This summer, Teddy Abrams conducts at Aspen, Carnegie Hall and Hollywood Bowl

Teddy Abrams (photo: O’Neil Arnold, courtesy of Louisville Orchestra)

(May 2024) — This summer, Grammy winner and 2022 Musical America Conductor of the Year
Teddy Abrams makes three high-profile guest conducting appearances across the U.S. With
multiple Grammy-winning mandolinist Chris Thile as soloist, he conducts the Aspen Festival
Ensemble at the Aspen Music Festival in works of Copland, Bach, Caroline Shaw, and Thile
himself (June 27). Abrams then helps to kick off World Orchestra Week (WOW!) at Carnegie Hall,
conducting a performance by NYO2 – Carnegie Hall’s “superbly talented” (New York Classical
Review) national youth orchestra for younger teens. The performance features principal players
from several of the nation’s top orchestras as soloists, and repertoire includes music of Bernstein,
Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky, as well as a Carnegie Hall co-commissioned world premiere by
Emmy Award–winning composer Jasmine Barnes (Aug 1). An additional performance of the same
program takes place on tour in Dallas a few days later (Aug 6). Finally, after last summer’s debut
at the venue, he returns to the Hollywood Bowl to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic in
Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, on a program with Agnegram by Abrams’s mentor, Michael Tilson
Thomas, who helped him get his start in conducting at the age of nine (Aug 22). In a recent feature
article about Abrams in the New York Times, Tilson Thomas said his protégé had created “a very
natural space for people to feel comfortable inside of the music.” He continued:

“He is extraordinarily devoted to helping people better understand what the music is all about,
and what they’re all about. I’ve never really seen anything quite like it, and it fills me with an
enormous sense of hope.”

When Abrams conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in August, it will be
a follow-up to last summer’s debut leading that orchestra in music of Copland, Jonathan Bailey
Holland and “genre-defying musical genius” (NPR) Chris Thile. On that occasion they gave the
West Coast premiere of Thile’s new song cycle, ATTENTION! – subtitled “A narrative song cycle for
extroverted mandolinist and orchestra,” subsequently giving the Kentucky debut of the work with
the Louisville Orchestra (LO), with which Abrams is about to embark on his eleventh season as
Music Director. They performed the piece as part of the LO’s “In Harmony” tour, a statewide
touring initiative that has recently been renewed for another two seasons of funding by the
Kentucky legislature. Abrams and Thile perform the cycle together once again at the Aspen Music
Festival the summer, with Abrams leading the Aspen Festival Ensemble, on a program with Thile’s
Escape from the Tuileries, composed with Rob Moose; Caroline Shaw’s And So; and music by
Copland and Bach (June 27).

Conducting the opening performance of World Orchestra Week (WOW!) at Carnegie Hall with
NYO2 – Carnegie Hall’s national youth orchestra for younger teens, called “a bright future for
classical music” (Musical America) – Abrams welcomes as his special guests flutist Demarre
McGill, oboist Titus Underwood, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and bassoonist Andrew Brady.
They perform Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and
Juliet Fantasy Overture, Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite, and the Carnegie Hall co-commissioned
world premiere of a new work by Jasmine Barnes, who has been previously commissioned by the
New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, and many more
(Aug 1). Following that concert, the entire program tours to Dallas for a reprise performance (Aug
6).

High-resolution photos are available here.

www.teddyabrams.com
www.louisvilleorchestra.org
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Teddy Abrams Summer 2024

June 27
Aspen, CO
Aspen Music Festival
Harris Concert Hall
Aspen Festival Ensemble
Artists of Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS
Teddy Abrams, conductor
Chris Thile, mandolin
COPLAND: Suite from Appalachian Spring
Chris THILE/Rob MOOSE: Escape from the Tuileries
Caroline SHAW: And So
J.S. BACH: Allegro from Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra in D minor, BWV 1043
Chris THILE: ATTENTION! A narrative song cycle for extroverted mandolinist and orchestra

Aug 1
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall
World Orchestra Week (WOW!)
NYO2
Teddy Abrams, conductor
Demarre McGill, flute
Titus Underwood, oboe
Anthony McGill, clarinet
Andrew Brady, bassoon
BERNSTEIN: “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story
Jasmine BARNES: New work (world premiere; co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall)
TCHAIKOVSKY: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
STRAVINSKY: The Firebird Suite (1919 version)

Aug 6
Dallas, TX
NYO2
Teddy Abrams, conductor
Demarre McGill, flute
Titus Underwood, oboe
Anthony McGill, clarinet
Andrew Brady, bassoon
BERNSTEIN: “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story
Jasmine BARNES: New work (world premiere; co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall)
TCHAIKOVSKY: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
STRAVINSKY: The Firebird Suite (1919 version)

Aug 22
Los Angeles, CA
Hollywood Bowl
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Teddy Abrams, conductor
Michael TILSON THOMAS: Agnegram
STRAVINSKY: The Rite of Spring

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© 21C Media Group, May 2024