Ira Levin has created a new professional orchestra in Brazil! Named “ECO”, it will be the house orchestra of the spectacular B32 theater in São Paulo. It is the first privately run orchestra in Brazil, with a 10-month season and subscription series. Consisting of the finest musicians available, it will concentrate on bringing first performances of major works by Haydn and Mozart as well as composers from the 18th to 21 century to audiences in in SP and globally through it’s digital concert hall. The first concert will be on September 12, 2026.

In addition, in August 2026 Levin assumes the roles of Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Heliópolis Symphony Orchestra, at the renowned Baccarelli Institute. The concerts take place in their brand new state of the art concert hall in Heliopolis, São Paulo, the first of it’s kind ever built in a favella, creating a new generation of classical music listeners and reaching a vast audience through live streaming and recording, soon to be expanded. 

His recent concert activities have included performances of Bruckner’s 5th symphony, Glazunov’s 5th, Haydn’s Stabat Mater and several of his own orchestrations of works by Reger, Busoni, Rachmaninoff and the Franck Piano Quintet. He conducted the Brazilian premiere of Hindemith’s Symphony in Eb in 2025 with the Minas Gerais Philharmonic and Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with the The The National Symphony Orchestra of Chile in their new concert hall in Santiago.

On the operatic front, Ira Levin concluded three ongoing operatic cycles at the Theatro São Pedro. That of Kurt Weill included productions of The Seven Deadly Sins, The Threepenny Opera and the Brazilian premieres of Der Jasager and Der Lindburghflug. Janacek, (whom he introduced to Brazil with Jenufa in 2003) was represented by the Brazilian premieres of both Katya Kabanova and The Makropulos Case and a very successful The Cunning Little Vixen. The Brazilian premieres of Busoni’s Arlecchino (2017, with Pulcinella) and Turandot (2024, with Gianni Schicchi) were followed by yet another important one, Rossini’s Le comte ory, also in 2024. August 2025 he conducted a triumphant new production there of Verdi’s Falstaff and his recent Don Pasquale was described by the illustrious O Globo newspaper as the “best operatic night in São Paulo in 2026”.

His recent concert activities have included performances of Bruckner’s 5th symphony, Glazunov’s 5th, Haydn’s Stabat Mater and several of his own orchestrations of works by Reger, Busoni, Rachmaninoff and the Franck Piano Quintet. He conducted the Brazilian premiere of Hindemith’s Symphony in Eb in 2025 with the Minas Gerais Philharmonic and Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with the The The National Symphony Orchestra of Chile in their new concert hall in Santiago.