Photo: A New World Symphony Wallcast concert. Photo by World Red Eye.

Early October signals the return of high-quality music to Miami stages. The upcoming season leans toward greater program variety with the intention–and the pressing need–to attract and expand audiences. It’s a tall order, made more challenging by the recent demise of Classical South Florida–an event that left us bereft of a local radio station to keep us abreast of music events in our city, given that the space devoted to music in local publications is constantly shrinking.

On the one hand, the New World Symphony is ramping up its offerings of contemporary music, as is the fledgling Nu Deco Ensemble. The University of Miami’s Festival Miami continues to move away from the classical repertoire, featuring instead jazz, Latin and pop music, and the Miami Symphony Orchestra lightens up its menu and hosts several world premieres. Meanwhile, there is improvement in the programming and quality of guest soloists in both the Arsht Center’s classical series and at the Cleveland Orchestra. The Florida Grand Opera is taking a chance on two major works, Seraphic Fire offers a solid season, and the Friends of Chamber Music of Miami celebrates its 60th birthday with repeat performances by outstanding headliners.

This is not to say that the traditional repertoire is not well represented–it still predominates. With the exception of singers Sasha Cooke and Simon O’Neill in a New World Symphony performance, we’ll witness no major debuts of soloists or guest conductors. But there will be always-welcome returns, from the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming and Benjamin Grosvenor, to the Philadelphia and Toronto Orchestras.

Here’s a look ahead at the 2015-16 season.   Orchestras

New World Symphony America’s Orchestral Academy, which receives significant support from Knight Foundation, keeps setting the bar in every way, with a varied repertoire that emphasizes contemporary music without ignoring the classical. Its kaleidoscopic season is full of surprises. Its Sounds of the Times series includes the local premiere of “Become Ocean: A Musical Palindrome,” a highly praised piece by Pulitzer Prize for Music winner John Luther Adams, accompanied by Charles Wuorinen’s “Bamboula Squared” and Milton Babbitt’s “All Set,” all conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky. Also for Sounds of the Times, the remarkable Matthias Pintscher returns with his Five Pieces for Orchestra and Unsuk Chin’s Clarinet Concerto, with Jérôme Comte as soloist.

In another U.S. premiere, Stefan Asbury conducts Helen Grime’s “A Cold Spring” during a program called “Concentric Paths,” which will also include Thomas Adès’ Violin Concerto, the latter performed by Anthony Marwood.

New World Symphony Founder and Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas opens the official season with a Russian program that includes the Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble in Igor Stravinsky’s opera “The Fox” and dance cantata “The Wedding,” concluding with Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1. Tilson Thomas returns days later with “The American Sound,” a Charles Ives and Aaron Copland program, and the fascinating, imaginative “A Schumann Journey” with baritone Joshua Hopkins. Tilson Thomas also joins Pinchas Zukerman at the Arsht Center for Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Copland’s Symphony No. 3. More of the latter composer’s works are featured in the first program in the orchestra’s Encounters series with Christian Reif and Jamie Bernstein.

Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the New World Symphony at the New World Center. Photo by Rui Dias-Aidos via Tilson Thomas’ website. 

Mark Wigglesworth will conduct a program called “Music of Vienna” featuring the music of Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg and Johannes Brahms. In the same vein, James Gaffigan is scheduled to conduct Strauss’ “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22, with Jeffrey Kahane on the piano.

The program “Viennese Decadence,” with works by Franz Schubert, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Shoenberg, is part of the New World Symphony’s Chamber Ensemble series, which also features clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein in November, soprano and rising star Julia Bullock singing Maurice Ravel and Manuel de Falla pieces in February, and pianist Inon Barnatan in March.

At Knight Concert Hall, Gil Shaham will perform Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”); master pianist Emanuel Ax will play Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 and Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7, with Pablo Heras Casado conducting; and Patrick Dupré Quigley’s Seraphic Fire choral group joins the New World Symphony for an evening of Claudio Monteverdi, Gyorgi Ligeti and Steve Reich’s “The Desert Music.” Quite an event.

