BARDI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 2025/26 SEASON

Following their hugely successful 2024/25 New Horizons season, the Bardi Symphony Orchestra return to De Montfort Hall with a varied new season featuring four different conductors and four incredible soloists.

Journey with the orchestra through the action-packed, romantic melodies of the Hollywood Hills, to the lively and energetic sounds of the Americas. Witness the ever-popular Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2, played with prowess by the award-winning Antonina Suhanova. Finally, we’ll be taking Leicester to the West End in a musical extravaganza!

Truly comparable with the best orchestras in the capital, the Bardi Symphony Orchestra prioritise creating exciting concerts with accuracy and an infectious energy, sure to delight everyone in the audience!

Don’t forget, you can get a discount when you book multiple concerts at once! Book 3 concerts and receive 10% off, or book all 4 and receive 15% off!

Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2 Sunday 5 October 2025, 3pm

Jonathan Lo conductor
Zoë Beyers violin

STEINER Casablanca Film Suite
KORNGOLD Violin Concerto
RACHMANINOV Symphony No.2

Tickets £26 £23 £19
Seniors/Unemployed £24.50 £21.50 £17.50
Students/18 and under £6
Strictly ages 5+

After his critically acclaimed run with the Royal Ballet earlier this year, Jonathan Lo returns to the Bardi to conduct a concert born in the Hollywood Hills. The first half heralds the Golden Age of Cinema with Max Steiner’s ground-breaking score to Casablanca. The father of the film score, Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto is a perfect blend of action-packed movie themes and virtuosic solo writing, and is performed by Zoë Beyers, leader of the BBC Philharmonic.

Rachmaninov (who also moved to Hollywood late in life) wrote his grand Second Symphony at the most successful time in his career and it is one of his most popular works, full of drama and emotion worthy of any film score.

Dvořák New World Symphony Sunday 30 November 2025, 3pm

José Salazar conductor

COPLAND Fanfare for the Common Man
COPLAND Appalachian Spring
MARQUEZ Danzón No. 2
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 9 From the New World

Tickets £26 £23 £19
Seniors/Unemployed £24.50 £21.50 £17.50
Students/18 and under £6
Strictly ages 5+

Dvořák’s New World Symphony, perhaps best-known for its Largo theme inspiring a certain bread advert campaign, concludes a concert of popular folk-inspired music from North and South America. Copland’s melody Simple Gifts from his ballet Appalachian Spring inspired the Lord of the Dance, while his Fanfare for the Common Man opens the concert with the quintessential sound of Americana.

Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 2 has fast become a concert staple since its performances by the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel, with its lively rhythms. Fellow Venezuelan and assistant to Dudamel, conductor José Salazar brings further Latin American energy to the De Montfort Hall podium.

Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2 Sunday 22 March 2026, 3pm

Philip Ellis conductor
Antonina Suhanova piano

TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Concerto No. 2
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5

Tickets £26 £23 £19
Seniors/Unemployed £24.50 £21.50 £17.50
Students/18 and under £6
Strictly ages 5+

120 years since his birth, the Bardi celebrate Shostakovich with two of his most popular works. His Second Piano Concerto is a favourite amongst audiences with its beautiful slow movement and reached number six in the 2025 Classic FM Hall of Fame. The concerto is performed by award-winning Latvian pianist, Antonina Suhanova. His equally popular Fifth Symphony concludes the concert with its triumphant finale. Fellow Russian Tchaikovsky wrote perhaps one of the most famous melodies of them all as the central love theme in his Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, opening this concert.

The concert is conducted by Philip Ellis who has led the country’s top orchestras over his illustrious career, particularly the Birmingham Royal Ballet for 36 years.

West End Spectacular Sunday 17 May 2026, 3pm

Ben Crick conductor
Shona Lindsay soprano
Stephen John Davis baritone

Tickets £26 £23 £19
Seniors/Unemployed £24.50 £21.50 £17.50
Students/18 and under £6
Strictly ages 5+

The West End comes to Leicester! From Les Misérables to Wicked, the Bardi celebrate the world of musical theatre in this concert of West End favourites. Star guest singers Shona Lindsay and Stephen John Davis both made their name in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera on the West End and return to perform with the Bardi, alongside conductor Ben Crick.

Join the Bardi Symphony Orchestra for an unforgettable season finale!