Seattle Symphony sets a Saturday night at Benaroya Hall for April 24

The orchestra's April 24, 2027 concert falls late in Xian Zhang's second season as music director, in a hall fresh off a $20 million renovation.

Not every great Seattle night out involves a loud room and sticky floors. Some involve 2,500 people going quiet at once in a downtown hall, waiting for a conductor's hands to come down. On Saturday, April 24, 2027, the Seattle Symphony offers one of those nights at Benaroya Hall.

The concert starts at 8 p.m., tickets are through the Seattle Symphony, and the hall holds 2,500. The date was added to our listings Oct. 27, and it falls late in a season that has given Seattle a few reasons to pay closer attention to its orchestra.

The first is the person on the podium. The 2026–27 season is the second under music director Xian Zhang, whose appointment was announced in 2024 while she remained music director of the New Jersey Symphony (New Jersey Symphony). When the orchestra announced the season in February, it said Zhang would lead twelve programs herself, a heavy load for a music director who is splitting her time between two orchestras (symphony.org, Memeteria). Seattle Magazine has written about how she is widening the orchestra's reach in the city.

The second is the building. Benaroya Hall opened this season after a $20 million renovation. Zhang conducted the season opener on Sept. 19, which also featured Yuja Wang, according to the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, where Zhang studied. By April, regulars will have had most of a season to get to know the refreshed hall, and newcomers will be walking into it at its best.

Some nights involve 2,500 people going quiet at once, waiting for a conductor's hands to come down.

The season around this date is ambitious. Mozart's Requiem runs Nov. 19–22, paired with the world premiere of Joe Pereira's Timpani Concerto, a Seattle Symphony co-commission. The season closes in June with Wagner's *Ring Without Words*. April 24 sits between those two markers, as the season heads into its final stretch.

Check the program on the Seattle Symphony's site before you buy, since details of individual concerts can shift over a long season. If you've never been, a Saturday-night subscription concert is a good way in: the start time is easy, downtown dinner options are close, and you don't need to know the repertoire to enjoy it.

What to know: it's five-plus months out, so the best seats are still available now. Leave time to get through downtown traffic on a Saturday night, and plan to be in your seat before 8, because latecomers usually wait for a break in the music.

Seattle's music life tends to get talked about in terms of clubs and basements, and fair enough. But a Saturday in April with the city's orchestra, in a freshly renovated hall, is its own kind of great night out. Put April 24 on the calendar.

Sources: JamBase: Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall (jambase.com); Seattle Symphony: Benaroya Hall (seattlesymphony.org); symphony.org: Seattle Symphony announces 2026-27 season (symphony.org); Memeteria: Seattle Symphony announces 2026-27 season (memeteria.com); Seattle Magazine: Beyond the notes, Xian Zhang expands Seattle Symphony's reach (seattlemag.com); UC News: CCM alumna Xian Zhang opens Seattle Symphony's new season in $20M renovated hall (uc.edu); New Jersey Symphony: Xian Zhang announces appointment to music director of Seattle Symphony (njsymphony.org)