21C MEDIA GROUP’S CLASSICAL MUSIC SPRING PREVIEW Feb 13 through June 25, 2024 CONCERTS, SPECIAL EVENTS & RECORDINGS

FEBRUARY 2024

Feb 13
GATEWAYS MUSIC FESTIVAL makes its Kennedy Center debut with a pairing of The Soldier’s
Tale Suite by Igor Stravinsky and A Fiddler’s Tale by Wynton Marsalis, performed by the
Gateways Chamber Players, who represent some of the nation’s leading professional
classical musicians of African descent. As at the ensemble’s recent sold-out Carnegie Hall
debut, both works will feature violinist Tai Murray, a musician of “exceptional assurance
and style” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and TV and stage legend Phylicia Rashad will make a
special guest appearance as the narrator in A Fiddler’s Tale. [Washington, DC].

Feb 13–18
Now in his fifth season as Chief Conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra,
Grammy winner ALAN GILBERT leads the orchestra on a four-city tour of Spain and
Germany. Following on the heels of “Kosmos Bartók,” the NDR’s eight-day celebration of
Béla Bartók, their program couples the Hungarian composer’s Third Piano Concerto,
featuring Gramophone “Artist of the Year 2020” Igor Levit, with Brahms’s First Symphony.
After a performance of Brahms’s Second with the NDR, Die Welt marveled: “In Gilbert’s
reading, Brahms’s symphony was awakened to full, almost tangible bloom. One could
luxuriate in this beguiling hearing.” [Feb 13: Madrid; Feb 15: Oviedo, Spain; Feb 17:
Düsseldorf, Germany; Feb 18: Hanover, Germany]

Feb 17, 18
TEDDY ABRAMS, the Grammy Award-winning Music Director of the LOUISVILLE
ORCHESTRA and Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year, makes his debut with the
Buffalo Philharmonic, conducting Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World” along
with Michael Tilson Thomas’s The Diary of Anne Frank. A protégé of Tilson Thomas’s from
the age of eleven, Abrams credits him with being one of his most important mentors. The
Diary of Anne Frank was Tilson Thomas’s earliest composition, written in 1990 to be
narrated by Audrey Hepburn when she was a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF. [Buffalo,
NY]

Feb 17, 18
Grammy-nominated violinist TESSA LARK, named as one of Lincoln Center’s eleven
Emerging Artists for 2020 and the recipient of its prestigious Hunt Family Award, performs
Wynton Marsalis’s jazz- and blues-inflected Violin Concerto with South Carolina’s
Greenville Symphony. [Greenville, SC]

Feb 20, 21
Leading the Zurich Chamber Orchestra from the violin at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie,
Music Director DANIEL HOPE – the violinist whose “thriving solo career [is] built on
inventive programming and a probing interpretive style” (New York Times) – traces the
history of dance from the Renaissance and Baroque to klezmer, tango and swing.
[Hamburg]

Feb 22–25
The DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (DSO) under the baton of Music Director Fabio Luisi
performs the world premiere of the DSO-commissioned Year 2020: Concerto for Trumpet,
Violin and Orchestra composed by Xi Wang and featuring violinist Karen Gomyo and
trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, making her DSO debut. [Feb 22, 23, 24, 25: Dallas]

Feb 23–25
Tenor NICHOLAS PHAN – “one of the world’s most remarkable singers” (Boston Globe) –
joins mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and baritone Luca Pisaroni for concert performances of
Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. [Feb
23, 24, 25: San Francisco]

Feb 23–25
Well known for her commitment to expanding the cello repertoire, cellist INBAL SEGEV
released a “hugely impressive” (The Guardian) recording of Grammy-nominated composer
Anna Clyne’s cello concerto DANCE – which she commissioned after being introduced to the
composer by path-breaking conductor MARIN ALSOP – on the Avie label in 2020. This
February, Segev performs Clyne’s cello concerto with the Colorado Symphony led by Alsop.
[Feb 23, 24, 25: Denver]

Feb 23–25
Grammy winner DANIIL TRIFONOV – “without question the most astounding pianist of our
age” (The Times, UK) – performs Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto with the Los Angeles
Philharmonic and Susanna Mälkki. [Feb 23, 24, 25: Los Angeles]

