The Auditorium of the Lyon National Orchestra has announced a 2026-27 season centered on music by Czech composers.

The season opens with a vocal blockbuster. Mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison solos in Elgar's "Sea Pictures" alongside the Lyon National Orchestra under music director Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider on Sept. 25 and 26, 2026.

On Oct. 3, 2026, the Czech theme takes center stage in the most ambitious choral program of the autumn. Sopranos Tereza Zimková and Pavla Radostová, countertenor Jonathan Mayenschein, tenor Ondřej Holub and bass-baritone Tomáš Šelc serve as soloists with Collegium Vocale 1704 and Collegium 1704. Václav Luks directs Handel's "Dixit Dominus" (Psalm 109), HWV 232 and Zelenka's "Votive Mass" ZWV 18. The pairing brings two pillars of the Central European Baroque repertory to Lyon in a single evening, performed by ensembles built around that very tradition.

Winter turns to Mahler. Contralto Wiebke Lehmkuhl and baritone Konstantin Krimmel perform Lieder from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" with the National Orchestra of Lyon on Dec. 11 and 12, 2026, again under Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider's direction.

The vocal season reaches its apex in spring 2027. The National Orchestra of Lyon joins the Spirito Choir and the Young Choir of Lyon for Mahler's Symphony No. 2, the "Resurrection," on April 29 and 30, 2027. The work's choral finale gives both Lyon choirs their most substantial assignment of the season.

Szeps-Znaider conducts three of the four announced vocal programs, positioning Elgar's song cycle and both Mahler projects as pillars of his season. For audiences tracking the Czech thread, the Oct. 3 Collegium 1704 concert under Václav Luks stands as the season's most direct engagement with the theme, pairing Handel with Jan Dismas Zelenka, the Bohemian composer whose sacred works Collegium 1704 has championed on record and on tour for two decades.

The announcement signals Lyon's commitment to pairing its resident orchestra with visiting specialists: Collegium 1704 arrives with its own conductor and five soloists, while the home orchestra anchors the Romantic repertoire. Whether the Czech theme extends beyond the vocal programs into the season's orchestral fare remains to be seen as fuller details emerge.