November 2026 features a slate of classical performances in Vancouver, including VSO concerts at the Orpheum and multiple Chan Centre events.
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Vancouver’s classical music calendar for November 2026 includes a run of concerts spanning symphonic programming, recital series and early music presentations.
The month opens with a Vancouver Symphony Orchestra concert at the Orpheum on Nov. 6 and 7 at 7:30 p.m. Guest conductor Antony Hermus leads an all-Russian program, beginning with rarely heard Scriabin and concluding with Prokofiev’s Cinderella ballet music. The anchoring work is Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto, featuring American violinist Kevin Zhu.
The following weekend, mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and guitarist Sean Shibe return with their Orlando Project on Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. at the Telus Studio Theatre in The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. Their program is described as a diverse selection of works ranging from Dowland to Bob Dylan, connected through Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso and Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando: A Biography.
On Nov. 15 at 3 p.m., harpsichordist Jean Rondeau performs Couperin and Rameau at the Barnet Recital Hall with the Vancouver Recital Society. The performance takes place in the University of B.C.’s School of Music.
Remembrance Day programming remains a highlight of Chor Leoni’s season. This year’s concert, The Soul Flies Away, marks the Lions’ 35th annual Remembrance Day event, presented at St. Andrew’s-Wesley church on Nov. 11 at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Two days later, Early Music Vancouver offers The Magic of Monteverdi by Les Arts Florissants, co-directed by William Christie and Paul Agnew. The concert is set for Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Chan Centre, highlighting music from Monteverdi’s books of madrigals for mixed voices, including his proto-opera Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda.
At the same time downtown on Nov. 17, Friends of Chamber Music hosts the Terra String Quartet at the Vancouver Playhouse. The quartet is described as the winner of the 2025 Naumburg Chamber Music Competition and prizewinners at the 2025 Bordeaux and Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competitions.
The Terra String Quartet program includes late Beethoven, arrangements of madrigals by Maddalena Casulana, and Benjamin Britten’s Third String Quartet, based on materials drawn from his final opera Death in Venice.
The month ends with more early music at the Chan Centre. The Vancouver Recital Society presents the Jupiter Ensemble with Thomas Dunford on Nov. 29 at 3 p.m., featuring Italian, German and French baroque music themed around the legend of the mythical Amazons.
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