Feb 23–27
Grammy-winning French pianist PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD deconstructs the keyboard
fantasy with solo recitals spanning four centuries of music in Chicago, San Francisco and
Philadelphia, where he pairs his performance with a masterclass. It was after a similar
exploration of the fantasia form that the San Diego Union Tribune marveled: “There have
been few piano recitals this season so thoughtfully curated as the one that Pierre-Laurent
Aimard gave. … A fascinating, unforgettable concert.” [Feb 23: Philadelphia; Feb 25:
Chicago; Feb 27: San Francisco]

Feb 27
ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE’S (OSL) – “one of the most versatile and galvanic ensembles in the
U.S.” (WQXR) – performs Carmina Burana in Carnegie Hall, conducted by Tito Muñoz and
featuring soprano Ying Fang, tenor NICHOLAS PHAN and baritone Norman Garrett. The
performance is one of a record six mainstage appearances at Carnegie Hall during the
orchestra’s 2023-24 season. [NYC/CH]

Feb 27–March 9
The Grammy Award-winning LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA’S historic multi-season “In
Harmony” statewide tour of Kentucky continues with virtuoso fiddler Michael Cleveland
and his band, Flamekeeper, performing with the orchestra at six destinations around
Kentucky. In addition to Cleveland’s set with the orchestra, the program also includes music
of Dvořák, Bizet, Copland, Carlos Simon and members of the Louisville Orchestra Creators
Corps. “Combining music-making with public service and orchestrating community in every
corner of the city and state” (PBS Newshour), the partnership of Music Director Teddy
Abrams and the Louisville Orchestra has helped “reclaim its reputation as one of the most
innovative in the United States.” (New York Times). [Feb 27: Corbin; Feb 28: Frankfort;
March 2: Paducah; March 5: Bowling Green; March 8: Danville; March 9: Fort Knox]

Feb 29; March 1
Émigré, a new oratorio by Pulitzer Prize-nominated American composer AARON ZIGMAN,
receives its U.S. premiere from the co-commissioning New York Philharmonic. Set to text by
Grammy winner Mark Campbell, with additional lyrics by Brock Walsh, Zigman’s 90-minute
work tells the story of Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai to escape the Holocaust. As at
its recent first performances in China, where it was pronounced “a clear winner” (Interlude,
Hong Kong), Émigré will feature an international cast led by conductor Long Yu, now in a
semi-staged production by Mary Birnbaum. [NYC/DGH].

MARCH 2024

March 1–3
Fabio Luisi and the DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA present Franz Schmidt’s The Book
with Seven Seals to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, also
recording the performance for future release. Schmidt wrote four symphonies, two operas
and works for piano and organ, but his monumental achievement is this oratorio, of which
Luisi is a longtime champion. Soloists are tenor Paul Appleby, bass Franz-Josef Selig,
soprano Meghan Kasanders, mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, tenor Matthew Pearce and
bass-baritone Hadleigh Adams, along with the Dallas Symphony Chorus. [March 1, 2, 3:
Dallas]

March 1–30; May 1; June 9-11
Having worked closely with Olivier Messiaen since studying with Yvonne Loriod, the late
composer’s wife, pianist PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD has consistently proven himself “a
peerless interpreter of Messiaen’s music” (Boston Globe). This spring, he joins the
Cincinnati Symphony and Matthias Pintscher for multimedia performances of the great
French composer’s Des canyons aux étoiles before heading to Europe for three more
Messiaen masterpieces. He plays Oiseaux exotiques with Cristian Măcelaru and the
Orchestre national de France; gives a solo recital of the Catalogue d’oiseaux in St. Pölten,
Austria; and joins Myung-whun Chung and the Staatskapelle Dresden for the
Turangalîla-Symphonie. [March 1, 2: Cincinnati; March 30: Paris; May 1: St. Pölten, Austria;
June 9–11: Dresden]

March 2–10
THE ATLANTA OPERA presents Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring
the company debut of Grammy-winning countertenor Iestyn Davies – also the recipient of
two Gramophone Awards, a Critics Circle Award and an MBE for services to music in the
Queen’s New Years Honours List 2017 – as Oberon. His counterpart Tytania will be sung by
soprano Liv Redpath. A trio of Atlanta Opera favorites are also featured: mezzo-soprano
Megan Marino and bass Kevin Burdette, both of whom appeared as members of The Atlanta
Opera’s Company Players at the height of the pandemic, perform the roles of Puck and
Bottom, respectively, and soprano Susanne Burgess, most recently seen as Mabel in Pirates
of Penzance, sings Helena. Chas Rader-Schieber directs, and rising young conductor Louis
Lohraseb will be on the podium. [March 2, 5, 8, 10: Atlanta]

