Queensland Symphony Orchestra Unveils 2027 Season for 80th Anniversary

The Queensland Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2027 season, which marks the company's 80th anniversary. The vocal lineup features four programs led by soprano Nina Korbe, who appears in three of them.

Who sings what in the anniversary season?

The season opens its vocal offering on June 25, 2027, when Nina Korbe joins the orchestra for a concert featuring Holst's "The Mystic Trumpeter."

In August, the orchestra scales up. Siobhan Stagg and Deborah Humble perform with the Brisbane Chamber Choir Collective in Mahler's Symphony No. 2, with Umberto Clerici on the podium. Those performances run on August 27 and 28, 2027.

Korbe returns in the autumn for "Cinematic," conducted by Nicholas Buc, on October 15 and 16, 2027. The year's vocal programming closes on November 20, 2027, with Handel's "Messiah," featuring soloists Korbe and Helen Sherman alongside the Brisbane Chamber Choir Collective and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

What does the season signal?

Korbe's three appearances across the anniversary year make her the most visible soloist in the announced vocal slate. The Brisbane Chamber Choir Collective also features twice, in the Mahler Second and the "Messiah," positioning the ensemble as a recurring partner for the orchestra's choral repertoire.

Clerici's leadership of the Mahler marks the season's largest-scale choral undertaking, while Buc's "Cinematic" programs offer a lighter counterweight between the symphonic and sacred cornerstones.

The announcement follows the orchestra's recently unveiled 2026 season and continues the company's pattern of committing to named soloists and conductors well in advance. With the 80th-anniversary framing, the 2027 program pairs canonical blockbusters — Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony and Handel's "Messiah" — with cinematic and contemporary fare, a balance the company will hope sustains audiences across its ninth decade.