Music Director Jonathon Heyward and acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma will open the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s 2024-2025 season in September, the BSO announced Thursday.

The classical season, “Music that Resonates,” will open in two back-to-back gala concerts in September at Strathmore in Bethesda and the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore.

Ma, one of the best-known classical musicians and a 19-time Grammy Award winner, has played cello since he was 4. He has performed for nine American presidents, according to his biography, most recently at President Biden’s inauguration.

Heyward was appointed as music director in 2022, becoming the first person of color to lead the 106-year-old orchestra.

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“As the Orchestra’s largest fundraiser of the season, guests can expect surprise moments and special performances by the talented student musicians from  BSO OrchKids and the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras,” the BSO said in a statement.

The season pays tribute to Baltimore and Maryland, the orchestra said, by incorporating a special partnership with Baltimore-native James Lee III, who was named its 2024-25 composer in residence.

The symphony orchestra is also planning for the return of BSO FUSION, featuring musical mashups conducted by Steve Hackman, including a musical tribute to the Beatles and the interweaving of Radiohead’s “OK Computer “ with Brahms’ “Symphony No. 1.”

The season will include four arts-integrated Midweek Education Concert programs (10–12 concerts), designed for pre-K through middle school students.

New this year, a partnership with Carnegie Hall’s Link Up program will invite students to play along with the orchestra for the spring midweek program (including a recorder program and more intensive preconcert classroom preparation).

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Single tickets for the public will go on sale in August 2024.

Subscriptions for the 2024-25 Season are on sale online beginning February 29, or through BSO Patron Support at 877-276-1444.

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