Co-Chairmen of the New York Philharmonic Board, Peter W. May and Oscar L. Tang announced that beginning Jan. 1, 2025, Matías Tarnopolsky will be the New York Philharmonic’s new President and CEO.
Photo credit: Jeff Fusco
Over the last 20 years, Tarnopolsky has held prominent artistic positions at orchestras worldwide. Before being the current the president and CEO of The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, Tarnopolsky was the executive and artistic director of Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley. He has also served as Vice President of Artistic Planning at the New York Philharmonic from 2005 to 2009, and has held that position with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra as well.
During his tenure with the Philadelphia Orchestra from 2018 to 2024, he achieved many significant milestones including the merger of the orchestra with the Kimmel Center in 2021, resulting in the establishment of The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts. He also oversaw the rededication of the orchestra’s home as Marian Anderson Hall, which represented a groundbreaking approach to diverse programming. From 2009 to 2018, he worked at Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, the largest multidisciplinary arts presenter and producer based at a university in the country. During his time there, he launched Berkeley RADICAL (Research and Development Initiative in Creativity Arts and Learning), which included a residency featuring Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Orchestra of Venezuela.
New York Philharmonic Board Co-Chairmen Peter W. May and Oscar L. Tang said: “Matías Tarnopolsky is a singular figure among orchestral leaders. Building on his lifelong love for our art form, he has forged impactful collaborations with orchestral musicians and dynamic artistic leaders. He is also a force for innovation who has created new ways of connecting with communities and tapping into emerging technologies. His extensive executive experience is enhanced by his time on the ground at the Philharmonic, when he oversaw artistic planning, giving him unusual insight into New York City’s vibrant cultural landscape. We know that Matías will be a visionary partner for Gustavo Dudamel as we prepare for his arrival as our next Music and Artistic Director.”
The New York Philharmonic‘s January schedule has been fully announced and will feature 20 concerts throughout the month from Nathalie Stutzmann, Kevin John Edusei, artist-in-residence Yuja Wang, and many more.
The Wu Tsai Theater at David Geffen Hall will host these performances in January:
From January 2–4 and 7, Kevin John Edusei, in his New York Philharmonic debut, will conduct Samy Moussa’s Elysium, Berlioz’s song cycle Les Nuits d’été featuring mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, and Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra.
On Jan. 8, 9, and 11, Daniele Rustioni, also making his Philharmonic debut, will lead the Overture to Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s The Merchant of Venice, Dvořák’s Violin Concerto featuring soloist Joshua Bell, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.
On Jan. 12 at 3:00 pm, as part of the New York Philharmonic Ensembles series at Merkin Hall, Philharmonic musicians will perform Haydn’s String Quartet in G major, Turina’s Piano Trio No. 2, Moszkowski’s Suite for Two Violins and Piano, and Britten’s String Quartet No. 1.
On Jan. 16, 18, and 19, Nathalie Stutzmann, a 2024–25 Artistic Partner, will conduct The Ring Without Words, Lorin Maazel’s orchestral arrangement of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
On Jan. 17 at 7:30 pm, the Bach: From Darkness to Light concert, presented by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, will take place at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. Conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann, the program includes Cantata BWV 56 (Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen) featuring baritone Leon Košavić (NY Phil debut) and singers from Voices of Harlem, directed by Malcolm J. Merriweather, as well as Cantata BWV 51 (Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen) with soprano Talise Trevigne (NY Phil debut). The evening will also feature Bach’s Sonata sopra il soggetto reale from Musical Offering, performed without a conductor.
From Jan. 23–25, pianist Yuja Wang will debut as the Philharmonic’s 2024–25 Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence. Her residency includes a Kravis Nightcap performance on Jan. 25 at 9:30 p.m., featuring choreographer and ballerina Tiler Peck alongside musicians from the Philharmonic. Additional details about her residency will be announced soon.
