Stanford Live announces its 2024-25 season with over 60 performances at Bing Concert Hall, the Studio, Memorial Auditorium, and Memorial Church on the Stanford University campus. Stanford Live’s new season celebrates the transformative power of live performance with inspired new works, legendary artists, and new artistic discoveries. The programming encompasses a wide variety of local and international artists across styles, genres, and disciplines. This season, Stanford Live will present five new commissioned productions and one U.S. and one world premiere.

Stanford Live member presale access begins Thursday, May 23, through Monday, June 24. General public tickets go on sale on Tuesday, June 25, at noon. Tickets and further information can be found at live.stanford.edu.

“The Stanford Live programming team has curated an exciting new season of outstanding artists and performances. It is a season of newly commissioned works, world-renowned artists, and a number of new discoveries that will be sure to surprise and delight our audiences,” said Iris Nemani, the newly appointed McMurtry Family Director. “I look forward to building on the strength and momentum of this season’s lineup with my first curated season to follow. I cannot wait to share these wonderful experiences with our audiences this coming season.”

The 2024-25 season begins Sept. 29 with Fiesta Sonora: A Celebration of Community with Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles, Ballet Folklórico Nueva Antequera, and Filarmónica Maqueos Music joining together to illuminate the richness of Central American music, dance, and traditions.

Other season highlights include concerts by Kelli O’Hara, Renée Fleming, Branford Marsalis, The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol featuring Talib Kweli, Hélène Grimaud, London Symphony Orchestra, David Lang, Arooj Aftab, Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band, Anoushka Shankar, Brad Mehldau, Joshua Bell, Geoff Sobelle’s FOOD, Yang Liping & Peacock Contemporary Dance’s Rite of Spring, Conrad Tao and Caleb Teicher, Third Coast Percussion with Jessie Montgomery, and more.

The 2024-25 season introduces three thematic frameworks – Mahler and the Second Viennese School, Sonic Worlds: The Harp, and the Evolution of Movement. Through Mahler and the Second Viennese School, we explore the profound legacy of the influential classical composer Gustav Mahler. The second, Sonic Worlds: The Harp, focuses on the captivating sonic world of the harp, traversing diverse genres and cultures. And, the third, the Evolution of Movement, explores the evolution of human movement with a special emphasis on the fusion of movement and technology.

Mahler and the Second Viennese School

This season will explore composer Gustav Mahler’s romantic compositions and how they paved the way for the avant-garde explorations of the Second Viennese School, led by Arnold Schoenberg. Mahler’s music inspired a generation of composers including Alban Berg, Anton Webern, and Hanns Eisler. London Symphony Orchestra, the resident orchestra at London’s Barbican Centre will perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Titan on Feb. 23 with conductor Antonio Pappano and solo violinist Janine Jansen. American vocalist Katherine Goforth will present Cabaret Songs, Nov. 8, of Berg, Eisler, Mahler, Schoenberg, and Weill. Goforth is the recipient of Washington National Opera’s inaugural True Voice Award for transgender and nonbinary singers. Dover Quartet, March 9, will be joined by pianist Marc-André Hamelin in a program that includes Webern’s Langsamer Satz. On April 25, Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra with conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy and baritone Johannes Kammler will present Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden gesellen. 

The Evolution of Movement

Across a wide range of styles, The Evolution of Movement framework will explore the expression of modern dance with three programs spanning the past, present, and future. First, the U.S. premiere of the Stanford Live co-commission of Chinese choreographer Yang Liping & Peacock Contemporary Dance’s reimagining of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring on Dec. 6 and 7, followed by Daniel Hope’s DANCE! with the New Century Chamber Orchestra on May 4 offering a diachronic survey of Western dance. Finally, the Robotics Showcase featuring AXIS Dance Company and Catie Cuan on May 21 forecasts the frontiers of movement and dance, where artificial intelligence transforms choreographic potential.

Sonic Worlds: The Harp

The season-long sonic journey of harp music includes the Western classical harp with Xavier de Meistre on Nov. 10, Colombian musician and composer Edmar Castañeda on Feb. 26, presenting a mix of South American traditional folk-style joropo with jazz and other Latin styles, and Dutch and South Korean award-winning musician Lavinia Meijer will make her Stanford Live debut on March 15 in a program that includes pieces written for her by Philip Glass. On April 3, Gambian harpist Sona Jobarteh and American harpist Brandee Younger will perform the Stanford Live co-commissioned Strings of Hope: A Song for Tomorrow where the kora and harp meet in a unique collaboration of musical traditions.

Season highlights

Co-commissioned by Stanford Live, Carnival of the Animals with Wendy Whelan, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and Francesca Harper on Oct. 27 is a new take on Camille Saint-Saëns’ musical menagerie, the Carnival of the Animals from former New York City Ballet principal dancer Wendy Whelan with choreography by Francesca Harper and spoken word by artist and activist Marc Bamuthi Joseph. 

When Stanford alumnus David Lang set out to write a world premiere composition for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the electrifying music ensemble he co-founded, he looked to his alma mater for inspiration. Commissioned by Stanford Live, before and after nature on Feb. 1 is a meditation on the natural world, both before human existence and after humans are gone. 

From Feb. 5-8, 2025 performer, theater artist, and Stanford alumnus Geoff Sobelle hosts FOOD, an intimate dinner party of smell, taste, and touch where the audience gathers around a gargantuan banquet table for a culinary experience that is at once common and strange, human and surreal, universal and personal. 

This season will present a wide variety of music sounds and styles from around the globe. The all-female a cappella quartet from Zimbabwe, Nobuntu, performs traditional Zimbabwean songs, Afro-jazz, and gospel on Nov. 13. The Ukrainian singer, bandura virtuoso, and Eurovision finalist KRUTb, performs on Jan. 18. Balaklava Blues, on Jan. 24, fuses Ukrainian folk traditions with EDM. Arooj Aftab, on Jan. 25, is the first Pakistani to win a Grammy Award for Best Global Performance and she will perform her genre-blurring approach that includes jazz, and romantic Urdu poetry. The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band featuring Native and Indigenous jazz musicians performs on Feb. 19. Nine-time Grammy nominee Anoushka Shankar brings her fusion of traditional Indian and modern electric music on March 14 and the nine-person Anda Union, from Mongolia, will offer their interpretation of classic and modern Mongolian music styles. With punk rock sensibilities and restrained British humor, the eight-piece Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performs on March 23.