Conductor Anthony Parnther in 2024-25: The Central Park Five at Detroit Opera; Gateways Festival Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; dates with New York Philharmonic, Cleveland & Philadelphia Orchestras; more

(September 2024) — This season, Anthony Parnther leads a revival of Anthony Davis’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, The Central Park Five, at Detroit Opera; makes his second appearance at New York’s Carnegie Hall with the all-Black Gateways Festival Orchestra; makes his Seattle Symphony debut; and returns to such prominent ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, and National and Houston Symphonies. Deeply committed to education, he also makes his debut at Rochester’s Eastman School of Music with a two-week residency, capped by a pair of orchestral performances, and conducts concerts by both the RISE Orchestra and Civic Orchestra of Los Angeles, two of the innovative career pathway programs he has founded to help young musicians from underserved communities. As the New York Timesobserves, Parnther is “a conductor for the future” with “a flourishing career.”

The Central Park Five at Detroit Opera

The Central Park Five (2019) is a two-act opera about the miscarriage of justice perpetrated in 1989, when five Black and Latino teenagers were wrongfully convicted of raping and savagely beating a white female jogger in New York’s Central Park. Set to a libretto by Drama Desk Award-winning playwright and screenwriter Richard Wesley, its score is by Anthony Davis, hailed as one of the “great living American composers” (New York Times). When awarding Davis the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Music for the opera, the jury described it as “a courageous operatic work, marked by powerful vocal writing and sensitive orchestration, that skillfully transforms a notorious example of contemporary injustice into something empathetic and hopeful.”

The Central Park Five received its world premiere production at Los Angeles’s Long Beach Opera, where Parnther, who has long “used his platforms and rising profile to champion Black composers” (New York Times), led its subsequent revival in 2022, followed by a studio recording session. After witnessing the live performance, the Los Angeles Times marveled: “Parnther conducted with gripping authority. … The recording promises to be essential.”

It is under Parnther’s leadership that Detroit Opera revives Davis’s opera, this time in a production by Nataki Garrett, artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The five falsely accused teens will be sung by baritone Markel Reed, bass-baritone Justin Hopkins, and tenors Chaz’men Williams-Ali, Frederick Ballentine, and – in a reprise of the role he created – Nathan Granner, with mezzo soprano Catherine Martin as the Assistant District Attorney and, as in 2022, lyric tenor Todd Strange as Donald Trump (May 10, 16, & 18).

Return to Carnegie Hall with Gateways Festival Orchestra

Next spring also sees Parnther return to Gateways Festival Orchestra (GFO), whose members are drawn from leading symphony orchestras and music faculties nationwide. Having previously helmed the all-Black ensemble at both its recent Chicago debut and its historic, sold-out Carnegie Hall one, which showcased a world premiere from Jon Batiste, this season he conducts GFO in a thoughtfully curated program of Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony, Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, and selected songs and spirituals featuring Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges. After previewing this program at Rochester’s Eastman School of Music (April 24), Parnther, Bridges, and GFO perform it on the main stage of New York’s Carnegie Hall (April 27), where Dawson’s symphony originally premiered in 1935. Marking Gateways’ first Carnegie Hall appearance since making its debut there with Parnther in 2022, the April 27 concert will stream live to home audiences worldwide as part of WQXR’s Live from Carnegie Hall series.

Classical programs with Charlotte, Indianapolis, Nashville, & Virginia Symphonies

Known for his “charismatic, captivating conducting” (Los Angeles Times), Parnther completes his classical lineup with returns to the podiums of four U.S. symphony orchestras. With the Charlotte Symphony, he leads a performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto featuring “Bay Area violin prodigy” Amaryn Olmeda (San Francisco Chronicle), bookended by Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A minor and Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony (Nov 8). A champion of Coleridge-Taylor’s work, Parnther previously made the Ballade a centerpiece of his historic re-opening concert for London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, at which the pioneering Black British composer’s great-great-grandson and great-great-great-grandson were both in attendance. After seasonal performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Virginia Symphony (Dec 19–21), Parnther returns next spring to the Nashville Symphony for Mendelssohn’s Fifth Symphony (April 11 & 12) and to the Indianapolis Symphony for Beethoven’s Eighth (March 20). Already celebrated in Beethoven, his account of the composer’s Fourth impressed The Guardian as “a high voltage interpretation that maintained a fine balance between detail and elan,” of which “the finale was edge-of-your-seat stuff.”

