Under the direction of Artistic Director Bongani Tembe, the Winter Symphony Season of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra continues to be an immensely popular live music encounter in the city. The orchestra is back to warm up the autumn evenings with an elegant series of popular and rarely-heard compositions from 4 to 25 June 2026. And true to form, world-renowned soloists and conductors will touch down at Joburg and bring top-notch interpretations to the Linder Auditorium.
We list all the chamber music works and talents you can look forward to over the next few weeks:
Week 1
Guest conductor, Daniel Boico, is already a firm favourite of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and will return to lead the orchestra and visiting talent for the season debut concert. Critics describe Boico as “dynamic, vigorous, exciting and imaginative – an undisputed star who combines magnetic charisma with a skilled technique.”
The brilliance of Beethoven’s Overture from “Egmont” leads the programme line-up for the Winter Symphony Season for 2026. Musicians and theorists of heavy metal music have long held that this overture served as an early prototype for the dark, intense, and rebellious spirit that today defines the genre.
The piece has also been pushed into contemporary pop culture once more as one of the key music themes in Roblox’s Guts & Blackpowder (G&B), a popular historical survival-horror game set during the Napoleonic Wars, where players must work together as soldiers to fight off waves of the undead.
The historical context of the work is equally fascinating. In 1809, Ludwig van Beethoven received a commission to compose the overture and incidental music for Wolfgang von Goethe’s tragic play Egmont. Goethe was one of the leading intellectuals of his time and a personal hero of Beethoven’s. The finished composition opens with a slow introduction before moving into dark, dramatic passages marked by minor chords and rhythmic intensity. It concludes with the “Victory Symphony”, a triumphant finale that still carries an underlying sense of tragedy and foreboding.
Dvořák’s Violin Concerto is a delightful reprieve from the angsty overture and showcases the Czech composer’s characteristic melodies and affection for the folk music of his homeland. Here is where guest soloist, Elvin Hoxha Ganiyev will bring his world-class performance to the Joburg stage. At age 29, Ganiyex has completed his music studies in Germany and Spain, released multiple albums, and continues to perform at prominent concert halls and prestigious international festivals throughout the world.
Brahms doesn’t get enough credit as a romantic composer, not romantic in formal musical terms, but in terms of expressing what love is about through sound. When he released his Symphony No. 3, Op. 90 in F Major, which forms part of the evening programme, we find him at the peak of his creative powers at 50 years old. By then, he had already experienced all the highs and lows of an artist’s life. This symphony speaks to mortality and a life well lived. Be sure to listen for the three-note motif that opens the score and repeats throughout the piece — representing the words “frei aber froh,” or “free but happy” — when the JPO performs on Thursday, 4 June.
Cost: From R190pp, book via Quicket. Book tickets to the full season and SAVE. Enquiries and special discounts offered exclusively via [email protected] / [email protected] or call 011 484 0446
When: Thursday, 4 June at 7:30pm
Where: Linder Auditorium, 27 St Andrews Road, Parktown, Johannesburg
Week 2
The Winter Symphony Season will welcome one of the most exciting female conductors in the classical music circles right now, Alexandra Arrieche. We’re grateful that she’s able to slot in a Joburg performance between her duties as Music Director of the Olympia Symphony Orchestra and Henderson Symphony in the United States, and Principal Conductor of the Antwerp Philharmonic in Belgium.
Joining Arrieche as visiting soloist is Federico Colli, the Italian pianist who has rapidly gained international acclaim for his imaginative interpretations and clarity of sound. Colli is a seasoned artist who tours quite frequently for both debut and returning soloist appearances across Europe and the United States.
Two works by Robert Schumann will feature in the evening’s programme, each reflecting a distinct period in the composer’s career. One dates from a time when his wife Clara encouraged him towards symphonic composition, while the other was written in 1848 during a period when he was preoccupied with stage music.
Right from the introduction, the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 leans deeply into the Russian Romantic piano tradition. Iconic Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein were highly inspired by its seamless fusion of soloist and orchestra.
The Overture from Manfred is a fine marker of Schumann’s love for literature and the world of supernatural outcasts. The soundscape is an ambitious, hybrid “dramatic poem with music”, inspired by Lord Byron’s tragic verse drama about a guilt-ridden hero seeking death against a backdrop of his own worsening mental distress and doomed love.
Prepare yourself for a stellar sonic revisiting of Schubert’s haunting, visionary “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8, set to be performed by the JPO. Musicologists have varying theories about why Schubert completed only two movements in 1822 before abruptly abandoning the project for unknown reasons, despite living for six more years. Ultimately, “Unfinished” builds smooth shifts of anxiety by suddenly contrasting whispers with full-orchestra fortissimo chords.
Cost: From R190pp, book via Quicket. Book tickets to the full season and SAVE. Enquiries and special discounts offered exclusively via [email protected] / [email protected] or call 011 484 0446
When: Thursday, 11 June at 7:30pm
Where: Linder Auditorium, 27 St Andrews Road, Parktown, Johannesburg
Week 3
Conductor Daniel Boico makes another return to the Winter Symphony Season, this time around for a pioneering concert where the often-overlooked Bayan instrument is centred. The evening promises a rare global exclusive right here in Johannesburg. For the first time, listeners will take in an interpretation of the Concerto for the Bayan, a new composition in the neo-Romantic realm.
