September in Vancouver: a month of season openers

The end of summer can be shrouded in melancholy. And yet it is also the time of year when we get to look forward to the new season — and what a season Vancouver has in store.

September belongs to the openers. James Ehnes brings his 50th Birthday Tour to the Chan Centre on the 8th, and the Vancouver Symphony launches its 2026/27 season days later with Chopin and Tchaikovsky's Fourth at the Orpheum. The Vancouver Playhouse follows with two more: Kevin Chen opens the Chopin Society's season on the 20th, and the Takács Quartet — just past its fiftieth anniversary, with a new cellist — arrives on the 22nd.

If you're deciding where to start rather than trying to see everything, the VSO's Mozart, Sibelius and Debussy programme mid-month is the gentlest way in: two of the orchestra's own principals stepping forward as soloists, and a Sinfonia Concertante that's hard not to enjoy.

Wishing you a gentle easing into autumn, and thank you for supporting Vancouver's classical music community.