Toward the end of the season, the orchestra continues its Gustav Mahler cycle with the magnificent “The Song of the Earth” with mezzo Sasha Cooke and tenor Simon O’Neill, followed by John Cage’s “The Seasons.” To wrap up the season with a flourish, the orchestra’s finale performance will include Hector Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy” with violist Roberto Díaz, plus Jean Sibelius’ Symphonies No. 6 and No. 7, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Finnish composer’s birth.

Other special New World Symphony programs include PULSE: Late Night at the NWS on Nov. 13; the free Inside the Music, Musicians’ Forum, and Solo Spotlight concerts; the popular, two-night Concerto Showcase; and the unique series of 10 Wallcast Concerts that are projected onto a 7,000-square-foot wall at the New World Center.  

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts The 2015-16 cycle marks the Arsht Center’s 10th anniversary season. The center’s classical music series, which is presented as part of the Knight Masterworks Season programming, includes four concerts and two season specials that are as extraordinary as they are different.

First up in the concert series, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Peter Oundjian, comes to town on Jan. 7 with the debut of Jan Liesecki as soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. On Feb. 25, the legendary Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Stéphane Denève, performs a program titled “Shakespeare in Love” with incidental music by Berlioz, Felix Mendelssohn and Sergei Prokofiev. On March 17, the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero, features pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. And the series closes on March 31 with award-winning pianist Jeremy Denk playing Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Stravinsky and Schubert’s “Wanderer Fantasy.”

The first of the two season specials takes place Nov. 15: “Musical Perspectives on the Cultures of BRIC” is a program featuring Yo-Yo Ma, Katherine Stott, Sergio and Odair Assad, Johnny Gandelsman, Wu Tong and Sandeep Das. The second, “In the Fiddler’s House,” is slated for March 9, featuring Itzhak Perlman and his Klezmer Conservatory Band, including Hankus Netsky and Andy Statman on the clarinet and mandolin respectively.

Cleveland Orchestra The first decade of the Cleveland Orchestra in Miami, whose winter residency here is supported by a Knight Foundation grant, is set to be celebrated with a special anniversary gala on Jan. 23 with Music Director Franz Welser-Möst conducting and guest soloist Renée Fleming performing Ravel and Mozart works. The orchestra’s programming–more mature and interesting than that of previous seasons–includes Brahms’ Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with William Preucil and Mark Kosower, plus Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 3 later in January. The season opens in November with Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with Johannes Moser, and Carlos Chávez’s Symphony No. 2 (“Indian Symphony”). Giancarlo Guerrero conducts.

Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes heads up another attractive program, this one conducted by Welser-Möst, that will include Schumann’s Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1. The last program of the series, conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero, brings us the great French pianist Jean Yves Thibaudet playing Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2, complemented by Mahler’s First Symphony No. 1, and the world premiere of a composition by Avner Dorman. Note that a child under 18 gets free admission with each purchase of an adult ticket–a good way to encourage parents and children to enjoy and support classical music together.

Miami Symphony Orchestra The Miami Symphony Orchestra, a Knight Arts Challenge winner, has now settled in at Natcom Studios in Wynwood. The move is one that should serve to attract new audiences to the orchestra’s alternative, pop and contemporary music concerts. The new space opens its doors Oct. 29 with selections from Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” sung by mezzo Mabel Ledo, and the premiere of “Pictures for an Exhibition,” an original interpretation by the orchestra’s conductor, Eduardo Marturet. On April 10, the orchestra will present Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto for Violin and Piano, with Ciro Fodere on the piano and Daniel Andai both conducting and on the violin; the world premiere of Orlando Jacinto García’s “Towards the Light: Into the Numinous;” and the premiere of Marturet’s “Canto Llano 2.”

