A New Artis—Naples Season Begins 2026-27 Season

Connections lend momentum to an Artis—Naples season. A musical idea finds visual form in a gallery. A dance program reveals the pulse of an orchestral score. A film or musical gives new perspective on a story audiences thought they knew.

Those connections guide the 2026-27 season, which officially begins this August under the theme To Light: The Art of Hope. From performances in its concert halls to exhibitions in The Baker Museum and education programs across the Kimberly K. Querrey and Louis A. Simpson Cultural Campus, the new Artis—Naples season looks toward works of art born from resilience, restoration and imagination.

Beethoven stands at the center of one of the season’s clearest journeys toward light. Two hundred years after his death, his music remains a force of argument, of struggle, of vast human possibility. His legacy will be seen and heard across 2026 27 in forms both monumental and intimate: a Masterworks season rich with Beethoven, including Artistic and Music Director Alexander Shelley leading the Naples Philharmonic through all nine symphonies; chamber programs in the Sypert Salon series—one featuring Artis—Naples Artistic Partner and violinist James Ehnes leading his Ehnes Quartet; piano and ensemble works through Grand Piano Series; a theatrical portrait in Beethoven: I Shall Hear in Heaven; and performances by visiting orchestras that bring his music into dialogue with other masterpieces. The Baker Museum joins the celebration with the currently exhibiting Linling Lu: Fugue in 3 Voices, which translates inspiration drawn from Beethoven and other composers into radiant circular paintings, making the composer’s presence visible as well as audible.

Around that central thread, the Naples Philharmonic season opens outward with artists and repertoire spanning the familiar and the new. Masterworks programs bring Yeol Eum Son, Anthony McGill, Renée Fleming, Thomas Hampson, James Ehnes, and others to Hayes Hall, while Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly (Featured Photo) returns to lead Pops programs devoted to Broadway, Billy Joel and the unmistakable film scores of John Williams. The year also brings extraordinary visiting ensembles, including return visits by The Cleveland Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Naples debut of the Munich Philharmonic. Special appearances by Yo-Yo Ma, Audra McDonald, Itzhak Perlman, and Sutton Foster and Kelli O’Hara with the Naples Philharmonic add to the season’s scope.

In The Baker Museum, the season moves through dreams, sound, memory and place. The Surrealist International: Fifty Years of Dreams draws from the holdings of London’s Tate Galleries to explore one of the 20th century’s most imaginative artistic movements, while Baron Wolman: Capturing the Sound of an Era brings the late 1960s music scene into focus through the lens of Rolling Stone’s first chief photographer. Louise Nevelson: Dawn to Dusk traces the artist’s emergence as one of the most distinctive sculptural voices of her time, and Florida Contemporary 2026-27 highlights the state’s vibrant arts scene.

The season widens the view onstage, moving between theatrical landmarks, popular music, film and comic voices. The Naples International Film Festival returns in October for its 18th year with more than 60 independent films and special events. Hamilton and The Sound of Music anchor a Broadway lineup that also includes The Notebook and The Great Gatsby, bringing familiar stories into bold theatrical frames. Artists and personalities, including Paul Anka, David Foster and Katharine McPhee, Michael Feinstein, Larry the Cable Guy and Rita Rudner, add to a year filled with music and laughter.

Artis-Naples Home of the Baker Museum & Naples Philharmonic 

Tickets and additional details can be found at ARTISNAPLES.ORG