Louisville Orchestra announces 2025 “In Harmony” Kentucky Commonwealth Tour

(February 2025) — The Louisville Orchestra (LO) and Music Director Teddy Abrams – winners of a Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for their collaboration with pianist Yuja Wang on her album The American Project – are thrilled to announce the schedule for the 2025 edition of “In Harmony – The Commonwealth Tour of the Louisville Orchestra.” The groundbreaking community engagement initiative – just the latest ambitious undertaking contributing to Abrams’s reputation as a “Maestro of the People” who “has embedded himself in his community, breaking the mold of modern conductors” (The New York Times) – has seen remarkable success since it began in November 2022, reaching more than 34,000 Kentuckians across 43 counties through more than 154 events. The 2025 “In Harmony” tour will be split into three parts – in April, July, and September – each featuring different spotlighted performers and repertoire. For the April leg, the guest artists will be Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, returning by popular demand after previously joining the tour in February 2024 and performing orchestral arrangements of their most popular hits. In addition, this year the tour will overlap with the week of the Kentucky Derby and will include race-themed music – like Morton Feldman’s Flourishes and Galop – as well as a new concerto for pipa by current LO Creators Corps member Baldwin Giang (April 26–May 1). The July leg of the tour will be an Americana-themed celebration of the outstanding talent within the orchestra, with several featured soloists drawn from its ranks (July 8–13). The September leg will be the first time the tour stretches over a consecutive two-week period, and, because several of the destinations are in Kentucky’s Appalachian region, Copland’s Appalachian Spring will be prominently featured (Sep 11-20). Each of the tour’s performances will be free to concertgoers, thanks to multiple generous budget appropriations from the Kentucky State Legislature.

See a recap video of the 2024 edition of the In Harmony tour

“In Harmony” has redefined the concert experience, bringing the orchestra’s multidimensional talent to diverse settings – from schools to community centers – while illuminating the shared heritage of Kentucky’s communities. Collaborating artists have included Grammy Award winners Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, and violinist Tessa Lark. In 2025, some of the tour’s previous destinations will be revisited (Prestonsburg, Ashland, Bardstown, Glasgow, Harlan, Beattyville, Campbellsville), and new ones added (Greenville, Hazard, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Cumberland Falls State Resort Park). The last of these locations, Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, is the only place in Kentucky – and one of the few in the country – where it is possible to see a natural phenomenon called a “moonbow,” caused by water droplets suspended in the air refracting the light of the moon, and the performance will feature new music written by the LO Creators Corps inspired by the phenomenon. Though the tour has not previously visited the Freeman Lake Park Bandstand in Elizabethtown, the orchestra has played there in the past and looks forward to its return to a new stage that has been built in the interim.

In July, the orchestra will also debut its new mobile stage. This transformative performance venue, also made possible by the tour funding from the Kentucky State Legislature, will open up new ways for the LO to reach communities through small ensemble engagement work in locations from parks to parking lots.

About the Louisville Orchestra

The Louisville Orchestra was created in 1937 and sprang up in a time of need, just after the Ohio River Great Flood and in the wake of the Great Depression. Robert Whitney was invited to conduct the newly established orchestra, then known as the Louisville Philharmonic, and arrived from Chicago that same year. In forming the ensemble, the goal was to create a new model for the American symphony orchestra, as it was conceived through an ambitious effort that emphasized innovation through the commissioning, performance, and recording of new works by contemporary composers. The Louisville Orchestra garnered international critical acclaim, became the first orchestra to establish a record label, and cemented a place in history for its contributions to contemporary classical music. In its first two decades, the Louisville Orchestra commissioned/recorded up to 52 new works annually and ultimately created 150 vinyl recordings (LPs) of more than 450 works. The Louisville Orchestra continues to be recognized as a cornerstone of the Louisville performing arts community. Music Director Teddy Abrams has helmed the Louisville Orchestra since 2014, and the Louisville Orchestra has returned to its origins of commissioning new music and recording, having released two albums under the prestigious Decca Gold label, and winning a 2024 Grammy Award for “Best Classical Instrumental Solo” for The American Project on Deutsche Grammophon, featuring the conductor’s own Piano Concerto with its dedicatee and Abrams’s longtime friend and collaborator, Yuja Wang, as soloist. A wide variety of immersive and innovative concert performances and educational programming continue to receive national attention, including the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps, a trailblazing initiative that provides a fully funded residency for three composers who receive local housing, a salary, health benefits and dedicated workspaces; the “In Harmony” tour, a multi-season community-building project on a giant scale funded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky – which has currently allocated $4.3 million through 2026 – that takes the orchestra to every corner of the state for concerts and special community events; and the performance of Abrams’s composition Mammoth, an immersive theater work inspired by and performed in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park in 2023 with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bass-baritone Davóne Tines, and a cast of local musicians. Recent press coverage includes a feature story on PBS NewsHour and articles and mentions in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and on CBS Sunday Morning. Accolades include three invitations to perform at Carnegie Hall; the Leonard Bernstein Award for Excellence in Educational Programming; the League of American Orchestras 2019 Ford Musician Awards for Excellence in Community Service; and 19 American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) awards for adventurous programming in use of contemporary music.

