A few things to know ...

• Is Tchaikovsky's final symphony a celebration of life or a premonition of his early death? Music Director John Storgårds leads the NAC Orchestra in one of history's most mysterious works.
• World-renowned violinist Hilary Hahn makes her long-awaited return to Southam Hall for a captivating world-premiere performance.
• Experience the evocative sound world of Barbara Assiginaak, inspired by Anishinaabe perspectives on listening, memory, and connection
• Prepare to experience a trance-like state of calm as you take in the music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.

"I have put my whole soul into this symphony," Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote of his Sixth Symphony, known as the "Pathétique." Although the Russian composer described the work as a reflection on love and life, many hear something darker in its melancholy melodies, thunderous dances, and devastating finale. What will you hear as you experience Tchaikovsky's mysterious swan song?

Grammy Award–winning violinist Hilary Hahn returns to Southam Hall for the world premiere of a new concerto for solo violin and orchestra from Søren Nils Eichberg. Inspired by the contrasts between light and shadow in the paintings of Caravaggio and Rembrandt, Eichberg's concerto positions its soloist as a gentle flame emerging from a great darkness, growing brighter as the music journeys toward radiant, comforting light.

Arvo Pärt's Swansong—inspired by a moving prayer of peace from the 19th-century British cardinal John Henry Newman—closes the evening with music of sublime stillness and divine shimmer.

Barbara Assiginaak's Inner Ear / Inside Voice invites listeners into a deeply personal listening space, where sound becomes a pathway to memory, identity, and connection. Drawing on Anishinaabe ways of knowing, the work unfolds as a reflective and immersive journey shaped by inner and outer worlds.