Single tickets are now on sale for the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s (PSO) 2025-26 season, whose theme is calling on audiences to ‘Look to the Stars’ with five concerts running from November to May.
In a series of firsts this year, two of the concerts — the popular movie score concert in February and the season finale in May — will have back-to-back shows on both Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, while the April concert will be held as a Sunday matinee instead of the usual Saturday evening performance.
With all five concerts conducted by PSO Music Director Michael Newnham, the season promises all-new talents joining the orchestra as special guests as well as all new instruments audiences haven’t been exposed to before.
The season will open with a bang — on a drum, that is — at Showplace Performance Centre in downtown Peterborough on Saturday, November 1 with a unique sound audiences don’t get exposed to often. The season-opening “Bright Lights” concert will include special guest Shawn Mativetsky playing the tabla in what will be the first time the orchestra has featured the Indian percussion instrument.
Mativetsky will join the orchestra for Canadian composer’s Dinuk Wijertane’s Concerto for Tabla and Orchestra, while the evening will open with Overture to the Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini and close with Mozart’s final symphony, No. 41 Jupiter.
Next up will be the PSO’s annual family holiday concert on Saturday, December 6 at Emmanuel United Church, with a touch of Quebecois flair from vocal quartet Quartom, whose members include baritone Julien Patenaude, baritone Benoit Le Blanc, and bass-baritone Philippe Martel. “Quartom Sings Noël” will include a post-concert sing-along and apple cider reception.
VIDEO: Shawn Mativetsky performs on tabla
“There are some Christmas carols that are popular in Quebec which we might not even know about here,” says Newnham. “They’re so charming and fun and they’re fantastic singers, and it just warms everybody’s heart the way they do things, so that’s something to look forward to.”
To kick off the new year, the PSO will once again be dedicating a concert to beloved music in film by presenting “Stars of the Silver Screen” at Showplace Performance Centre on Saturday, February 7, with a matinee performance Sunday, February 8. This year, the orchestra will be spotlighting great film scores of the 1960s including works composed by John Barry for the James Bond franchise. The concert will take audiences throughout the hits of the decade from the scores of Henry Mancini’s The Pink Panther to Ennio Morricone’s renowned compositions for ‘Spaghetti Western’ films like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
This marks the third straight season the PSO will bring movie music to audiences, with a similar concert during each of the previous two seasons. The first featured scores from Star Wars and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and the second music from The Godfather and Indiana Jones movies. Both concerts were met with success, with the latter inciting the introduction of a second Sunday matinee concert due to popular demand.
“There’s nothing that sounds like a live symphony orchestra,” Newnham explains. “When you go to the movies, you’re hearing the music in the background, but usually there’s dialogue covering it and the music is there to lead you from one scene to the next. When you can actually focus on what is written by some great composers and then you hear this direct sound of a full symphony orchestra just putting it out to you in a clear way, it’s absolutely thrilling. There’s nothing like it.”
The PSO will welcome spring by returning to Showplace Performance Centre on Sunday, April 12 for “Inspired,” a Sunday matinee concert with a repertoire for smaller orchestra that will highlight the soloists. Marjan Mozetich’s Postcards from the Sky and Glen Buhr’s Akasha/Sky will combine with Wolfgang Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 1 featuring special guest and rising star virtuoso flutist Gillian Derer. The orchestra will also perform Ottorino Respighi’s Botticelli Triptych and Igor Stravinsky’s love letter to Italy, Pulcinella Suite.
The 2025-26 season will close with “The Creation,” held in collaboration with the Peterborough Singers (who will also be ending their 2025-26 season at the same time) over Mother’s Day weekend with two concerts on Saturday, May 9 and Sunday, May 10 at the Emmanuel United Church. Each performance features soprano Karoline Podolak, tenor Jacob Abrahamse, and baritone Alexander Dobson performing Joseph Haydn’s oratorio masterpiece The Creation.
VIDEO: James Bond Theme at BBC Proms 2011
While PSO has collaborated with the Peterborough Singers before, Newnham says it’s never been done “in this particular way.” He explains that Haydn’s composition narrates the creation of the world as told through the Bible.
“It’s this combination of energy and profundity and humour because it was written at the very end of the 18th century and Haydn had a very practical way of looking at the world, as people did at the time,” says Newnham. “He has so much fun describing things and using sounds in the orchestra. He’s describing how the fish, whales, snakes, or big animals like the elephants were created and he uses different instruments in rather a crude way to describe this and it’s quite funny.”
All Saturday night concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. while Sunday matinee concerts begin at 3 p.m.
As in past seasons, all of the concerts except the holiday show will feature a pre-concert maestro chat that begins 45 minutes prior to the concert. During the popular informal talk, Newnham offers in-depth and entertaining insights and stories into the composers and music, while alerting audiences what they should listen for.
“We’ve got a large percentage of the audience who come to pre-concert chats, and they tell me they find them to be entertaining, but it also enriches their whole experience for their evening,” says Newnham. “Some people are actual classical music fans that might know some of this music, but they’ve never really understood what’s important and what to listen for. It’s an extra element to the whole experience.”
“As important as music and concerts are for people’s souls and for your spiritual well-being, it’s still entertainment,” he adds. “It’s important to have fun and I try to bring some fun to these talks.”
VIDEO: Glick Sonata, Movement 1 – Gillian Derer with Chris Au
Tickets for concerts at Showplace Performance Centre range from $36 to $57 depending on seating ($15 for students for all seats), with $30 for day-of-concert rush seats. Tickets for the holiday concert at Emmanuel United Church range from $16.79 to $60.04 depending on seating, and tickets for the season finale at Emmanuel United Church are $53.
Season subscriptions are also available, with the PSO offering a flexible subscription package featuring three, four, or all of the season’s concerts.
For more information about the 2025-26 season and to purchase subscriptions or single tickets, visit the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s website at thepso.org.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s 2025-26 season.
