The Philadelphia Orchestra has extended Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s contract to 2030. In a statement, the organization said, “we are thrilled to share the news that Yannick Nézet-Séguin has extended his contract through 2030, with a newly expanded title of the music and artistic director. We look forward to the continuation of the extraordinary partnership between Yannick and The Philadelphia {…}
The Philadelphia Orchestra has announced its 2023-24 season. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on vocal performances. Nicholas McGegan conducts Händel’s “Messiah.” Performance Date: Dec. 21, 2023 Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Gil Shaham in the Bates Violin Concerto. The concert also includes Peña Laguna’s Oraison, for chorus and orchestra and Brahms’ A German Requiem. Performance Dates: Jan. 26-28, 2023 {…}
Back in 1983, Hao Jiang Tian arrived in New York from Beijing with $35 in his pocket and limited communication skills in English. One of his first stops from that trip was the Metropolitan Opera where he witnessed a performance of “Ernani” with Luciano Pavarotti. A decade later, Tian would take the stage with the famed Italian singer as part {…}
(Photo Courtesy of Metropolitan Opera) The Edinburgh International Festival has announced a program change. The company said, “Unfortunately, as The Philadelphia Orchestra’s COVID-19 protocols differ from current UK guidance, it has become necessary to change the program for the Thursday 25 August concert to accommodate the orchestra’s preferences.” As a result, the program will now feature Beethoven Symphony No 5 {…}
Puerto Rican soprano Larisa Martínez will perform with violinist Joshua Bell and the Philadelphia Orchestra in a program of duets. “Voice and Violin” is scheduled for July 29, 2022, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and will feature a broad range of music from Berlioz to Bernstein. Conductor Michael Stern will be on the podium. The complete program comprises the {…}
The Philadelphia Orchestra has announced its 2022-23 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances for the season. Nathalie Stutzmann conducts the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir in Purrington Words for Departure, Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night, and Mozart’s Requiem. Performance Dates: Oct. 20-23, 2022 Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Pretty Yende in Xi Ensō’s world premiere, Haydn Cello Concerto in D {…}
The Philadelphia Orchestra has announced the first part of its 2021-22 season featuring several vocal performances and marking the orchestra’s first live performances since the pandemic hit. Here are the vocal highlights for the fall 2021 season. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Laurin Talese and Aaron Diehl in a program of music by Johnson, Gershwin, Still, and Price. Performance Date: Oct. 7-9, {…}
(Credit: Hans van der Woerd) Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera and Philadelphia Orchestra, has sent an open letter to incoming U.S. President Joe Biden, and incoming Vice-President Kamala Harris. In his letter, the famed Canadian maestro asked the new administration to take immediate action in order to save the embattled US cultural sector. “Artists need {…}
(Source: Philadelphia Orchestra Official Website) The Philadelphia Orchestra has announced that Nathalie Stutzmann will be its principal guest conductor. Stutzmann will take up the post this fall at the start of the 2021-22 season as part of a three-year contract. The conductor debuted with the organization back in 2016 in a performance of Handel’s “Messiah.” “I have always felt close {…}
(Credit: The Gramophone) The Gramophone has announced the winners of its Classical Music Awards 2020. Recording of the Year prize went to Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica for the recording of Mieczysław Weinberg’s Symphonies No. 2 & No. 21. Israeli-American violinist and conductor Itzhak Perlman was presented with the Lifetime {…}
The Philadelphia Orchestra will kick off its 2020-21 season with an opening night celebration for the digital stage. The event, set for Sept. 30, 2020, will be led by music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and will feature Coleman’s “Seven O’Clock Shout,” Rossini’s “The Thieving Magpie” overture, Verdi’s “D’amor sull’ali rosee” from “Il Trovatore,” Mozart’s Symphony No. 29, and the first Philadelphia {…}