Under the baton of renowned domestic and international conductors, the Cycle will feature major works from the symphonic repertoire — Mahler’s 9th, Brahms’s 1st, Shostakovich’s 13th, Saint-Saëns’s Organ Symphony, Dvořák’s 8th, and Honegger’s Liturgical Symphony, Stravinsky’s Suite from the ballet The Firebird, and Respighi’s Roman Festivals. Featured soloists include violinists: Joshua Brown, Tibor Kováč, and Alexi Kenney; pianists: Claire Huangci, Alexej Gorlatch, Jan Bartoš, and Katarína Paľová; organist László Fassang; and bassist Jozef Benci. A significant highlight will be the Slovak premiere of Ľubica Čekovská’s Toy Procession, commissioned by Juraj Valčuha for the Houston Symphony, as well as the first performance of Piano Concerto No. 6 by Ján Zimmer  on the occasion of composer’s 100th anniversary.

The concert series features major vocal-symphonic works in which our Slovak Philharmonic Choir will shine —Verdi’s Requiem, Dvořák’s The Spectre’s Bride, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, and Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances. The program will also feature both well-known and lesser-performed orchestral works, such as Brahms’s Serenade No. 1, Magnard’s Symphony No. 3, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration, Wagner’s The Mystery of Good Friday from Parsifal, and Rachmaninoff’s and Dvořák’s Symphonic Variations. The soloists for the series will be violinists Milan Paľa and Alexandra Conunova, cellist Jaemin Han, and several prominent domestic and international opera soloists.

Under the baton of renowned domestic and international conductors, the Cycle will feature major works from the symphonic repertoire — Mahler’s 9th, Brahms’s 1st, Shostakovich’s 13th, Saint-Saëns’s Organ Symphony, Dvořák’s 8th, and Honegger’s Liturgical Symphony, Stravinsky’s Suite from the ballet The Firebird, and Respighi’s Roman Festivals. Featured soloists include violinists: Joshua Brown, Tibor Kováč, and Alexi Kenney; pianists: Claire Huangci, Alexej Gorlatch, Jan Bartoš, and Katarína Paľová; organist László Fassang; and bassist Jozef Benci. A significant highlight will be the Slovak premiere of Ľubica Čekovská’s Toy Procession, commissioned by Juraj Valčuha for the Houston Symphony, as well as the first performance of Piano Concerto No. 6 by Ján Zimmer  on the occasion of composer’s 100th anniversary.

The concert series features major vocal-symphonic works in which our Slovak Philharmonic Choir will shine —Verdi’s Requiem, Dvořák’s The Spectre’s Bride, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, and Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances. The program will also feature both well-known and lesser-performed orchestral works, such as Brahms’s Serenade No. 1, Magnard’s Symphony No. 3, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration, Wagner’s The Mystery of Good Friday from Parsifal, and Rachmaninoff’s and Dvořák’s Symphonic Variations. The soloists for the series will be violinists Milan Paľa and Alexandra Conunova, cellist Jaemin Han, and several prominent domestic and international opera soloists.

This season’s Popular Series will once again feature orchestral works beloved by audiences—including Smetana’s The Moldau, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Ravel’s Boléro, and Piazzolla’s Libertango. Visitors can also look forward to the Carnival Concert, pieces with fairy-tale themes, and their artistic horizons will be broadened by Symphony No. 1 by Bratislava-born Franz Schmidt and the piano concerto Rivers in Winter by contemporary Spanish composer Jesús Rueda. While the Slovak Philharmonic is on tour abroad, the series will feature the visiting Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina as well as the Slovak Chamber Orchestra. Top international soloists will showcase their artistry — violinists Jonian Ilias Kadesha and Sueye Park, cellists Yuya Mizuno and Tomáš Jamník, pianist Noelia Rodiles, as well as the local Bratislava Guitar Quartet. The 120th anniversary of Ľudovít Rajter, founder of the Slovak Philharmonic, will be commemorated with his Suite from the ballet Majáles.

The program of special concerts series is themed around Advent, Christmas, and New Year, but also includes popular film music concerts and concerts for other special occasions. This season will also feature a concert by the world-renowned Austrian flutist Michael Martin Kofler on the occasion of his master classes in Bratislava, a concert as part of the New Slovak Music festival featuring the premieres of vocal symphonies by Lukáš Borzík and Ľuboš Bernáth, and a concert by the Slovak Philharmonic with Daniel Raiskin and pianist Olga Scheps, featuring Tchaikovsky’s popular Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, which serves as preparation for their tour of Japan in 2026.

Family concerts for children and parents have a long-standing tradition at the Slovak Philharmonic. We have been presenting them as a series since 2004. Four Saturday musical afternoons have been planned, hosted by presenter and music lover Martin Vanek. There will be a raffle and other surprises.

Music academies for preschools and elementary schools are concerts organized on selected mornings throughout the season. At the final concert, students receive a diploma and become members of the Slovak Philharmonic Academy. There is extraordinary interest in these concerts. Therefore, the program has been expanded to include two special concerts, which all concertgoers can attend with tickets purchased at the Slovak Philharmonic Ticket Office.

Music academies for preschools and elementary schools are concerts organized on selected mornings throughout the season. At the final concert, students receive a diploma and become members of the Slovak Philharmonic Academy. There is extraordinary interest in these concerts. Therefore, the program has been expanded to include two special concerts, which all concertgoers can attend with tickets purchased at the Slovak Philharmonic Ticket Office.