March 6, 7
Cellist ALISA WEILERSTEIN rejoins longtime recital partner Inon Barnatan for back-to-back
performances in the UK and Spain. First, in London’s Wigmore Hall, they give a recital of
cello sonatas by Britten and Brahms. The next day they present Beethoven’s complete cello
sonatas – as heard on their most recent Pentatone release – in Barcelona. [March 6:
London; March 7: Barcelona]

March 8–10
Now in his sixth season as Music Director and Concertmaster of California’s New Century
Chamber Orchestra (NCCO), DANIEL HOPE and the NCCO perform Haydn’s First Cello
Concerto with American cellist Sterling Elliott, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, and works by Gluck
and Bloch in San Francisco and Stanford. [March 8, 9: San Francisco; March 10: Stanford,
CA]

March 9–17
As one of today’s foremost film conductors, ANTHONY PARNTHER is “Hollywood’s go-to
conductor for epic projects” (Billboard). This March, in concerts that mark his debuts with
both the St. Louis and Nashville Symphonies, he leads live-to-picture performances of
Encanto: In Concert. The Disney animation’s chart-topping score combines original songs by
Lin-Manuel Miranda with music by Germaine Franco. [March 9, 10: St. Louis, MO; March 16,
17: Nashville, TN]

March 15
The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra / OSM) and Music
Director RAFAEL PAYARE expand their Pentatone discography with a pairing of Richard
Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben and Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, featuring International Opera
Award-winning Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva. The new release follows the success of
the Venezuelan conductor’s first Pentatone recording with OSM, which offers “a reading of
Mahler’s Fifth of intensity and rich orchestral exploration, a real marker in their ongoing
partnership” (Gramophone).

March 16–April 18
ALAN GILBERT conducts Wagner’s Parsifal at the Royal Swedish Opera, where he has been
Music Director since spring 2021. Directed by International Opera Award winner Christof
Loy, the six-performance run stars tenor Joachim Bäckström in the title role, with
mezzo-soprano Miriam Treichl as Kundry and baritone Peter Mattei, Musical America’s
Vocalist of the Year 2020, as Amfortas. [March 16, 23, 29; April 1, 13, 18: Stockholm]

March 18
Pianist DANIIL TRIFONOV gives a solo recital of Rameau’s Suite in A minor, Mozart’s
Twelfth Piano Sonata, Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses and Beethoven’s
“Hammerklavier” Sonata in Dallas. According to Der Standard, his account of the same
program recently made for “a miracle evening” at the Vienna Konzerthaus. [Dallas]

March 20–April 18
In spring appearances with two important European orchestras, conductor RAFAEL
PAYARE continues his exploration of the great tone poems of Richard Strauss. First, he
returns to Zurich’s famed Tonhalle Orchestra with a program that includes Ein Heldenleben,
as heard on his March 15 Pentatone release. Next he makes his Orchestre national de
France debut with Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra, Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto,
featuring James Ehnes, and the world premiere of a new Radio France commission: Bechara
El-Khoury’s Concerto for Orchestra, “Le Mont Hermon, la montagne sacrée.” [March 20, 21:
Zurich; April 18: Paris]

March 22, 23
Hailed as “a conductor for the future” (New York Times), ANTHONY PARNTHER makes his
San Antonio Philharmonic debut with a program combining Schumann’s Third Symphony,
the “Rhenish,” with Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A minor and Mozart’s 20th Piano
Concerto, featuring David Kaplan as soloist. [San Antonio, TX]

March 24
Grammy-winning baritone Will Liverman, star of Terence Blanchard’s 2021-22
season-opening Fire Shut Up in My Bones at the Met, makes his CARAMOOR debut with an
intimate recital in the Rosen House Music Room. [Katonah, NY]

March 28–30
The DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (DSO) under the baton of Music Director Fabio Luisi
gives the world premiere of Anna Clyne’s new DSO-commissioned Piano Concerto,
performed by soloist Jeremy Denk and sharing the bill with Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in
C-sharp minor. [March 28, 29, 30: Dallas]