The Miami Symphony Orchestra continues to perform at the Arsht Center also, where its official season commenced on Oct. 4 at Knight Concert Hall and will conclude on May 15 with an evening featuring pianist Lola Astanova and a program consisting of Alberto Ginastera’s “Variaciones Concertantes,” Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20.   Opera

Florida Grand Opera The Florida Grand Opera, a recipient of multiple grants from Knight Foundation, is scheduled to perform four operas this season–two comedies and two tragedies. Three come from the bel canto repertoire, beginning with “The Barber of Seville,” which kicks off the season in November. Vincenzo Bellini’s “Norma,” with Russian soprano Mlada Khudoley and American mezzo-soprano Dana Beth Miller, is one of the great vocal challenges of the world’s operatic repertoire. It will be conducted by Antonio Barrese, with performances scheduled for January. The last of the three bel cantos, “Don Pasquale,” closes the season in May. It will be conducted by the company’s principal conductor, Ramón Tebar, and soprano Laura Tatulescu, a rising star, heads up the cast.

“The Passenger.” Photo courtesy of Florida Grand Opera.

The fourth work, “The Passenger,” was composed by Mieczyslaw Weinberg in the 1960s and will now make its South Florida debut. The work attained prominence in 2010 at the Bregenz Festival in the same David Pountney production that comes to Miami in April. Sung in several languages, it is the story of the meeting of two women on a transatlantic voyage to South America. Years earlier, one was jailer to the other at Auschwitz, and the encounter reawakens the tragedy. Directed by Steven Mercurio, it boasts an international cast.

Frost Opera Theater Over at the University of Miami, the Frost Opera Theater, under the direction of Alan Johnson, presents a season that includes scenes from Mozart operas in concert, the Wall to Wall Opera for All Festival in November and, in April, an original operatic double header: Stravinsky’s “Mavra” and the premiere of Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov’s “Ainadamar” (“Fountain of Tears”). The latter, stage directed by Jeffrey Buchman, recounts the adult life of Federico García Lorca through a series of flashbacks in the memory of his exiled muse, Margarita Xirgu.

Miami Lyric Opera A two-time Knight Arts Challenge winner, the Miami Lyric Opera splits its season between the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, where it will perform “La Traviata” in November, and the Colony Theatre on Miami Beach, where it is scheduled to present “The Elixir of Love” in April and Emilio Arrieta’s seldom-performed “Marina” in June.   Choral Music

Seraphic Fire An excellent example of local musical activity, Seraphic Fire has won well-earned favor with the public. The Knight Arts grantee has 10 concerts scheduled to take place in South Florida this year, in addition to performances in Naples, Fla., New York City, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.  

The first concert comprises Schubert’s Mass in G Major and the premiere of a piece commissioned to Jake Runestad. Next, as part of its Knight Concert Series, the chamber orchestra will present what is bound to be a happy combination: a program consisting of Handel’s “Coronation Anthems” and Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s beautiful “Te Deum,” performed in conjunction with period instrument ensemble The Sebastians.

Following the choral ensemble’s traditional Christmas concerts and Handel’s “Messiah” comes another of the group’s classic programs, “The American Spiritual:An Expression of Pure Joy.” Subsequent concerts feature Brahms’ “German Requiem”; Mozart’s Requiem, with a commissioned completion by Gregory Spears; and the music of the English Renaissance through the work of composer William Byrd. Conducted by Julian Wachner, Morten Lauridsen’s “Chansons des Roses” headlines an “in-depth exploration of musical modernism in the Americas,” with songs by Ginastera, Heitor Villa-Lobos and others.

Miami Bach Society The Miami Bach Society, which is entering a new phase after the death of its factotum, Kathryn Gaubatz, is presenting a slew of local artists: in September, Rafael Padrón played with the University of Miami Guitar Ensemble, and the ensemble Il Furioso performed at the Coral Gables Museum. In December, look for the society’s English Christmas concert and, in April, for a performance of Bach’s “The Passion According to St. John.” The latter two performances will both be alongside the University of Miami’s Collegium Musicum chamber choir.