Educational residencies at Cleveland Institute & Eastman School

Parnther undertakes residencies and performances at two of the nation’s preeminent music schools this fall. After serving as a member of the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM)’s guest faculty in 2022-23, he returned earlier this month to open the CIM Orchestra’s new season with a performance of Schumann’s “Rhenish” Symphony. Next he makes his Eastman School of Music debut at New York’s University of Rochester with a two-week residency crowned by orchestral concerts of Brahms, Dvořák, and Grant Stillwith the Eastman Philharmonia (Oct 21) and of Beethoven, Gustav and Alma Mahler, and Valerie Coleman with the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra (Oct 23). As well as leading multiple rehearsals with both ensembles before the performances, he looks forward to giving individual lessons to Eastman’s graduate conducting students over the course of the two-week residency (Oct 7–23).

Film projects & special events: NY Phil, Cleveland & Philadelphia Orchs; Houston, Seattle, & National Symphonies

“The quintessential L.A. musician of our day” (Los Angeles Times), Parnther is “Hollywood’s go-to conductor for epic projects” (Billboard). As one of today’s foremost film conductors, he has helmed a host of blockbuster film scores and is regularly invited to lead high-profile live-to-film events. This season, he returns to the New York Philharmonic for three performances of Jaws in concert, featuring John Williams’s iconic Oscar- and Grammy-winning score (Sep 26–28). He joins the Houston Symphonyfor Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in concert, as scored by Danny Elfman (Nov 16 & 17); leads the Philadelphia Orchestra’s accounts of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in concert, again scored by Williams (Nov 29 & 30); and joins both The Cleveland Orchestra (March 28 & 29) and Fort Worth Symphony (March 8) for Black Panther in concert, set to the Oscar- and Grammy-winning score by Ludwig Göransson.

At the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Parnther conducts the National Symphony Orchestra in a program of contemporary film music; curated by Oscar-winning composer Kris Bowers, of Bridgerton and The Color Purple fame, this concludes “Notes & Frames,” the orchestra’s three-week festival of music in film (June 20 & 21). Parnther also leads programs of cinematic favorites with both New York’s Buffalo Philharmonic(Feb 1) and California’s San Bernardino Symphony, of which he is the Music Director(Oct 26).

Over the holiday season, in concerts that mark his Seattle Symphony debut, he joins the orchestra for a collaboration with Tony-winning Broadway sensation Leslie Odom Jr.(Dec 3) followed by a seasonal pops concert (Dec 6–8), before returning to the San Bernardino Symphony for “A Christmas Festival” (Dec 12–14).

Innovative young artist programs in L.A.

Actively committed both to expanding career opportunities for young people from underserved communities and to advocating for underrepresented talent in the concert hall, Parnther is the Artistic Director of Burbank-based nonprofit Musicians at Play(MAP), which partners Los Angeles-area schools with a vibrant community of music professionals.

Under MAP’s auspices, he has also launched two similarly transformative projects. Since 2022 he has served as Artistic Director and Conductor of the RISE Diversity Project. To recruit young musicians of color to the world of television and film, this unique career pathways project offers mentorship, coaching, and the chance to play alongside professional studio musicians on a worldclass scoring stage. The program’s annual selection and training process culminates with public performances of musical movie excerpts by this season’s newly formed RISE Orchestra. Held in Los Angeles, these will be led by Parnther himself (Feb 15 & 16).

This past spring, Parnther and MAP also founded the Civic Orchestra of Los Angeles (CO-LA), a 70-member ensemble designed to fill the gap left by the just-disbanded American Youth Symphony, formerly an important training ground for young orchestral hopefuls. As CO-LA’s Conductor and Music Director, Parnther led its inaugural concert at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles in April, when the Los Angeles Times reported:

“The pews were full for a crowd-pleasing program of emotional music. Parnther, a charismatic figure, has a growing fan base for his conducting, and he elicited hooting and hollering from the audience. He gave insightful and amusing comments preceding each piece, and his tightly balletic baton style summoned a knockout performance from musicians who, with one exception, were strangers to him before their four rehearsals.”