APRIL 2024

April 3, 6
ALISA WEILERSTEIN – recognized as one of the leading exponents of Bach’s six suites for
unaccompanied cello – gives a performance at New York’s 92NY comprising Bach’s first and
third suites, Kodály’s B-minor Sonata for solo cello and Joan Tower’s For Alisa, one of the
new works featured in the cellist’s major new multisensory performance series,
“FRAGMENTS.” A few days later, Weilerstein premieres the fourth installment of
FRAGMENTS at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington, DC along with a
performance of FRAGMENTS 2 on the same day. Previewing last season’s Carnegie Hall
performance, the New York Times observed: “It is hard to think of many soloists of a similar
stature who would dare to bring anything like it to the stage.” [April 3: NYC/92NY; April 6:
Washington, DC]

April 4–6
Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera from 2011-17, DALLAS SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA (DSO) Music Director Fabio Luisi is always particularly in his element
conducting vocal music. He leads the orchestra along with the Dallas Symphony Chorus in
Brahms’s A German Requiem, with soprano Golda Schultz, making her DSO debut, and
baritone Matthias Goerne, a frequent DSO collaborator, as soloists. [April 4, 5, 6: Dallas]

April 5; April 23–May 17
MacArthur award-winning conductor MARIN ALSOP and Vienna’s ORF Radio Symphony
Orchestra release a new recording of John Adams’s orchestral works on Naxos. The
upcoming album showcases Adams’s City Noir, a symphony inspired by L.A.’s ‘noir’ films;
Fearful Symmetries, with a “distinctly urban feel,” as described by the composer; and the
debut recording of Lola Montez does the Spider Dance, written for Alsop as a farewell gift to
the conductor after her unprecedented 25-year tenure as Music Director of California’s
Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and of which Alsop notes, “like everything John
composes, it is filled with humor, heart, and brilliance.” Later in April, Alsop makes her
Metropolitan Opera debut, leading a fully staged new production of John Adams’s Christmas
oratorio, El Niño. Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, this stars Grammy Award winner JULIA
BULLOCK and baritone Davóne Tines, both also making company debuts, and
mezzo-sopranos J’Nai Bridges and Daniela Mack, who take turns to complete the trio of
principals. [April 5: CD Release; April 23, 27; May 1, 4, 8, 11, 17: NYC/Met]

April 7, 8
Violinist TESSA LARK, a Kentucky native equally well-known as a classical musician and for
her ability as a fiddler in the Appalachian and bluegrass traditions, turns her stylistic
versatility to Astor Piazzolla’s tango-inflected The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires with the
Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra led by John Morris Russell. [Hilton Head Island, SC]

April 15–19
GATEWAYS MUSIC FESTIVAL makes its Chicago debut with a weeklong spring residency.
This culminates with a performance in Orchestra Hall, where the full Gateways Festival
Orchestra juxtaposes Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations with works by Coleridge-Taylor
Perkinson and Margaret Bonds, two African-American composers with Chicago
connections, under the baton of ANTHONY PARNTHER, who previously led Gateways’
sold-out Carnegie Hall debut. Also featuring a special set by eight-time Grammy-winning
vocal sextet Take 6 (April 19), the concert concludes a full week of events in Chicago. The
Gateways Chamber Players reunite with Tai Murray and Phylicia Rashad for a reprise of
their DC program at Northwestern University (April 15); St. Mark United Methodist Church
hosts a program of chamber music (April 16); the Gateways Brass Collective performs in
the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert series (April 17); Stewart Goodyear, “one of the best
pianists of his generation” (Philadelphia Inquirer), gives a solo recital at Northwestern
(April 17); and, at the South Shore Cultural Center, Gateways presents both a Paul J. Burgett
lecture & community conversation and a chamber concert showcasing local musicians of
African descent (April 18). [Chicago]

April 18
At New York’s Kaufman Music Center, multiple Grammy Award-winning, San
Francisco-based vocal ensemble CHANTICLEER performs the nature-inspired program
“Music of a Silent World,” featuring newly commissioned choral arrangements from The
Rivers are our Brothers by Majel Connery and “I miss you like I miss the trees” on the
subject of wildfires by Chanticleer composer-in-residence Ayanna Woods. Connery’s work
is a song cycle on ecological responsibility told from the point of view of the land. Each
movement represents a different part of the Sierra Nevada’s natural beauty, from its
mountains to its forests, rocks, rivers, and snowbanks. The title of the cycle is based on a
quote from the Native American leader Chief Seattle, who believed humans must relate to
their environment the way they relate to their closest kin. “The goal,” says Connery, “is to
give nature a voice. I wanted to allow these vibrant things to speak on their own behalf.” As
a solo song cycle, the work was first performed in the Sierra Valley as part of Musica
Sierra’s Musical Headwaters program in 2021, and Musica Sierra served as
co-commissioner with Chanticleer of the six choral arrangements to be performed in the
coming season. “Music of a Silent World” also includes music by Heinrich Isaac and Max
Reger; and new arrangements of “Wildflowers” by Tom Petty and “The Weather” by
Lawrence. [NYC/KMC]

