Lincoln Square is heading into another season filled with music, dance, theater, opera, and film. From Gustavo Dudamel’s inaugural season with the New York Philharmonic to milestone celebrations at Juilliard, Wynton Marsalis’s final season at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Opera’s 60th anniversary at Lincoln Center, the 2026–27 season brings world premieres, new productions, returning favorites, and plenty to discover.
Kaufman Music Center
Kaufman Music Center’s 2026–27 season gets underway on Tuesday, September 8, with Dave Mustaine’s In My Darkest Hour book launch at Merkin Hall (129 West 67th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue). The season continues through June with a wide range of performances, including What Makes It Great?, Broadway Close Up, New York Festival of Song, Tuesday Matinees, and appearances by artists including Marc-André Hamelin, Terence Blanchard, Chanticleer, and Chloe Flower. The American Composers Orchestra will also serve as an Artist-in-Residence, premiering new works and leading original learning experiences on the Merkin Hall stage.
See Kaufman Music Center’s full season here.
New York Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel’s inaugural season as Music & Artistic Director brings a major new chapter to the New York Philharmonic in 2026–27. The Orchestra begins its season on Thursday, September 10, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall, where Dudamel will be joined by guest artists Lizzo, St. Vincent, Aaron Tveit, and Joaquina, with Liev Schreiber as host. The following evening, Friday, September 11, Dudamel and the Orchestra perform a special 25th-anniversary 9/11 Memorial Concert. The Orchestra then returns to David Geffen Hall (10 Lincoln Center Plaza, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue) for a multi-concert opening weekend beginning Wednesday, September 16, marking Dudamel’s first performances there as Music & Artistic Director and featuring the world premiere of Zosha Di Castri’s Invisible House, John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls, and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. The season also features appearances by Lang Lang and Yo-Yo Ma, the Art of the Score film-with-live-orchestra series, and staged productions including Marina Abramović’s The Soldier’s Tale and Falla’s El Amor brujo, as well as Bernstein’s MASS.
Explore the full 2026–27 season here.
Lincoln Center Presents
Lincoln Center Presents kicks off its 2026–27 season on Thursday, September 10, with a wide-ranging lineup of music, dance, theater, and multidisciplinary programming across the Lincoln Center campus. Highlights include the Festival of Firsts, the Legacies of San Juan Hill Festival, Unsound New York, American Songbook, ¡VAYA!, and Under the Radar at Lincoln Center. The Lincoln Center Contemporary Dance Festival returns in January with New York premieres and new commissions, while the Big Umbrella Festival returns in the spring with performances, workshops, relaxed spaces, and interactive experiences for neurodivergent audiences and their families.
Explore the full 2026–27 calendar here.
Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players
Twenty concerts will make up Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players’ 2026–27 season, running from Monday, September 14, 2026, through Monday, June 14, 2027, at Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church (152 West 66th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway). It opens with Russian Tributes, featuring pianist Maxim Lando and violinist Lun Li, and continues with programs ranging from Baroque masters to Beethoven and Mozart, including Swayed by Mozart, Bespoke Baroque, In Beethoven’s Steps, and Great Dames. Performances take place on Mondays at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm, with tickets priced at $25 and $17.
View the complete season calendar here.
Lincoln Center Theater
A new season begins at Lincoln Center Theater on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, with LCT3’s world premiere of Mfoniso Udofia’s creation stories and all the important importants, a new play directed by Tamilla Woodard. Broadway follows with Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men, starring Bradley Whitford and Tom Blyth, beginning performances Thursday, October 8. Next spring, The Sound of Music returns to Broadway in its first revival in nearly three decades, starring Jasmine Amy Rogers as Maria. The season also includes August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, Kimberly Belflower’s Born in the Dirt, and Matthew Rhys in Playing Burton, along with additional programming at LCT3. Performances take place at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, and Claire Tow Theater (150 West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue).
See the full 2026–27 lineup here.
