A season spanning centuries explores identity, love, loss, faith, consequence—and what it means to be human.

What can music tell us about the passage of time?

For Resonance Works, the answer comes in many forms.

The Pittsburgh company’s 2026–27 season moves from a contemporary work commissioned for its 10th anniversary to a beloved family opera, from a Pulitzer Prize-winning vocal work to Rachmaninoff’s monumental All-Night Vigil, and finally to Verdi’s Don Carlo, an opera not seen in Pittsburgh in three decades.

It is an ambitious 14th season built around a deceptively simple idea: time changes everything, but some human questions never change.

“From identity to consequence, our 14th season is about what it means to be human, at every age, in every era,” says Maria Sensi Sellner, Artistic & General Director of Resonance Works. “We hope you’ll join us on this thrilling journey through time.”

The season opens September 27 with An Anchor in Time, a program that perhaps best captures the theme running through the entire season.

September: An Anchor in Time

September 27, 2026 | Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, Carnegie, PA

The Resonance Chamber Orchestra, Festival Chorus and soloists Timothi Williams and Daniel Teadt come together for Gilda Lyons’ An Anchor in Time, originally commissioned for Resonance Works’ 10th anniversary season.

The work looks at where we have been and where we are going, placing the present in conversation with the past.

The program also includes Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring Suite, with its exploration of American tradition and change, along with a musical journey through centuries of choral music, from Claudio Monteverdi to Margaret Bonds and contemporary composers.

November: The Little Prince

November 20, 21 and 22, 2026

Sometimes the most profound questions are best asked through a child’s eyes.

Resonance Works brings back its popular 2024 production of Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince, based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved story.

The opera follows an aviator stranded in the desert who encounters a mysterious young traveler journeying through the universe. Along the way, the two discover lessons about friendship, love and the importance of seeing beyond what is immediately visible.

Daniel Teadt returns as the Pilot, joined by Timothi Williams and Loghan Bazan as The Fox; Robert Frankenberry as The Snake and The Vain Man; Zuly Inirio as The Water; Yazid Gray as The Businessman; Brad Smoak as The King; and Adrianna Cleveland as The Rose.

January: Reson8 and little match girl passion

January 22, 23 and 24, 2027

The Reson8 Vocal Octet turns to one of contemporary music’s most powerful examinations of suffering and hope with David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning little match girl passion.

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s story, Lang’s work asks audiences to confront suffering while also recognizing the possibility of beauty and hope in darkness.

The program expands that exploration with contemporary works by Errolyn Wallen, Gilda Lyons, Kristin Kuster and others.

March: Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil

March 19 and 21, 2027

For its March program, Resonance Works returns to the historic Heinz Memorial Chapel for two performances of Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil.

Composed in 1915 amid the devastation of World War I and political upheaval in Russia, the work carries an emotional weight that remains striking more than a century later.

Grief, uncertainty and hope are woven into Rachmaninoff’s music—and into the idea that even in the darkest moments, morning eventually comes.

The performances will be dedicated to the memory of Pittsburgh musical legend, conductor and educator Robert Page, honoring what would have been his 100th birthday.

June: Verdi’s Don Carlo

June 18 and 20, 2027

The season concludes on an operatic scale with Verdi’s Don Carlo, a work that has not been seen in Pittsburgh for 30 years.

Set in a world where personal relationships collide with political and institutional power, Don Carlo is filled with questions of sacrifice, betrayal, love and idealism.

Robert Frankenberry takes the title role, joined by Natalie Polito as Elizabeth of Valois, Sergio Martinez as Philip II, Leah Heater as Princess Eboli, Joshua Jeremiah as Rodrigo, Paul Chwe MinChul An as the Grand Inquisitor, and Sarah Austin as Tebaldo.

The production gives Pittsburgh audiences an opportunity to encounter one of Verdi’s most complex and psychologically rich operas after a three-decade absence.

“This season asks us to sit with the deepest questions of human life and to find in music a way through,” Sellner says. “We are so proud to bring these stories to Pittsburgh, and we can’t wait to share them with our community.”

From September’s exploration of memory and change to the final confrontation between love and power in Don Carlo, Resonance Works’ 2026–27 season makes time itself a kind of musical protagonist.

And for Pittsburgh audiences, it offers another year of opportunities to experience opera, choral music and contemporary works in performances that bring centuries of music into the present.

Tickets are available through Resonance Works at: https://www.resonanceworks.org/2026-27-season

Categories: Arts and Ideas