April 19–May 4
“One of finest musicians working today” (Washington Post), celebrated Norwegian pianist
LEIF OVE ANDSNES performs Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto with two American
orchestras this spring, first joining Manfred Honeck for concerts with the Pittsburgh
Symphony, and then collaborating with Lahav Shani and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic, Andsnes’s account of the Russian composer’s first
two piano concertos was recognized with a Gramophone Award. [April 19, 21: Pittsburgh;
May 3, 4: Philadelphia]

April 20
Known for the “communicative verve and thrilling beauty” (New York Times) of her voice,
soprano KATHRYN LEWEK stars in the world premiere of Music for New Bodies by
MacArthur award-winning composer Matthew Aucoin and director Peter Sellars. Inspired
by the writings of Jorie Graham and pioneering environmentalist Rachel Carson, the new
work offers an immersion in vast planetary processes. A co-commission of the DaCamera
ensemble, Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, LA Opera, AMOC (American Modern
Opera Company) and ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL, it will receive its first
performance at the Shepherd School, anchored by DaCamera under the composer’s
leadership. [Houston, TX]

April 21–23
ANTHONY PARNTHER joins narrator Jann Arden and a 40-piece orchestra in Calgary,
Alberta, for the world premiere of National Geographic’s film concert Secrets of the Whales.
Offering a condensed version of the Emmy-winning Disney+ documentary series of the
same name, this live-to-picture performance will feature new orchestrations by composer
Raphaelle Thibaut. [April 21, 22, 23: Calgary, AB]

April 23–30
LEIF OVE ANDSNES plays piano quintets by Brahms and Dohnányi with the
Grammy-nominated Dover Quartet on a five-city North American tour. Bookended by dates
at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in New York City, this
takes them to San Francisco, Toronto and Aliso Viejo, CA, where Andsnes also performs
selections from Brahms’s Fantasies for solo piano. [April 23: Washington, DC; April 25: San
Francisco; April 26: Aliso Viejo, CA; April 28: Toronto; April 30: NYC/CH]

April 25–28
Tenor NICHOLAS PHAN sings Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Boston Baroque
and its Music Director, Martin Pearlman. Directed by Chuck Hudson, the staged production
also features Sidney Outlaw and Susanna Phillips. [April 25, 26, 28: Boston]

April 25–30
Combining popular music and classical rarities from Europe before World War I, DANIEL
HOPE’s Belle Époque was hailed as “an ingenious, gorgeous concept album” (Telegraph, UK).
This spring, the violinist reunites with pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips, his partner on the
recording, for recitals of similar repertoire in St. Paul’s Schubert Club International Artist
Series and at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, where their program also includes the U.S.
premiere of Fantasy Suite 1803 by Jake Heggie. [April 25, 26: St. Paul, MN; April 30: San
Francisco]

April 26, 27
Chief Conductor ALAN GILBERT leads the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in concerts
launching the 2024 Hamburg International Music Festival. In keeping with the festival’s
theme of “War and Peace,” their program features baritone Thomas Hampson in Four Walt
Whitman Songs – Kurt Weill’s post-Pearl Harbor setting of four of Whitman’s Civil War
poems – alongside Gilbert’s celebrated interpretation of Ives’s Fourth Symphony and Friede
auf Erden (“Peace on Earth”), a choral work by Schoenberg, whose 150th anniversary falls
this year. [Hamburg]

April 27–May 5
Recently joining the ranks of America’s top ten opera companies in budget size, THE
ATLANTA OPERA returns to Wagner’s Ring cycle with a new production of Die Walküre
directed by General and Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun. Greer Grimsley reprises his role as
Wotan after making his company debut in 2022-23’s Das Rheingold, joined by the “big,
radiant voice” (Seattle Times) of Wendy Bryn Harmer as Brünnhilde and Russian-American
tenor Viktor Antipenko as Siegmund. Both Harmer and Antipenko will be making company
debuts. As with Rheingold, this new Atlanta Opera production is directed by Zvulun in
collaboration with scenic and projections designer Erhard Rom and lighting designer
Robert Wierzel, with costumes by European Opera Prize-winner Mattie Ullrich. The Atlanta
Opera’s Carl & Sally Gable music director, Arthur Fagen, will conduct. [April 27, 30; May 3,
5: Atlanta]

