The Shostakovich festival will include nine of the composer's symphonies, conducted by Valery Gergiev, and all 15 of his string quartets, performed by the Emerson String Quartet. Gergiev, principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and artistic director of the Kirov Orchestra of St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater, will lead both orchestras in Shostakovich's First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and 15th Symphonies in March and April 2006. He will return with the Kirov to perform the remaining six of the composer's symphonies during the 2006-07 season.

The Golijov festival, in January and February 2006, will feature the New York premiere of the Argentinean-American composer's one-act opera Ainadamar, directed by Peter Sellars and starring Dawn Upshaw. The Kronos Quartet and the St. Lawrence String Quartet will perform Golijov's chamber works; Robert Spano leads two performances of La pasion segun San Marcos.

Great Performers' New Visions series will present Orpheus and Euridice, a retelling of the legend with texts by Gordon, a composer of songs, operas, and theatrical works. Choreographer Doug Varone directs; soprano Elizabeth Futral stars.

Visiting orchestras include the London Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic, as well as Gardiner's Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, which performs Mozart's Requiem and Mass in C minor with its sister group, the Monteverdi Choir.

Soprano Deborah Voigt and tenor Ben Heppner team up for a program of arias and duets; other vocal soloists include Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Matthias Goerne, and Angelika Kirchschlager. Instrumentalists include pianists Andras Schiff and Garrick Ohlsson and violinist Christian Tetzlaff, all of whom give solo recitals; violinist Itzhak Perlman and violinist/violist Pinchas Zukerman perform together.