Teddy Abrams’s summer 2025: “In Harmony” tour with Louisville Orchestra; Artist in Residence at Aspen Ideas Festival; guest conducting at Brevard, Chautauqua, and Caramoor, plus Philadelphia Orchestra debut in Saratoga; new album out July 25

(May 2025) — This summer, Grammy winner and 2022 Musical America Conductor of the Year Teddy Abrams begins his incumbency as the Aspen Institute’s Harman/Eisner 2025–26 Artist in Residence by participating in the Aspen Ideas Festival (June 25–July 1). The year-long residency sees Abrams bring his perspective as an artist and thought leader to a variety of settings in Aspen, New York, Washington, DC and elsewhere. Back in Louisville in early July, Abrams conducts the Louisville Orchestra – where he is finishing his eleventh season as Music Director – in multiple Americana-themed programs, in two Louisville locations (July 3 & 5) and four out-of-town stops on the next leg of the statewide “In Harmony” tour (July 8–13). July also sees Abrams guest conduct at North Carolina’s Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival, joined by longtime friend and collaborator Yuja Wang for both Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto and Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand (July 23). The conductor ends the summer with three programs around New York: at the Chautauqua Institution, he leads an all-Beethoven program with pianist Alexander Kobrin as soloist (July 29); he conducts theOrchestra of St. Luke’s along with pianist Garrick Ohlsson in the Caramoor season finale concert (Aug 3); and he makes his debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in Saratoga Springs, joined by string trio Time For Three for a performance of Mason Bates’s Silicon Hymnal for string trio and orchestra, along with music of Barber and Copland (Aug 21).

On July 25, Abrams releases Preludes on New Amsterdam Records, comprising solo piano pieces composed by Abrams himself, with recorded sonic identities – ranging from a variety of instruments and techniques to added sounds and individually-tailored recording setups – developed in collaboration with co-producers Gabriel Kahane and Casey Foubert. Abrams will also perform the album in a livestreamed concert at the Brevard Festival (July 25).

Louisville Orchestra engagements

In July, Abrams and the Louisville Orchestra embark on the latest leg of “In Harmony – The Commonwealth Tour of the Louisville Orchestra.” This 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 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). Similar programs will be offered in Louisville as an upbeat to the tour, at the America Place industrial park (July 3) and the Louisville Zoo, where the orchestra resumed performances last summer after a 15-year hiatus (July 5). 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

Aspen Institute Artist in Residence

Abrams’s incumbency as the Aspen Institute’s Harman/Eisner 2025–26 Artist in Residence begins at the Aspen Ideas Festival (June 25–July 1). The conductor will offer his artistic vision to various policy programs, events, leadership activities, and more in Aspen, New York, Washington, DC and elsewhere during the year-long residency. Drawing upon the Institute’s long-established convening power and association with ideas, values and leadership, Artists in Residence engage in discussions as thought leaders rooted in the arts. Previous Harman/Eisner Artists in Residence have included Marin Alsop, Rita Moreno, Lil Buck, Ava DuVernay, Renée Fleming, Frank Gehry, Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman, Anna Deavere Smith, Robert Spano, Julie Taymor, Alfre Woodard, and others.

Guest conducting engagements

Abrams won a Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo along with the Louisville Orchestra for their collaboration with pianist Yuja Wang – his close friend and former classmate at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music – on her album The American Project, which included the world premiere recording of the Piano Concerto Abrams wrote for her. This summer, the conductor and pianist reunite at North Carolina’s Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival, where Abrams leads Wang and the Brevard Music Center Orchestra in Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto and Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand. Also on the program are Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and the March and Scherzo from Prokofiev’s opera The Love for Three Oranges. (July 23).

Abrams’s summer is rounded out with three performances around the state of New York. At the Chautauqua Institution he leads pianist Alexander Kobrin in Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, on a program with the same composer’s Seventh Symphony (July 29). From there he goes to Caramoor to conduct Orchestra of St. Luke’s in the season finale concert, featuring Garrick Ohlsson in Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto along with Brahms’s First Symphony and Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte (Aug 3). Finally, in Saratoga Springs, Abrams makes his debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), joined by Grammy- and Emmy-winning trio Time For Three for a performance of Mason Bates’s Silicon Hymnal for string trio and orchestra. Described by the composer as “book of songs with a heart of electronica,” the work was co-commissioned for Time For Three by SPAC, the Louisville Orchestra, and others, following SPAC’s 2022 commission for Time for Three of Kevin Puts’s Contact, which earned them their first Grammy Award. On the same program, Abrams leads the Philadelphia Orchestra in Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Copland’s suite from the ballet Appalachian Spring (Aug 21).

Teddy Abrams: summer 2025 engagements

June 25–July 1
Aspen Ideas Festival
Artist-in-Residence

July 3, 5
Louisville, KY
Gabe Ramos, cello
Craig Wagner, guitar
SMITH/KEY: “Star-Spangled Banner”
ROSSINI: Overture to The Barber of Seville
COPLAND: El Sálon México
Carlos SIMON: The Block
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7, Mvt. II OR
Oswald HUỲNH: TBD
GULDA: Cello Concerto: I. Overture
VIVALDI: The Four Seasons: Summer, Mvts. II and III (with electric guitar solo on Mvt. III)
John WILLIAMS: Theme from Jurassic Park
John WILLIAMS: Main Title from Star Wars
TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture (finale)
SOUSA: “Stars and Stripes Forever”
July 3: America Place
July 5: Louisville Zoo

July 8–13
“In Harmony” Kentucky tour
SMITH/KEY: “Star-Spangled Banner”
ROSSINI: Overture to The Barber of Seville
COPLAND: El Sálon México
Carlos SIMON: The Block
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7, Mvt. II OR
Oswald HUỲNH: TBD
PRINE: “Paradise” (July 8, 9, 13)
TRAVIS: “Cannonball Rag” (July 8, 9, 13)
GULDA: Cello Concerto: I. Overture (July 10)
VIVALDI: The Four Seasons: Summer, Mvts. II and III (with electric guitar solo on Mvt. III)
John WILLIAMS: Theme from Jurassic Park
John WILLIAMS: Main Title from Star Wars
TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture (finale)
July 8: Glasgow (The Square)
July 9: Elizabethtown (Freeman Lake Park Bandstand)
July 10: Muhlenberg (Felix E. Martin Jr. Hall)
July 13: Bardstown (The Stephen Foster Story)

July 23
Brevard, NC
Brevard Music Center Orchestra
Yuja Wang, piano
DEBUSSY: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (“Afternoon of a Faun”)
RAVEL: Concerto for Left Hand
PROKOFIEV: March and Scherzo from The Love for Three Oranges, Op. 33
PROKOFIEV: Piano Concerto No. 2

July 25
Brevard, NC
Teddy Abrams, piano
Livestreamed performance of Preludes album

July 29
Chautauqua, NY
Chautauqua Institution
Alexander Kobrin, piano
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92

Aug 3
Katonah, NY
Caramoor
Venetian Theater
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
Caroline SHAW: Entr’acte
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 1
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68

Aug 21
Saratoga Springs, NY
Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC)
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Time For Three
BARBER: Adagio for Strings
COPLAND: Appalachian Spring Suite
Mason BATES: Silicon Hymnal, for string trio and orchestra