April 28
Following last year’s centennial celebrations of the birth of György Ligeti, with whom he
shared an intimate working relationship until the Hungarian composer’s death in 2006,
PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD performs Ligeti’s Musica ricercata at the Théâtre des
Champs-Elysées in Paris. There it shares a program with 20th-century works by
Schoenberg, Cage and György Kurtág, all interspersed with selections from Nobel laureate
Imre Kertész’s Being Without Destiny, as read by French-Greek character actor Denis
Podalydès. [Paris]

MAY 2024

May 1–5
Beginning in May 2024, the DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (DSO) and Fabio Luisi will
present an opera-in-concert version of Richard Wagner’s complete Der Ring des Nibelungen,
becoming the first U.S. orchestra in recent history to do so. The project debuts on May 1,
with Das Rheingold and Die Walküre premiering on consecutive nights. Bass-baritone Mark
Delavan sings the role of Wotan, with soprano Sara Jakubiak and tenor Christopher Ventris
– both making their DSO debuts – portraying Sieglinde and Siegmund respectively. The
cycle continues in fall 2024 with Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, followed by a week-long
presentation of the full cycle. [Das Rheingold, May 1, 4; Die Walküre, May 2, 5: Dallas]

May 5
ANTHONY PARNTHER’s interpretation of Florence Price’s Third Symphony has been called
“a revelation” that “should be the benchmark for how this wonderful music goes” (ArtsATL).
For the conductor’s upcoming return to Virginia’s Richmond Symphony, he programs the
work alongside Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony and Mozart’s Fourth Horn Concerto, with
horn soloist Dominic Rotella. [Richmond, VA]

May 7
Cellist ALISA WEILERSTEIN, an ardent champion of new music whose
composer-collaborators have included Pascal Dusapin, Matthias Pintscher, Joseph Hallman,
Lera Auerbach and Osvaldo Golijov, joins percussion ensemble Sandbox at the Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center to play Tan Dun’s Elegy: Snow in June for Cello and
Percussion Quartet. [NYC/ATH]

May 9
ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE’S, led by Principal Conductor Bernard Labadie, performs an
all-Brahms program at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Centered on A German Requiem, the
program features soprano Erin Morley, baritone Andrè Schuen, La Chapelle de Québec and
Ensemble Altera. [NYC/CH]

May 10, 11
Teddy Abrams and the LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA present “Creators Fest,” spotlighting the
three current members of the orchestra’s groundbreaking Creators Corps initiative, a
radically new, community-focused model for collaborating with symphony orchestras in
the 21st century. Large-scale commissioned works by Alex Berko, Tanner Porter and Nkeiru
Okoye will be performed in the program. Works by each of these composers can also be
heard on separate concerts this winter and spring. [Louisville]

May 15
Pianist Seong-Jin Cho, first-prize winner at the 2015 Chopin International Competition,
plays a program of Haydn, Ravel and Liszt in the intimate surroundings of CARAMOOR’s
Rosen House Music Room. [Katonah, NY]

May 16–26
KATHRYN LEWEK reprises her star turn as Mozart’s Queen of the Night in a new staged
production of The Magic Flute for the Cleveland Orchestra and music director Franz
Welser-Möst. The coloratura soprano has already sung the role more than 300 times with
companies around the world, giving a record 54 performances at New York’s Metropolitan
Opera; as the New Yorker’s Alex Ross observes, “she executes this stratospherically difficult
role better than anyone alive.” [May 16, 18, 24, 26: Cleveland, OH]

May 24

With A Change Is Gonna Come, Grammy-nominated tenor NICHOLAS PHAN comes together with vocalist Farayi Malek and PALAVER STRINGS, a musician-led string ensemble based in Portland, Maine, to explore America’s rich legacy of protest songs. Repertoire on the new album, which will be available on the Azica label, includes traditional songs of protest and music inspired by social movements and historical events, including Sam Cooke’s famous civil rights anthem which gives the album its title, and the world premiere recording of Errollyn Wallen’s Protest Songs, as well as classic anthems by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger, and Phil Ochs. Spanning genres, eras, and movements, A Change Is Gonna Come provokes conversation, confronts the past and present, and celebrates the act of protest as a vital human right.

