The Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra starts its 2026-27 season this Sunday, November 1, with two pieces built on looking back: Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2. The concert is at 2 p.m. in the Brooklyn Museum's third-floor auditorium on Eastern Parkway, and children 16 and under get in free with a ticket holder.

The program

Christian Olson conducts. The orchestra has titled the afternoon The Inheritance of Beauty, and both works on it are about composers reworking what came before them.

Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, was the last orchestral work he wrote, a piece that looks back over a lifetime of music. Ravel's second suite from Daphnis et Chloé opens on a dawn scene and builds to a closing dance.

A season at the museum

The Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra plays its whole season at the Brooklyn Museum, with five conductors across five programs, and the concerts are also streamed. After Sunday, the schedule runs:

  • December 20: Claire Lewis conducts Majestic Fifths, pairing Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto, with pianist William Wolfram, and Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony.
  • February 21, 2027: Alison Norris leads Painted Soundscapes, with violinist Dylan Hamme, in music by Sibelius, Prokofiev and Hanson.
  • April 11, 2027: Eric Mahl and soprano Sarah Joyce Cooper present American Song, with music by Bernstein, Griffes, Barber and Bonds.
  • June 13, 2027: the season's final program.

Make an afternoon of it

The concert falls on the same weekend as the museum's other big draws. Iris van Herpen's fashion exhibition is on view, and the designer's three-day participatory performance in the galleries runs October 30 through November 1, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. The museum also runs free Pop-Up Talks in the galleries on Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m.

Tickets and getting there

When: Sunday, November 1, 2 to 4 p.m.

Where: Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, third floor, Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights. The 2 and 3 trains stop at Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum, right outside.

Cost: General admission is $30 plus fees, sold through the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra. Tickets are $25 for adults 65 and over and for Brooklyn Museum members, and free for anyone 16 or under with a ticket holder. If the concert sells out, the museum keeps an in-person waitlist on the day of the performance.

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