Orchestra Series
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra Series
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Klaus Mäkelä, Zell Music Director Designate
Friday, February 27, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Music Center at Strathmore
This performance is currently sold out. We encourage you to check back periodically to see if tickets have become available.
One of the world’s most revered ensembles, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra returns under the baton of electrifying Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä, hailed for his “mesmerizing presence and interpretive depth” (The Guardian). Mäkelä leads a program that pairs two revolutionary masterworks of symphonic form: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, a pulse-quickening triumph of rhythm and vitality that Wagner called “the apotheosis of the dance,” and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, the wildly imaginative, hallucinatory tale of love, obsession, and dreams gone awry. Together, conductor and orchestra promise an unforgettable evening of high drama, orchestral brilliance, and virtuosity.
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Program Details
Beethoven – Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92
Berlioz – Symphonie Fantastique
“The orchestra responded to his [Mäkelä’s] every move, intensely concentrated, playing with clarity, precision, and flow that was simply electrifying.”
– Musical America
Our Partners
Washington Performing Arts’s 60th anniversary year is generously sponsored by Dr. Gary Mather † and Ms. Christina Co Mather.
This performance is made possible in part by the generous support of the following sponsors: Drs. Elliot and Lily Gardner Feldman; Debbie Driesman and Frank F. Islam; Nici and Toby Bush; Rudy Burwell and Mona Mohib; Dr. Mark Cinnamon and Ms. Doreen Kelly; and The Law Offices of Kenneth R. Feinberg PC and Camille S. Biros.
Washington Performing Arts’s classical music performances this season are made possible in part through the generous support of Betsy and Robert Feinberg.
Her Excellency Leena-Kaisa Mikkola, Ambassador of Finland, is the honorary patron for this event.
Special thanks to the following lead supporters of Washington Performing Arts’s mission-driven work: Jacqueline Badger Mars and Mars, Incorporated; D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities; the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; and Events DC.
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