The Delaware Symphony Orchestra launches its new season in early October with the first in an array of concerts that combine traditional favorites, cutting-edge new compositions, and some lesser-heard gems.
Music director and conductor Michelle Di Russo is in her second season on the podium, but because orchestra seasons are planned long in advance of the first downbeat, this 2026-2027 season is the first in which Di Russo led the complex and detailed process of deciding what music the orchestra will perform.
“It takes quite a lot of time to find the right configuration and combination of pieces that also say what you want to say as an artist, so it's quite a crazy process,” Di Russo says. “It takes a long time. We don't do this a few months before we release the season; it takes a whole year of going back and forth.”
In programming the upcoming season, Di Russo focused on finding an overarching theme that connects all of the concerts.
“Each piece this season really has something to say,” she explains. “And so that's why we came up with the main topic that is ‘Where Music Speaks.’”
While the season features plenty of famous and often-performed works - like Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” and Tchaikovsky’s sixth symphony - it also features a number of new works written in the past decade. Featuring new music is something artistically important to Di Russo.
“We have masterworks in classical music that have transformed our field and that are a part of our repertoire for a reason,” DiRusso says. “But there's also conversations that need to be had with the voices from today.”
The orchestra opens its new season on October 2 at the Grand in Wilmington, performing works by Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Berlioz, and Joan Tower.