On Jan. 25 at 2:00 pm, David Robertson will present a program celebrating the centennial of Pierre Boulez, featuring works originally curated by the late NY Phil Music Director in 1974. This Sound On series concert includes J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Schubert’s Symphony No. 2, Webern’s Symphony Op. 21, Boulez’s Pli selon pli: Improvisations sur Mallarmé I and II with soprano Jana McIntyre (NY Phil debut), and Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat Suite.
Finally, on Jan. 29, 30, and Feb. 1, and 2, Marek Janowski, another NY Phil debutant, will conduct Weber’s Oberon Overture, Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 featuring Beatrice Rana, and Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 (Rhenish).
The New York Philharmonic has announced details of its 2024-25 season that will explore Afromodernism through a program of concerts, free performances and events, and a parallel museum exhibition.
Artwork: Jon Key
A cultural cornerstone of New York City for the past 180+ years, the New York Philharmonic has connected with up to 50 million individuals through live concerts in New York and abroad thus far. Founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians, the Philharmonic is one of the oldest symphony orchestras in the world, and the oldest in the United States. Since its foundation, the New York Philharmonic has performed in 436 cities in 63 countries across five continents.
This lengthy history has not resulted in the Philharmonic existing within the past, however. As accessibility to music, public interest, and the context classical music exists within have shifted and expanded, the New York Philharmonic has adapted likewise. Spanning international broadcasts on television, radio, and online alongside archival recordings and educational programs, the Philharmonic has always been on the cutting edge of reaching and connecting people through music.
The upcoming 2024-25 season in particular will feature explorations and celebrations of the voices of Black creators and examine the influence of contemporary Africa and the African diaspora upon the modern arts movements, from music to fashion and more.
Presented through a combination of subscription concerts, a free performance by the International Contemporary Ensemble co-presented by the Museum of Modern Art, a NY Phil Young People’s Concert, and a series of complementary presentations, the New York Philharmonic will highlight the experiences, creations, and impacts of artists across the African diaspora throughout time.
Photo: nyphil.org
A series of concerts will be the highlight of the Philharmonic’s exploration, with Music of the African Diaspora on October 17 and 18, Young People’s Concert: The Future is Unity on October 19, and Sound On – Composing While Black, Volume II on October 25.
Music of the African Diaspora will consist of works by four black American composers spanning nearly a century to be conducted by Thomas Wilkins; Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances, Nathalie Joachim’s Had to Be– a Philharmonic co-commission and New York Premiere featuring the New York Philharmonic debut of cellist Seth Parker Woods as a soloist, David Baker’s Kosbro, and William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 4, Autochthonous.
The October 18 concert will include a pre-concert talk accessible to all ticket holders for the evening moderated by Juilliard professor Fredara Hadley, who will be speaking with panelists Seth Parker Woods, Nathalie Joachim, Barnard College professor Monica L. Miller, and Harvard University professor Carol Oja.
Conductor Thomas Wilkins will also lead the Young People’s Concert: The Future is Unity on October 19 with a program featuring pieces from Music of the African Diaspora’s collection, selections from Nigerian composer Fela Sowande’s African Suite and Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1, and Very Young Composer Isai Rabiu’s Aye Ni Ilu.
On October 25 the Museum of Modern Art will join in partnership with the Philharmonic for a free performance by International Contemporary Ensemble as a part of the Philharmonic’s Sound On contemporary music series.
Titled Composing While Black, Volume II, the concert will examine international perspectives of the African diasporic experience through pieces by composers Jalalu Kalvert-Nelson, Daniel Kidane, Hannah Kendall, Tebogo Monnakgotla, Joshua Uzoigwe, and Leila Adu-Gilmore. The program builds upon ICE’s Composing While Black: Volume I, titled after the scholarly compilation of essays composed by ICE’s artistic director in collaboration with Harald Kisiedu, Composing While Black.
In addition to the musical performances, the New York Philharmonic is presenting several events and a museum exhibition in parallel to their exploration of Afromodernism, including The Unanswered Questions panel discussions and the Africa’s Fashion Diaspora exhibition.
