compositions by women, people of color, and LGBTQA+ composers
• our staff and musicians reflect the diversity of Pittsburgh
• we dismantle the mantra that "if we provide the art, they will come" by bringing more performances to the community

Striving to have more integrated audience members, we have decided to move away from siloed seasons, to seasons that promote coexistence. Previously the institution has structured balance between classical and contemporary/pop concerts, but we want to step beyond and mesh concerts to incorporate both newer and older works. Concerts that have the primary objective of just simply celebrating music, nothing more nor less. As our audience members change in diversity, the institution must follow suit , not only to secure concert goers but to increase stability so that we can continue to provide music all the way into the 22nd century. This ultimately means incorporating more works from the current century. We hope this strategy will aid in audience engagement by attracting new members while maintaining the ones we currently hold.

This season we are going to challenge ourselves and commit to change by producing works that highlight Japanese composers, rarely performed film scores, guest artists of color, commissioned works by women, and premieres never heard at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Instead of saying "we are working on," we will "just do it."