With the proposed closure of the Kennedy Center, the National Symphony Orchestra has no home for its performances over the next two years.

National Symphony Orchestra Music Director Gianandrea Noseda has delayed the opening of the 2026-27 season while the NSO works out a performance schedule that will include traveling about the greater Washington, D.C. area.

The NSO was caught up in the downturn of patrons to the Kennedy Center performances after the hostile takeover of the venue in February 2025.

Director Gianandrea Noseda spoke on the Symphony’s traveling schedule saying, “for us to perform and to be somehow disconnected with the Kennedy Center probably will convince some of the audience who stayed away from the center to come back to our concerts, and not only that, even to increase the number of the audience.  At least this is my hope.”

Tickets go on sale August 28 for the September 26 performance to open the season at Strathmore that will feature a total of 64 classical concerts – 56 in the D.C. area and eight on a tour from April 20 to 30.

The current schedule is:
24 concerts at the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University
13 at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland
nine at Northern Virginia Community College’s Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center in Alexandria
eight at George Mason’s Center for the Arts in Fairfax, Virginia
two at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park
two at D.C.’s Lincoln Theatre

Noting the varying audience capacities at the different venues, Noseda said, “we’ll increase the ability of the orchestra to adjust very quickly to the acoustics. I’d like to think of this year of the National Symphony Orchestra as a regional touring orchestra.  So we will be on tour and we will take and bring the music where the people are instead of inviting them to where we perform.”

While the NSO will not be able to use the 2,465 seat concert hall, they will be using the facility for rehearsals; as well as, keeping the NSO office and music library at The Center.

Noseda will conduct 20 of the concerts including the season opener on September 26.

He noted that only two changes to the originally planned schedule were required to accommodate the smaller venues – substituting Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 for Gioachino Rossini’s “William Tell” overture and one Ottorino Respighi composition for another.

The holiday performances of George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah” are the only performances that require a chorus.

“I honestly would have preferred not to go through this, but the situation is the way it is and we have to be proactive,” Noseda said.