The season includes two world premieres, a collaboration with the Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and a three-week Mozart festival, as well as Litton's favorite works‹the ones, according to a statement from the orchestra, that "he wants to perform again, the ones he doesn't want to leave Dallas without bringing to audience, and the ones he's chosen to conclude his final season."

Among the pieces picked by Litton are three works by Charles Ives, including the Fourth Symphony, a piece so massive that it requires two conductors; Janšcek's Glagolithic Mass; Gershwin's Piano Concerto, with Litton at the piano; and Michael Tippett's oratorio A Child of Our Time.

The two world premieres on the schedule, both DSO commissions, are George Tsontakis's Piano Concerto, performed by Stephen Hough, and a work by Robert X. Rodriguez. In addition, the orchestra will perform Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto, co-commissioned by the DSO with the Indianapolis Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra, which will give the work's world premiere.

The DSO will also perform the world premiere of a ballet by composer Jonathan Bailey Holland with the Dallas Black Dance Theatre.

Among the guest soloists on the schedule are pianists Andr_ Watts and Lang Lang and cellist Lynn Harrell; guest conductors (some of whom are trying out for Litton's job) include Yan Pascal Tortelier, Philippe Jordan, Andrew Davis, Carlos Kalmar, and Andrey Boreyko.