Moroccan Philharmonic Opens 30th Season With Beethoven in Rabat, Then Casablanca and Tangier

MOROCCO · CLASSICAL MUSIC

OPM turns thirty this season and marks it by playing all nine Beethoven symphonies, which is a considerable undertaking for any orchestra.

The Opening Concert and the Tour That Follows

The Orchestre Philharmonique du Maroc opens its thirtieth season at the Théâtre national Mohammed V in Rabat on Thursday, 8 October 2026. Morocco’s national orchestra then plays Casablanca on 9 and 10 October and Tangier on 11 October.

The opening programme is Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony together with his Third Piano Concerto. Dina Bensaïd, the Moroccan pianist and conductor, directs the orchestra and appears as soloist in the concerto.

The Casablanca performances are at the Théâtre de l’Hermitage and the Tangier concert at the Palais des Arts et de la Culture. Four dates in four days across three cities is the orchestra’s standard touring pattern.

The season carries the title Beethoven l’Exalté, and the plan is to perform all nine symphonies across the year. That is an ambitious commitment for an orchestra of this size, and it sets the shape of the whole 2026/2027 calendar.

Thirty Years of a National Orchestra

The OPM was founded in 1996 and has spent three decades building something that did not exist in Morocco before it. That is a permanent professional symphony orchestra with a regular season. It tours between the main cities rather than playing occasional festival dates.

That history explains the anniversary programming. Playing the complete Beethoven symphonies is a statement about capacity as much as about repertoire. It requires a full complement of players, a sustained rehearsal schedule and audiences in three cities willing to return.

Dina Bensaïd’s role is worth noting for the same reason. She is a Moroccan musician leading the national orchestra in its anniversary season, rather than a visiting conductor engaged for the occasion.

The orchestra also runs education work alongside the concerts, which is the quieter half of what a national ensemble does. Transmission, in the phrase the orchestra itself uses, is part of the anniversary framing.

What This Offers a Foreign Resident

Rabat, Casablanca and Tangier all have substantial foreign resident populations, and classical concerts are among the easier cultural evenings to attend without Arabic or French. The repertoire needs no translation and the programme notes are usually bilingual.

Ticket prices for OPM concerts sit well below European equivalents for the same repertoire. For anyone used to paying London or Paris prices for a symphony concert, the difference is the most immediately visible thing about the Moroccan classical calendar.

The Théâtre Mohammed V in Rabat is the country’s principal national theatre, on Rue Al Mansour Dahbi in the city centre. It is walkable from the medina and from most of the central hotels.

Anyone in Casablanca or Tangier can wait a day or three rather than travelling to Rabat. The same programme reaches all three cities within four days, which is a deliberate feature of how the orchestra works.

Practical Notes

Ticket prices and the start time were not published in the announcements covering the season launch. The orchestra sells through its own channels and through the theatres, and the figures appear on those pages closer to each date.

A season of this kind rewards booking the series rather than a single night. If the plan is to hear the complete symphonies, the subscription route is usually cheaper and secures the same seat across the year.

Concert dress in Morocco is closer to smart casual than to formal. Nobody will be turned away for an open collar, but the audience at a national theatre opening night is generally well turned out.

October is a good month for the coastal cities. Rabat and Casablanca are mild, Tangier can be windy, and none of the three needs anything heavier than a jacket in the evening.

For anyone considering the whole run rather than one night, the three cities are connected by the Al Boraq high-speed line and the regular rail network. Rabat to Casablanca takes under an hour, and Tangier is about two hours from Rabat.

That makes a four-day opening across three cities unusually easy to follow. It is one of the few concert runs in North Africa where the travel between dates is genuinely straightforward.

Sources

• Infomédiaire — OPM: Beethoven au cœur d’une saison anniversaire pour les 30 ans de l’Orchestre
• L’Observateur — L’OPM fête ses 30 ans avec Beethoven l’exalté
• Orchestre Philharmonique du Maroc — Saisonseite des Orchesters

FAQ

More: Morocco news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

Frequently Asked Questions

When and where does the OPM season open?

At the Théâtre national Mohammed V in Rabat on Thursday, 8 October 2026. The same programme then plays Casablanca on 9 and 10 October and Tangier on 11 October.

What is on the opening programme?

Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and his Third Piano Concerto. Dina Bensaïd conducts and plays the solo part in the concerto.

What is Beethoven l’Exalté?

It is the title of the orchestra’s thirtieth-anniversary season, across which it plans to perform all nine Beethoven symphonies. The opening concerts in October are the first instalment.

How much do tickets cost?

Prices were not published in the announcements covering the season launch. They appear on the orchestra’s own channels and on the theatres’ pages closer to each date.

The Big Picture

Africa: The New Scramble — why the world’s powers are competing for the continent