The New York Philharmonic has announced its 2018-19 season filled with numerous stars and new music. The new season marks the first for music director Jaap van Zweden. For this article, we will concentrate on the vocal events of the season and the singers who will headline important concerts.

Matthias Goerne Artist in Residence

Matthias Goerne, one of today’s leading interpreter of German art songs, performs select songs by Schubert and Richard Strauss with music director Van Zweden conducting. The program also includes  J.S. Bach/Arr. Webern’s “Fuga (Ricercata) from Musical Offering” and  Mozart’s Symphony No. 40.

Performance Dates: Dec. 6-8, 2018

Ying Fang and Goerne headline Braham’s German Requiem with the Concert Chorale of New York joining the NY Phil. Van Zweden conducts the harrowing score.

Performance Dates: Feb. 7-9, 2019

Goerne continues his artist in residence with John Adams’ “The Wound Dresser,” which sets Walt Whitman’s poignant verses that recall his comforting the sick and dying in America’s Civil War. Van Zweden leads Brahms’s First Symphony and Ives’ “Central Park in the Dark”

Performance Dates: March 21-26, 2019

Other Vocal Events

Louis Andriessen’s TAO for solo piano, women’s voices, and ensemble will be performed with Synergy Vocals and pianist Eric Huebner. The concert also includes Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2. David Robertsons conducts Garrick Ohlsson, who also performs in the concert.

Performance Dates: Oct. 10-13, 2018

Academy Award nominee David Lang brings his modern take on Beethoven’s “Fidelio” in his new opera “Prisoner of the State.” The work which will be fully staged by Elkhanah Pulitzer will star Julie Mathevet, Alan Oke, Jarrett Ott and Eric Owens. Music director Van Zweden conducts the opera which concludes the finale. The opera is a World Premiere which was Co-Commission by the New York Philharmonic in collaboration with Rotterdam’s de Doelen and London’s Barbican, Barcelona’s l’Auditori, Bochum Symphony Orchestra, and Bruges’s Concertgebouw.

Performance Dates: June 6-8, 2019