The Junior concert series is characterized by the slogan “Young People for Young People”— young people are in the audience, but also on stage. This season features four concerts, we will welcome the Bratislava Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of Performing Arts Symphony Orchestra, and a choir and orchestra of students from Bratislava’s elementary arts schools. Talented students from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica will once again have the opportunity to perform as soloists alongside the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra. The youth ensembles will perform under the baton of three Slovak conductors—Juraj Jartim, Marián Lejava, and Rastislav Štúr.

In the Slovak Chamber Orchestra’s current season subscription series, the ensemble will celebrate its 65th anniversary twice: in October 2025 with a concert marking the anniversary of the orchestra’s founding, and in February 2026 with a concert on the anniversary of its first-ever public concert, featuring the same program as in 1961. In addition, visitors can look forward to traditional concert formats: a “Concert Without Applause” dedicated to difficult and challenging life events, an Advent concert during the pre-Christmas season, a Concert Without Barriers dedicated to people with disabilities, and the Hommage à Bohdan Warchal concert commemorating this exceptional musician and founder of the SKO. Alongside the SKO, the ensemble’s artistic director Ewald Danel will perform as a soloist, along with other violinists —Dalibor Karvay, Ivan Ženatý, and Pavel Bogacz; cellist Andrej Gál; pianist Igor Ardašev; oboist Matúš Veľas; clarinetists Igor Františák and Gábor Varga; vocal soloists; and the Lúčnica Choir.

The series features concerts by the Slovak Chamber Orchestra and choirs at St. Martin’s Cathedral in Bratislava, which are always imbued with a spiritual message. As is now traditional on Palm Sunday, the SKO performs Joseph Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross, which explores Jesus’s Passion. Together with members of several choirs, Dvořák’s Biblical Songs will be performed in April, and in June it will be Mozart’s Mass in C minor, which Swiss conductor Christoph-Mathias Mueller will rehearse with the SKO and the Slovak Philharmonic Choir.

This noble instrument will be heard three times this year. The philharmonic debut will feature a performance by Tomáš Mihalik, a doctoral student at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava in Imrich Szabó’s class, who also studied in Lyon. Currently, the young artist is based in eastern Slovakia, where he enriches the cultural scene and teaches at the Peter Dvorský Conservatory in Košice. In addition, foreign organists will also perform at Reduta. Anne-Gaëlle Chanon, titular organist at Temple Neuf in Metz, will pay tribute to prominent French composers and organists whose works are rarely heard on our stages. The Czech duo Linda Sítková and Jan Verner will expand the series’ sonorous palette with the sound of the trumpet.

Anastasiia Kliuchereva, winner of the 11th J. N. Hummel International Piano Competition, will arrive in Bratislava in October 2025. She impressed both the jury and the audience with her maturity and artistry during the 2024 competition. Young pianist Zoltán Fejérvári won the International Music Competition in Montreal in 2017 and has since collaborated regularly with Hungarian and international orchestras. American pianist Claire Huangci will also enchant the Bratislava audience with her technique. She last performed at Reduta with the Animato Chamber Orchestra in 2023, serving as both soloist and conductor. Like Huangci, Czech pianist Jan Bartoš is very active not only as a concert performer but also in festival direction; he records exclusively for Supraphone. For several decades, Daniela Varínska, a prominent Slovak performer, has mentored a number of promising pianists; she will celebrate a significant milestone birthday this year.

Milan Paľa and Václav Petr will showcase their virtuosity in solo recitals. Cellist Václav Petr won the audition for concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic at the age of 24, making him one of the youngest in the orchestra’s history. His piano partner will be David Mareček, the long-time director of the Czech Philharmonic. Slovak violinist Milan Paľa is admired both for his unflagging interest in studying new works and for his deep interpretive understanding of them. He will come to Reduta together with his wife, pianist Katarína Paľová. Camerata Philharmonica Slovaca, this time composed of members of the orchestra’s cello section, will fill the hall with the unconventional rhythms of works from Latin America. The Varga Quartett Wien won the chamber music category at this year’s Vienna International Music Competition, which also earned them a performance at Vienna’s Musikverein. Competition winners, flutist Albert Szentgyörgyváry and soprano Zoe Hippius, will perform both as soloists and together. The diverse program and youthful energy will culminate in Gershwin’s “Summertime.”

The renowned Slovak soprano Simona Houda Šaturová will offer a glimpse into Czech and Slovak song repertoire, dominated by inspiration drawn from the folk songs of our regions. Her partner for the evening, the Czech pianist Marek Kozák, will also enrich the program with solo works by Vítězslav Novák and Leoš Janáček. Baritone Jiří Rajniš, who is increasingly gaining prominence on international stages, will perform songs by composers united by their Czech roots and difficult life stories. This imaginative song repertoire offers Rajniš a wide range of opportunities to showcase his sensitivity in shaping the sonic textures of individual songs. Together with pianist Róbert Pechanec, they boldly round off the evening with Yevgeny Irshay’s cycle Die Niemandslieder.

Early Music series featuring specialized ensembles have grown increasingly popular in recent years. Miloš Valent and Solamente naturali will present a musical sampling of Henry Purcell’s songs and theatrical works. The British master’s playful, cheerful, flirtatious, and serious musical works will be performed to mark the 330th anniversary of his death. Tenor Matúš Šimko will take on the emotionally diverse vocal part. Le Nuove Musiche, under the artistic direction of theorbo player Jakub Mitrík, will highlight the work of composers who contributed to the advancement of cultural life in Spiš and Bardejov between 1600 and 1650. Special guests will be artists from the Czech Republic—the Haydn Ensemble led by Martin Petrák. The musicians will reveal the beauty of Baroque trio sonatas by German and Czech masters. The basso continuo lines will be accompanied by the virtuoso melodic voices of a duo of oboes.