Restoring excitement for warmer days ahead amid the depths of winter and snow-covered streets, Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) has announced its 2025 Philadelphia Orchestra season.
The beloved orchestra will return to its summer home at SPAC from August 6-23, 2025, with a jam-packed schedule of award-winning performers, classic masterworks, and fan-favorite films with live scores. This year, emphasis is being placed on talented yet underrepresented artists and composers.
“Our 2025 Philadelphia Orchestra season is marked by a strong presence of today’s most exciting and acclaimed female artists,” said Elizabeth Sobol, SPAC’s president & CEO. “From the return of Marin Alsop, to the appearance of three world-class vocalists from across the sonic spectrum, our community can look forward to a jam-packed summer filled with contemporary pieces and rarely performed works by underrepresented composers.”
Alsop, a star conductor who is returning to SPAC for the first time since 2017, will kick off the 2025 season with the popular Tchaikovsky Spectacular program (August 6) before leading the Orchestra in an evening anchored by Holst’s The Planets (August 7), as well as a program dedicated to works by Gershwin and Bernstein (August 8).
After the opening performances, Laufey, who was called the “Gen Z It Girl” by The New York Times, will return to the stage following her 2024 Saratoga Jazz Festival appearance. The 25-year-old GRAMMY-winning Icelandic-Chinese singer-songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist will debut with her Night at the Symphony program, which premiered with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and was made into a film directed by Sam Wrench, who also directed Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.
Next on the agenda are two SPAC-exclusive programs led by none other than Philadelphia Orchestra Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. On August 13, Nézet-Séguin will conduct an evening featuring Stravinsky’s Suite from The Firebird, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and William Grant Still’s rarely performed Second Symphony, “Song of a New Race”. On August 14, the conductor will lead Verdi’s Requiem, marking the first time the piece has been performed at SPAC in 35 years.
Also taking the stage this year is Cynthia Erivo—a three-time Oscar nominee and Tony, Emmy, and Grammy award-winner known for her powerhouse performances in The Color Purple, Harriet, and, most recently, Wicked—who will perform beloved Broadway hits, soul-stirring standards, and her own original songs alongside the orchestra; as well as five-time Grammy-winning soprano Renée Fleming. Fleming will return to SPAC to perform her signature pieces and arias alongside works from her Grammy-winning album, Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, which will be accompanied by a projected film created by National Geographic.
Other notable soloists, conductors, and composers to look forward to include violinist Randall Goosby, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, and pianists Clayton Stephenson and Beatrice Rana. Genre-bending trio Time for Three is back by popular demand to perform a new concerto by contemporary composer Mason Bates, led by 2022 Musical America Conductor of the Year Teddy Abrams. Finally, Philadelphia Orchestra Assistant Conductor Naomi Woo will make her SPAC debut with a program anchored by Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
And the info you’ve been waiting for: SPAC’s popular film nights are returning. Locals of all ages will be delighted by screenings of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Back to the Future, both of which will be projected on-screen in HD while the orchestra performs the scores live.
Tickets are now available to members for Laufey: A Night at the Symphony, and will go on sale to the public on February 28 at 10am. Tickets to the rest of the Philadelphia Orchestra performances will be available to members beginning on February 27 at 10am and to the general public on March 7 at 10am. Access the full Philadelphia Orchestra schedule and get your tickets here.