Glass' "Lincoln Symphony" Set to Debut

By Ed Epstein

Washington, D.C.

Monday, June 22, 2026

American composer Philip Glass' Symphony No. 15, a 38-minute, eight-movement work featuring the words of Abraham Lincoln, will get its delayed world premiere next month and its Washington area debut in June 2027.

Performs the Lincoln Symphony in June 2027.

The work by the 89-year-old Glass, which draws mainly on the words of Lincoln's 1838 Lyceum Speech in Springfield, Ill., was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra and was scheduled to premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington this month. However, Glass withdrew the work this January, saying that he felt the message of the symphony conflicted with the center's leadership under President Donald Trump. He was one of many artists who canceled dates at the Washington arts center.

In the Lyceum Speech, the 28-year-old Lincoln warned of the dangers of mob rule and urged respect for the law and said that American democracy faced its greatest threat from within. "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide," he said.

With the D.C. premiere canceled, the Lincoln Symphony is now set to premiere at the Boston Symphony Orchestra at its Tanglewood summer festival on July 5th. The performance is part of the Boston Symphony's four-day festival marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Ticket information is available at bso.org/tanglewood.

Glass' work will then be performed at New York City's Carnegie Hall at 2 p.m. on Sunday, January 31, 2027, performed by the Orchestra of St. Luke's, a New York-based chamber orchestra. Ticket information is available at carnegiehall.org/calendar.

In early June 2027, Symphony No. 15 will have its Washington-area debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The work will be a subscription series concert at Joseph Meyerhoff Hall in downtown Baltimore at 11 a.m. on Friday June 4, 2027 and at 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 6. On Saturday June 5, 2027, the BSO will perform it at 8 p.m. on Saturday June 5 at the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland,

Information is online at https://www.bsomusic.org/classical-collection/#new-season.

The Bethesda venue is at the Grosvenor-Strathmore station on Metro's Red Line.

In addition to the Lyceum Speech, Glass' work includes words, performed by a baritone, from other Lincoln speeches, including his February 1861 farewell talk in Springfield, the Emancipation Proclamation. and his last speech, delivered at the White House three days before his assassination in April 1865.

Glass issued a statement in anticipation of his symphony's premiere at Tanglewood. "For over a century and a half, the figure of Abraham Lincoln, a person who held the country together at its worst moment, remains at the center of the debate of who we are as Americans. The performance of this new symphony falls into the current discussion about our national identity and values," he said.

Other performances of the new Lincoln symphony have been scheduled around the country.

Image from the Maryland State Arts Council.