The Unanswered Questions is a two-part panel series featuring “Afromoderism and the Arts” on October 15 at CUNY’s Graduate Center which will examine the decolonization of modernism through the African diaspora’s impact on music and the arts and “Styled for Survival: How Music and Fashion Converge” on February 19 at The Museum at FIT, a conversation tracing the intentional connections between sound and attire, the history of Black dandyism, and more.
The museum exhibition Africa’s Fashion Diaspora will take place at the Museum at FIT on October 7, 9, 21, and November 20. The exhibition will examine fashion as a medium for storytelling and a designer’s tool to contribute to longstanding and evolving ideas of transnational Black cultural spaces.
The exhibit will explore designers from Africa, the Americas, and Europe who construct and interpret their local and community cultures while simultaneously reaching across geography to tie Black cultural practices together through their designs. Talks and tours will be held in the space as well.
Tickets to the New York Philharmonic performances can be purchased online here. Reservations to attend Africa’s Fashion Diaspora and The Unanswered Questions: Afromodernism and the Arts are free but required, and can be made on their respective web pages here and here.
Reservations for Composing While Black, Volume II and The Unanswered Questions: Styled for Survival are also free but required, and will be available at a later date. Keep up to date on the Philharmonic’s web page here.
The 2024 NY Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks lineup has been announced. Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer, it will take place from June 11–14, 2024.
Photo by Chris Lee.
Conductor Thomas Wilkins leads four free outdoor concerts at Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx (June 11); the Great Lawn in Central Park, Manhattan (June 12); Cunningham Park, Queens (June 13); and Prospect Park, Brooklyn (June 14). The program includes Beethoven’s Egmont Overture; Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, featuring Randall Goosby — who made his NY Phil debut on a Young People’s Concert at age 13 — as soloist; Elgar’s Wand of Youth Overture; the New York Premiere of Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances; Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol; and works by New York Philharmonic Very Young Composers Dalya Shaman and David Wright. All four outdoor performances begin at 8:00 p.m. and conclude with fireworks by Santore’s World Famous Fireworks.
The Concerts in the Parks series has become an iconic New York summer experience since it began in 1965. It transformed parks across the city into a patchwork of picnickers and allowed them to hear classical music under the stars. More than 15 million listeners have been delighted by the performances since their inception.
The 2024 Concerts in the Parks marks Wilkin’s first time conducting the event, making his NY Philharmonic debut in 2015. He has since conducted and hosted numerous Young People’s Concerts, and returns in October 2024 for the Philharmonic’s exploration of Afromodernism on a program that features a New York Premiere by Nathalie Joachim and a reprise of Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances.
Following the Concerts in the Parks, musicians from the New York Philharmonic will perform a Free Indoor Concert on Sunday, June 16, 2024, at 4:00 p.m., at St. George Theatre in Staten Island. The program includes Clarke’s Prelude, Allegro, and Pastorale for clarinet and viola; Mozart’s Oboe Quartet; and Prokofiev’s Quintet.
The New York Philharmonic’s annual Concerts in the Parks, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer, are always a highlight of our year. It is a joy to see tens of thousands of New Yorkers turn out to enjoy free concerts under the stars, creating a sense of community and shared experience that is rare and vital. We are deeply grateful to Didi and Oscar, the visionary and generous couple whose love of music and of New York City’s parks is essential to making possible the ambitious tour of our hometown.
NY Phil President & CEO Gary Ginstling.
Admission to the 2024 Concerts in the Parks is free, and tickets are not required. Admission to the Free Indoor Concert in Staten Island is free. Tickets are required and are available here.
The New York Philharmonic has announced their 2024-2025 season of events. The season is packed with hearty, unique, and diverse talent with Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel leading three weeks of subscription concerts.
Gustavo Dudamel
The New York Philharmonic presents a wide range of new compositions, including 13 World, US, and New York Premieres this season. This consists of five World Premieres, two US Premieres, and six New York Premieres. These premieres encapsulate the diversity and broad perspectives of the Philharmonic’s community.