May 28–30
Music Director RAFAEL PAYARE draws the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM)’s
90th anniversary season to a close with a program showcasing four renowned organists at
the helm of OSM’s Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique. To honor the instrument’s tenth anniversary,
OSM organist-in-residence Jean-Willy Kunz joins them for the world premiere of a new OSM
commission from Quebec composer Denis Gougeon; Shin-Young Lee undertakes the solo
role in Barber’s Toccata festiva; Isabelle Demers graces Jongen’s Symphonie concertante;
and OSM organist emeritus Olivier Latry is the soloist in Saint-Saëns’s “Organ Symphony,” a
crown jewel of the orchestral organ repertoire. [May 28, 29, 30: Montreal]

May 30
To conclude his year-long tenure as 2023-24 Artist-in-Residence of New York’s Kaufman
Music Center, tenor NICHOLAS PHAN gives a recital with pianist Myra Huang and the Jasper
String Quartet. His program features the world premiere of a new song cycle about climate
change by Vivian Fung. [NYC/KMC]

May 30–June 1
Grammy winner Manfred Honeck returns to the CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (CSO)
for the world premiere of a new Percussion Concerto, commissioned by the orchestra from
the CSO’s Mead Composer-in-Residence, Jessie Montgomery. Featuring CSO Principal
Percussionist Cynthia Yeh, this will share the program with Honeck’s celebrated
interpretation of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony. [May 30, 31; June 1: Chicago]

JUNE 2024

June 2–9
Grammy-winning vocal ensemble CHANTICLEER presents an early-music program focused
on French composer and poet Guillaume de Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame. One of the
leading minds of the Middle Ages, Machaut created with this masterpiece one of the first
multi-movement, large-scale notated compositions to exist in the Western canon; the LA
Times has called it the “genesis of modern music.” Sharing the program with Machaut’s
magnum opus are secular songs of minstrels and bards from the Middle Ages. [June 2:
Sacramento, CA; June 7: San Francisco; June 8: Santa Clara, CA; June 9: Berkeley, CA]

June 4–25
ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE’S (OSL) returns to Carnegie’s Zankel Hall to celebrate J. S. Bach’s
musical legacy with its annual OSL Bach Festival. For the first performance, conductor and
Baroque music specialist Jeannette Sorrell leads OSL in an all-Bach program that includes
the Third and Fourth Brandenburg Concertos and the cantata Jauchzet Gott In allen Landen,
BWV 51, featuring soprano Joélle Harvey, recently lauded by the Observer as a “bright,
vivacious star.” OSL Principal Conductor Bernard Labadie, renowned worldwide for his
interpretations of 18th-century repertoire, leads the second of the festival’s three
programs. He leads guest soloist Augustin Hadelich in a program that centers on Bach’s
transcriptions of his own works for other instruments, in this case the Violin Concerto in D
minor and the Harpsichord Concerto in F minor, transcribed for violin in G minor. The
festival concludes with a program titled “Bach and Sons,” featuring the music of Johann
Christian and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach along with that of their father. Kristian
Bezuidenhout, whom the Guardian declares “above all … knows how to make a fortepiano
sing,” makes his OSL debut as both conductor and soloist in the program, which concludes
with an early masterpiece by the Bach family’s spiritual descendant, Mozart. [June 4, 18, 25:
NYC/CH]

June 6, 13
ALISA WEILERSTEIN gives two orchestral performances in the UK, joining Ryan Bancroft
and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, before performing the
Barber concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra led by Kevin John
Edusei. [June 6: Cardiff; June 13: Birmingham, UK]

June 7, 14
MARIN ALSOP returns to the podiums of two great European orchestras for evenings
bookended by Jessie Montgomery’s Strum and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. With the
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris, these works flank Gershwin’s Piano
Concerto, featuring Marc-André Hamelin as soloist, and with Amsterdam’s Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Alsop completes the program with Fearful Symmetries by John
Adams, with whose El Niño she makes her Met debut earlier in the spring. [June 7: Paris;
June 14: Amsterdam]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Abbreviations for New York City concert venues are as follows:

ATH = Alice Tully Hall
CH = Carnegie Hall
DGH = David Geffen Hall
KMC = Kaufman Music Center
Met = Metropolitan Opera
92NY = 92nd Street Y