Acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma is tuning up for a visit to Fairfax County later this year.
Ma, a household name even outside the classical music world, will perform with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra (FSO) at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts on Dec. 6 as part of the local ensemble’s 2025-2026 season.
Season subscriptions are currently available, with single-concert tickets going on sale at 10 a.m. tomorrow (Friday).
“The FSO and I anticipate the 25–26 season with great excitement,” FSO Music Director Christopher Zimmerman said in a press release. “It’s a rare honor to perform with Yo-Yo Ma and to share the stage with such phenomenal artists in music that stirs the soul and expands the imagination.”
Ma will serve as a soloist on Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Cello Concerto No. 1.” Celebrating 120 years since the Soviet composer’s birth, the program will also feature the FSO performing his “Symphony No. 6” alone.
This will be Ma’s first appearance at the Center for the Arts in the 21st century, Adrienne Bryant Godwin, the venue’s director of programming, said when announcing its performance lineup for the new season in May.
Winner of a Kennedy Center Honor, 19 Grammy Awards and a Presidential Medal of Freedom, among other recognitions, Ma is known for his contributions to film music, such as the Oscar-winning score for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” as well as his classical recordings and experimental, cross-cultural work with the Silkroad Ensemble he founded in 1998.
The Silkroad Ensemble is currently an artist-in-residence at Mason’s Center for the Arts, where it will perform with folk singer and fellow artist-in-residence Rhiannon Giddens on March 22, 2026.
The FSO’s season will open on Oct. 11 with a pairing of two Ralph Vaugh Williams pieces — “The Lark Ascending” and “Symphony No. 5” — with contemporary composer Max Richter’s reimagining of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.”
The rest of the lineup includes:
- The orchestra’s traditional performance of “The Nutcracker” with the Fairfax Ballet (Dec. 20-21)
- A Christmas concert with the Irish group Celtic Woman (Dec. 16)
- “The Soul of Tango” with Latin Grammy-winning guitarist Berta Rojas (Feb. 7)
- Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn and the world premiere of Johnathan Leshnoff’s “Flute Concerto No. 2” with Seattle Symphony flutist Demarre McGill (March 7)
- A “symphonic journey” through Europe with travel guide Rick Steves (March 29)
The FSO will close its season on May 31 with an all-Prokofiev finale featuring pianist Claire Huangci.
The Center for the Arts, located at 4373 Mason Pond Drive, is the FSO’s primary home.
Other highlights of the venue’s upcoming lineup include a concert on Sept. 27 by “Glee” alum and recent Tony winner Darren Criss, who’s headlining the center’s ARTS by George! fundraiser benefit. Like the FSO season, tickets for the 8:30 p.m. concert and other individual Center for the Arts events will go on sale at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