Juilliard
Two weeks of music, dance, and drama will launch Juilliard’s 2026–27 season on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, with the third annual Juilliard Fall Festival. Opening Night marks the centennial of alum Miles Davis’s birth, while also recognizing 25 years of Juilliard Jazz and 75 years of the Dance Division. The season continues with hundreds of performances, including Juilliard415’s Shakespeare Restored, directed by violinist Rachel Podger, a celebration of composer Steve Reich at 90, and Juilliard Opera’s production of Handel’s Agrippina, alongside orchestral, chamber music, jazz, dance, and drama performances throughout the year at The Juilliard School (60 Lincoln Center Plaza, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue).
Browse Juilliard’s full performance calendar here.
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Wynton Marsalis’s final season as Artistic Director gives Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2026–27 programming a particularly significant milestone. While the season began in July, its fall concerts get underway on Thursday, September 17, 2026, with Marsalis and the Masters, featuring Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performing music by jazz greats including Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, and Chick Corea. Titled Come Home, the season celebrates Marsalis’s music, vision, and influence through programs spanning jazz, global musical traditions, and collaborations across disciplines. Highlights include From Cuba to the Crescent City, Big Band Holidays, the U.S. debut of Paquito D’Rivera performing the music of Chick Corea, and Marsalis: Jazz Is Dance, featuring collaborations with leading dance artists and companies. Performances take place at Frederick P. Rose Hall (60th Street and Broadway).
View the 2026–27 concert calendar here.
New York City Ballet
Forty-eight ballets, including five world premieres and two New York City Ballet premieres, headline the 2026–27 season at the David H. Koch Theater (20 Lincoln Center Plaza, between Columbus Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue). Running from Tuesday, September 22, 2026, through Sunday, May 30, 2027, the 21-week season opens with George Balanchine’s Jewels. Other highlights include the annual George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, a Fall Fashion Gala featuring two world premieres, and the highly anticipated New York City Ballet premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s Romeo & Juliet during the Winter Season. The season concludes with Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
See the complete performance schedule here.
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera will celebrate 60 years at Lincoln Center during its 2026–27 season, which opens on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, with a new production of Verdi’s Macbeth at the Metropolitan Opera House (30 Lincoln Center Plaza, between Columbus Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue). The season continues through June 2027 with five new productions and 12 repertory productions, including the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Lincoln in the Bardo, Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West, and Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell’s Silent Night. The anniversary will culminate in a Diamond Jubilee Gala on Tuesday, May 25, 2027, featuring fully staged scenes from more than 30 operas and an impressive lineup of Met stars.
Explore the full season here.
Film at Lincoln Center
Film at Lincoln Center’s 2026–27 season features the 64th New York Film Festival, running from Friday, September 25, through Monday, October 12, 2026. The festival includes James Gray’s Paper Tiger, starring Adam Driver, Miles Teller, and Scarlett Johansson; Ava DuVernay’s 14th; and Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth!. Throughout the rest of the year, Film at Lincoln Center typically presents annual festivals including the New York Jewish Film Festival, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, and New Directors/New Films, alongside programming at the Walter Reade Theater and Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (144 West 65th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway).
View the full Film at Lincoln Center calendar here.
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center opens its 2026–27 season on Tuesday, October 13, with Copland’s Appalachian Spring at Alice Tully Hall (1941 Broadway, between West 65th and West 66th Streets), celebrating American composers in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary. With more than 80 performances on the Lincoln Center campus, the season features pianist Gilles Vonsattel’s eight-concert cycle of all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas, the annual December Baroque Festival featuring all six of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, and five New York premieres of contemporary works. The season also brings performances by ensembles including the Schumann Quartett, Escher String Quartet, Quartetto di Cremona, and Takács Quartet, along with appearances by tenor Matthew Polenzani and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe. View the complete season lineup here.
View the complete season lineup here.
With so much happening throughout Lincoln Square, the 2026–27 season offers plenty of opportunities to experience the arts right here in the neighborhood. From a world premiere at David Geffen Hall and a new production at the Metropolitan Opera to Broadway, ballet, jazz, chamber music, and film, there will be something to discover throughout the season.
Photo Credit: © Copyright 2025 Brandon Patoc. All rights reserved. New York Philharmonic Week 52.