Through CO-LA, Parnther aims to continue providing career pathways, world-class training, and high-profile performance opportunities to young orchestral musicians. He looks forward to conducting the ensemble’s next public concert – a performance of Shostakovich’s searing Eleventh Symphony, “The Year 1905,” at the First Congressional Church of Los Angeles – early next year (Jan 18).

Recent highlights: Chicago Symphony & Cleveland Orchestra debuts, & more

Parnther’s upcoming engagements follow a full and varied summer. A master of multiple genres, who has conducted many of the world’s preeminent artists, he toured the States with twelve-time Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and pianist John Legend, performing evenings of stories and song with the Atlanta, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and San Francisco Symphonies; with the Philadelphia and Wolf Trap Orchestras; and in debutswith both The Cleveland Orchestra and San Diego Symphony.

Having led the Gateways Festival Orchestra’s Chicago debut last spring, he further strengthened his Chicago ties this past summer. After making his Grant Park Music Festival debut with back-to-back concerts – a program of John Williams’s music and a collaboration with Grammy-, Emmy-, and Oscar-winning rapper Common – the conductor concluded his summer at Ravinia, where he made his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut with Up in concert, performing Michael Giacchino’s Oscar-winning score to celebrate the Disney/Pixar blockbuster’s 15th anniversary.

Anthony Parnther: 2024-25 engagements

Sep 26–28
New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
John WILLIAMS: Jaws in concert

Oct 7–23
Rochester, NY
Eastman School of Music
Educational residency

Oct 21:
Eastman Philharmonia
DVOŘÁK: Carnival Overture
GRANT STILL: Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American Symphony”
BRAHMS: Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn

Oct 23
Eastman School Symphony Orchestra
Valerie COLEMAN: Umoja: Anthem of Unity
G. MAHLER: Selections from Das Lied von der Erde & Des Knaben Wunderhorn
A. MAHLER: Selections from Sieben Lieder
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”
(with Alanna Beilke, soprano; Emily Kondrat, mezzo-soprano; Benjamin Krutsch, tenor; Logan Dubner, baritone)

Oct 26
San Bernardino, CA
San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra
“Movies with the Maestro”

Nov 8
Charlotte, NC
Charlotte Symphony Orchestra
COLERIDGE-TAYLOR: Ballade in A minor
MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto in E minor (with Amaryn Olmeda, violin)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 9

Nov 16 & 17
Houston, TX
Houston Symphony Orchestra
Danny ELFMAN: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in concert

Nov 29 & 30
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Orchestra
John WILLIAMS: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in concert

Dec 3
Seattle, WA
Seattle Symphony Orchestra (debut)
Leslie Odom Jr.: “The Christmas Tour”

Dec 6–8
Seattle, WA
Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Holiday Pops Concert

Dec 12–14
San Bernardino, CA
San Bernardino Symphony
“A Christmas Festival”

Dec 19–21
Norfolk, VA
Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Handel: Messiah

Jan 18
Los Angeles, CA
First Congressional Church of Los Angeles
Civic Orchestra of Los Angeles (CO-LA)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 11

Feb 1
Buffalo, NY
Buffalo Philharmonic
“The Sound of Cinema”

Feb 15 & 16
Los Angeles, CA
RISE Orchestra
Film music

March 8
Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
Ludwig GÖRANSSON: Black Panther in concert

March 20
Indianapolis, IN
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 8

March 28 & 29
Cleveland, OH
The Cleveland Orchestra
Mandel Concert Hall
Ludwig GÖRANSSON: Black Panther in concert

April 11 & 12
Nashville, TN
Nashville Symphony
MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 5

April 24 & 27
Gateways Festival Orchestra
   April 24: Rochester, NY
Eastman School of Music (Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre)
   April 27: New York, NY
      Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)
DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 8
DAWSON: Negro Folk Symphony
Selected songs and spirituals (with J’Nai Bridges, mezzo-soprano)

May 10, 16, & 18
Detroit, MI
Detroit Opera
Anthony DAVIS: The Central Park Five

June 20 & 21
Washington D.C.
The Kennedy Center
National Symphony Orchestra
Kris Bowers curates: Notes & Frames: A Film & Music Festival