The group’s annual Tropical Baroque Festival, a Knight Arts grantee, will take place in late February. However, other than a start date of Feb. 26, details are pending.   Chamber Music

Friends of Chamber Music of Miami The 60th season of the Friends of Chamber Music of Miami will be precisely that–a feast of musician friends who celebrate, along with director Julian Kreeger, the organization’s birthday at the Coral Gables Congregational Church, the University of Miami’s Gusman Hall and Florida International University’s Wertheim Concert Hall, among other venues.

The exceptional Borodin Quartet opens the series on Oct. 13 with a Russian program (Alexander Borodin, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich), followed by the return of the Ehnes Quartet, and later of violist Roberto Díaz with the Brentano Quartet. On Jan. 15, British pianist Stephen Hough joins the FIU Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Judd, in concerts centering on Beethoven and Liszt. The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio chamber ensemble, performing all of Beethoven’s trios in a three-concert mini-series, will follow the return of the acclaimed Benjamin Grosvenor on Jan. 17. Tenor Paul Appleby is the group’s pick for the season’s vocal recital, and the season will close on March 21 with Nikolai Lugansky performing works by Beethoven, Isaac Albéniz and Rachmaninoff.

St. Hugh-Steinway Concert Series This year’s St. Hugh-Steinway Concert Series, under the artistic direction of Roberto Berrocal, started Sept. 25 with an array of voices and a repertoire of pop, Broadway and zarzuela pieces, followed on Nov. 20 by violinist Aisha Syed Castro. In February, tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz performs arias accompanied by Berrocal, who is scheduled to close the series with a piano recital on April 8.

St. Martha-Yamaha Concert Series For its part, the St. Martha-Yamaha Concert Series, now held at Barry University, presents classic, jazz and popular music with the participation of the Frost Chorale, Nestor Torres, and Charlie Sepulveda, among others.

Festival Miami The city’s first music festival, Festival Miami continues to explore new directions. On Oct. 16, Thomas Sleeper conducts the Frost Symphony Orchestra with Simone Dinnerstein as soloist in the Florida premiere of Philip Lasser’s Piano Concerto. Rounding out the program are works by Alan Hovhaness and Howard Hanson. Two days later, violinist Charles Castleman is scheduled to perform a solo recital with works by Bach, Eugène Ysaÿe and Astor Piazzolla, while also in October, Joel Smirnoff, Richard Todd and Christopher O’Riley will perform Brahms pieces. In November, the Frost Wind Ensemble and its new director, Robert Carnochan, are slated to take on works by Leonard Bernstein, Frank Ticheli, and Donald Grantham.   Newcomers

Nu Deco Ensemble.

Nu Deco Ensemble A Knight Arts Challenge winner, the Nu Deco Ensemble is a new chamber orchestra that explores 21st century music. For its inaugural season, Nu Deco will stage six concerts at different venues under the direction of founders Sam Hyken and Jacomo Bairos. The group, which is based out of The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse, boasts a repertoire that ranges from classical to pop, and works with composers, dancers and visual artists to create alternative experiences. It’s a name to follow.

IlluminArts Under the artistic direction of mezzo-soprano Amanda Crider, IlluminArts is a new organization that offers evenings of song and chamber music at unconventional venues, such as museums and art galleries. A finalist in the 2015 Knight Arts Challenge (winners will be announced Nov. 30), IlluminArts recently presented “Songs of the City, Songs in the Dark” at the Miami Center for Architecture and Design. Featuring soprano Susan Hellman and tenor Daniel Bates in a program of Beethoven, Joaquín Rodrigo and William Bolcom pieces, the performance was part of “Listen to This Building,” an innovative and collaborative project led by Knight Arts Challenge winner Exile Books that runs through Oct. 17.