Russian-Canadian composer Airat Ichmouratov wrote the Piano Concerto around 2012/2013, but it sat undiscovered in a drawer for nearly ten years until the first recording in 2022 and debut live performance in 2024.
It makes complete sense that the honour of performing Ichmouratov’s Concerto for the Bayan as Bayan soloist should go to Stanislav Venglevski. Through the establishment of the Stas Venglevski Music Foundation in 2023, the artist has committed himself to reshaping the world of accordion music by inspiring young people to embrace the arts, create music, refine their skills as soloists and orchestral performers, and gain opportunities to compose and premiere new works.
Also on the Winter Symphony Season programme is the Symphony No. 4, Op. 36 in F minor, one of those grand cinematic soundscapes by Tchaikovsky in four movements. The composer presented the symphony as a concept around ‘Fate, that inexorable force that prevents our aspirations to happiness from reaching their goal…’
Johannes Brahms composed his now-famous Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80, in 1880 as a high-energy musical ode to the University of Breslau, which had awarded him an honorary doctorate. Instead of a solemn academic piece, Brahms brilliantly arranged a medley of rowdy, traditional student drinking songs that ends with a cheerful full-orchestra rendition of the famous Gaudeamus igitur.
Cost: From R190pp, book via Quicket. Book tickets to the full season and SAVE. Enquiries and special discounts offered exclusively via [email protected] / [email protected] or call 011 484 0446
When: Thursday, 18 June at 7:30pm
Where: Linder Auditorium, 27 St Andrews Road, Parktown, Johannesburg
Week 4
Joburgers are in luck to catch the Winter Symphony Season finale, under the baton of conductor Alexandra Arrieche alongside Rebeca Omordia, the award-winning British-Nigerian classical pianist and curator. Ormodia is internationally recognised as a “classical music game changer” (Classical Music Magazine) and an “African classical music pioneer” (BBC World Service) for her pioneering work in African classical music.
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 premièred on 13 May 1868, with Camille Saint-Saëns performing as soloist and Anton Rubinstein conducting the orchestra. What is now Saint-Saëns’ most popular piano concerto was written in only three weeks, leaving very little time for rehearsal ahead of the première, which contributed to its initially lukewarm reception. Today, the work is celebrated for its striking contrasts that move from a grand and contemplative opening through gentle moments of lyricism and ending with an energetic and spirited finale bursting with character.
Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály shared with his friend and fellow composer Béla Bartók a deep fascination with the preservation and study of Hungarian folk music. This lifelong interest became central to his work and shaped a musical language rooted in cultural memory.
Dances of Galánta beautifully bridges folk influence and classical form. Drawing inspiration from melodies and musical styles Kodály encountered in his youth, the work captures a rich blend of colour and movement. Its warm textures and spirited rhythms echo the sounds associated with Romani musical traditions while remaining unmistakably tied to Hungarian identity and character.
Mendelssohn visited the ruins of Holyrood Chapel at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, where, as he related to his family in a letter, he received his initial inspiration for the Symphony No.3, Op. 56 in a minor, ‘Scottish’: “In the deep twilight we went today to the palace where Queen Mary lived and loved…The chapel below is now roofless. Grass and ivy thrive there and at the broken altar where Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything is ruined, decayed, and the clear heavens pour in. I think I have found there the beginning of my “Scottish” Symphony.”
Cost: From R190pp, book via Quicket. Book tickets to the full season and SAVE. Enquiries and special discounts offered exclusively via [email protected] / [email protected] or call 011 484 0446
When: Thursday, 25 June at 7:30pm
Where: Linder Auditorium, 27 St Andrews Road, Parktown, Johannesburg
Join the informative Pre-Concert Talks at the Winter Symphony Season
Plan your evening carefully and be sure to join the Pre-Concert Talks that run before each concert at 6:30pm. Deano Maduramuthu, previously from the Morning Drive on Classic 1027, hosts an informative and engaging way to learn about music featured throughout the Winter Symphony Season before your concert.
The talks touch on music theory, guided listening and the historical and cultural context of the Winter Symphony Season programming. Entrance to the talks is free.
27 Degrees restaurant, right next to Linder Auditorium, serves dinner from 5pm and secure and convenient parking is available.
More about Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra
The Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) is a not-for-profit company that invests in identifying and nurturing local talent and skills in the city’s creative community. Their seasonal concerts and regular collaborations are prime markers of using classical music to bring people together.
When: From 4 to 24 June 2025, every Thursday from 7:30pm
Where: Linder Auditorium, 27 St Andrews Road, Parktown, Johannesburg
Website: jpo.co.za
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 011 484 0446
Facebook: @JohannesburgPhilharmonicOrchestra
Instagram: @johannesburgphilharmonic