For the first time, Dudamel leads New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks, presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer. The Philharmonic explores programming from a variety of musical perspectives. Pianist Yuja Wang appears in contexts that reflect her musical interests, including her first NY Phil appearances in which she leads the Orchestra from the piano.
Also new for the upcoming season, New York Philharmonic musicians were invited to act as an Artistic Partner, curating a program that reflects their varied musical interests, and also celebrates the Orchestra’s brilliant history.
The Philharmonic examines music of the African diaspora in America from the latter half of the 20th century through the present day. Artistic Partner International Contemporary Ensemble presents the beauty of Afromodernism. The program is curated by artistic director George Lewis; and a Young People’s Concert.
Over the 2024–25 season the New York Philharmonic shines a spotlight on two French composers who transformed the musical landscape and left enduring legacies. The Pierre Boulez Centennial and Ravel’s 150th Anniversary are two programs that pay deep tribute to the French composers.
The upcoming season sees several debuts from conductors and soloists alike. Along with this, there are many returning friends and favorites. The New York Philharmonic welcomes all those returning and the unfamiliar faces as well.
For more information on the New York Philharmonic’s upcoming 2024-25 season, click here.
The New York Philharmonic will perform the U.S Premiere of Émigré, in February 29 and March 1 at the Wu Tsai Theater in David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.
Founded 1842, The New York Philharmonic is one of the most leading American orchestras and one of the one of the oldest musical institutions in the country. The orchestra was then just called the Philharmonic Society of New York and it was the third Philharmonic on American soil since 1799.
Émigré explores the little-known moment in history with an opulent, romantic score; beautiful music that exists in stark contrast to the reality that many went through. Different genres and styles converge in Zigman’s music, reflecting the rich and diverse musical landscape of 1930s Shanghai, known as “the Paris of the East.”
The premier in February 29 and March 1 will be semi-staged, featuring costumes and visual projection elements that will complement the music and showcase the city of Shanghai from various perspectives. Director Mary Birnbaum says, “Ultimately, we see this story as a contemporary vigil for those who find themselves far away from home,” and adds that Émigré is about “citizens of the world protecting each other.”Émigré, a musical of drama, hope, love and refuge composed by Aaron Zigman, with lyrics by Mark Campbell and Brock Walsh, conducted by Long Yu, and directed by Mary Birnbaum.
Tickets to the performances my be purchased online, or at the Welcome Center at David Geffen Hallor by calling (212) 875-5656.
Former New York Yankees star Bernie Williams has announced he is making his debut with the New York Philharmonic on April 24 at the Philharmonic’s Spring Gala at the Lincoln Center.
Williams, who won four World Series and the 1996 ALCS MVP as part of the franchise’s dynasty of the late 1990s, is a classically trained guitarist and will perform in the orchestra under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel. He made his debut as a musician during his playing career with the Yankees, releasing his first album The Journey Within in 2003, going on to study guitar and composition at SUNY Purchase, receiving his Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music in 2016. His 2009 album Moving Forward reached the No. 2 best-selling ranking among U.S. Jazz albums.
Gustavo Dudamel will formally join the New York Philharmonic in 2026 upon finishing a 17-year tenure as the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He will conduct the Philharmonic in the Spring Gala, with the soloists consisting of artist, actor, author, and activist Common (in his NY Phil debut), soprano Hera Hyesang Park, and Bernie Williams. The Philharmonic will perform several works side-by-side with student musicians from communities across New York City who are being chosen through auditions to participate in this weeklong celebration. The repertoire will be announced at a later date.
Gala events will begin with a cocktail reception at 6:00 p.m. on the Leon and Norma Hess Grand Promenade and continue with the concert, at 7:00 p.m., concluding with a post-performance seated dinner, attended by New York Philharmonic musicians, on the Hess Grand Promenade and Hearst Tier 1. Gala dress will be cocktail attire. For more information visit here.