Louisville Orchestra “In Harmony” Tour 2025

April tour of Eastern KY featuring Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper
GOULD: Flourishes and Galop
LISZT: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
Mason BATES: Appalachian Ayre
Baldwin GIANG: Pipa Concerto
J.S. BACH: Double Concerto, Mvt. I
SCHUMANN: Symphony No. 1, Mvt. I
TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture, Op. 49
GROFÉ: “On the Trail” from Grand Canyon Suite
April 26: Shelbyville (Martha Layne Collins High School Gym)
April 29: Prestonsburg (Mountain Arts Center)
April 30: Ashland (Paramount Arts Center)
May 1: Mt. Sterling (The Arena at Montgomery County High School)

July tour of Central KY
Repertoire TBD
July 8: Glasgow (The Square)
July 9: Elizabethtown (Freeman Lake Park Bandstand)
July 10: Muhlenberg (Felix E. Martin Jr. Hall)
July 13: Bardstown (Stephen Foster Story)

September tour of Southeastern KY
COPLAND: Appalachian Spring
Other repertoire TBD
Sep 11: Harrodsburg (Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill)
Sep 12: Beattyville (Happy Top)
Sep 13: Hazard (The Forum)
Sep 18: Campbellsville (Taylor County High School)
Sep 19: Corbin (Cumberland Falls State Park)
Sep 20: Harlan (Harlan Elementary School)

Louisville Orchestra winter/spring 2025

Feb 14 & 15
Louisville, KY
COFFEE & CLASSICS SERIES
“RAVEL’S ROMANTIC REVERIE”
Whitney Hall
Ken-David Masur, conductor
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G (Louis Lortie, piano)
TAKEMITSU: Star-Isle
RAVEL: Daphnis and Chloe

Feb 19
Louisville, KY
FILM SERIES
“RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK”
Louisville Palace
Jason Seber, conductor

Feb 22
Louisville, KY
POPS SERIES
“DECADES BACK TO THE 80S”
Louisville Palace
Bob Bernhardt, conductor

March 7
New Albany, IN
NIGHTLITES SERIES
“STRAVINSKY’S FIREBIRD”
The Ogle Center at Indiana University Southeast
Joseph Young, conductor
STRAVINSKY: The Firebird Suite

March 7 & 8
Louisville, KY
COFFEE & CLASSICS SERIES
“STRAVINSKY’S FIREBIRD”
Whitney Hall
Joseph Young, conductor
STRAVINSKY: The Firebird Suite

March 22
Louisville, KY
POPS SERIES
“A NIGHT OF SYMPHONIC BOY BANDS”
Whitney Hall
Bob Bernhardt, conductor

April 9
Louisville, KY
FILM SERIES
“HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 1”
Louisville Palace

April 11
Louisville, KY
“MICHAEL FEINSTEIN’S TRIBUTE TO TONY BENNETT”
Whitney Hall

April 11
Louisville, KY
FILM SERIES
“HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2”
Louisville Palace

April 16
Louisville, KY
“VOICE OF NATURE: THE ANTHROPOCENE WITH RENÉE FLEMING”
Whitney Hall
Teddy Abrams, conductor

May 9 & 10
Louisville, KY
COFFEE & CLASSICS SERIES
“CREATORS FEST”
Whitney Hall
Teddy Abrams, conductor
World premieres by Baldwin GIANG, Brittany J. GREEN and Oswald HUỲNH