2021–2022 Season Season Highlights Orchestras • The Sphinx Virtuosi—a chamber orchestra comprising alumni of the renowned Sphinx Competition—return to Carnegie Hall with a program that Boston Symphony Orchestra features the New York premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Divided (co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall). (Oct. 15, SA/PS) The Cleveland Orchestra Galilee Chamber Orchestra • The New York String Orchestra returns for its annual Christmas Eve concert conducted by Jaime Laredo and featuring J. S. Bach’s Violin Concerto in Gateways Music Festival Orchestra A Minor with violinist Rubén Rengel; Mozart’s Divertimento in D Major, Mahler Chamber Orchestra / K. 136; and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. (Dec. 24, SA/PS) Mitsuko Uchida • The New York Philharmonic appears at Carnegie Hall four times next season. Mariinsky Orchestra Susanna Mälkki makes her Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage debut, leading The MET Orchestra the orchestra in Adolphus Hailstork’s An American Port of Call, Sibelius’s New York Philharmonic Symphony No. 5, and John Adams’s Saxophone Concerto with soloist Branford Marsalis. Music Director Jaap van Zweden leads the orchestra in New York String Orchestra three performances. His programs include the US premiere of Nico Muhly’s In Orchestra of St. Luke’s Certain Circles with Katia and Marielle Labèque; Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Igor Levit, and Barber’s Violin Concerto with Hilary Hahn. Other The Philadelphia Orchestra works include the world premiere of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Forward Into Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Light, Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. (Jan. 6, Sphinx Virtuosi Apr. 27, May 6, June 10; SA/PS) Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra • For the first time in 25 years, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall, led by Music Director Vasily Petrenko in a program that includes Elgar’s Cello Concerto with Kian Soltani and Holst’s The Planets. (Jan. 31, SA/PS) • Yannick Nézet-Séguin returns with The Philadelphia Orchestra in a program that includes Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and the New York premiere of a work by Valerie Coleman with soprano Angel Blue, and Price’s Symphony No. 1. Mr. Nézet-Séguin and the orchestra also present Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and the New York premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Pachamama Meets an Ode. For their final performance of the season, guest conductor- composer John Williams leads the orchestra and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter in a gala performance of music from Williams’s film scores and more. (Feb. 8, Apr. 8 and 21, SA/PS) • Valery Gergiev leads the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in three concerts: an all-Rachmaninoff evening with pianist Denis Matsuev, a program that features Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, and a third performance that includes Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique.” (Feb. 25–27, SA/PS) SA/PS = Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage ZH = Zankel Hall WRH = Weill Recital Hall REW = Resnick Education Wing Season Highlights Page 2 of 12 Orchestras • Music Director Andris Nelsons conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in two concerts. Perspectives artist Leonidas Kavakos presents the New (continued) York premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Violin Concerto No. 2, “Scherben der Stille” (“Shards of Silence”), on a program that also includes Ives’s The Unanswered Question and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. Nelsons and the orchestra offer a concert performance of Berg’s Wozzeck with Bo Skovhus in the title role and Christine Goerke as Marie. (Mar. 14 and 15, SA/PS) • The Galilee Chamber Orchestra makes its Carnegie Hall debut with Music Director Saleem Abboud Ashkar in a program that features violinist Joshua Bell. The orchestra was co-founded in 2012 by Nabeel Abboud Ashkar, a music educator from Nazareth, Israel, and former violinist with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. The ensemble is a program of Polyphony Education, an Israeli nonprofit that aims to bridge the divide between Arab and Jewish communities in Israel through classical music education, performance, and cultural dialogue. (Mar. 18, SA/PS) • Pianist Mitsuko Uchida continues her multi-year exploration of Mozart’s piano concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, leading the ensemble from the keyboard. This season, she is joined by violinist Mark Steinberg as concertmaster in performances of the composer’s piano concertos nos. 23 and 24. The orchestra also performs Webern’s Five Movements, Op. 5, and Variations for Piano, Op. 27. (Mar. 25, SA/PS) • Orchestra of St. Luke’s appears twice this season with Principal Conductor Bernard Labadie, the first time with La Chapelle de Québec and the Handel and Haydn Society Chorus for Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, featuring soprano Carolyn Sampson, contralto Avery Amereau, tenor Julian Prégardien as the Evangelist, tenor Andrew Staples, baritone Philippe Sly as Jesus, and bass- baritone Matthew Brook. For the second concert, Reginald Mobley joins the orchestra for J. S. Bach’s cantata “Ich habe genug,” and Augustin Hadelich plays Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto on a program that concludes with the composer’s Symphony No. 4, “Italian.” (Apr. 7, May 5, SA/PS) • The Gateways Music Festival Orchestra makes its Carnegie Hall debut under the direction of Michael Morgan with a program that includes the world premiere of a new work by Perspectives artist Jon Batiste. The orchestra also performs Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Haydn in B-flat Major, Op. 56a; G. Walker’s Sinfonia No. 3; Price’s Symphony No. 3; and James V. Cockerham’s Fantasia on “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The Rochester- based Gateways Music Festival aims to connect and support professional classical musicians of African descent. The Carnegie Hall concert will be the centerpiece of a four-day residency by Gateways musicians with performances and activities throughout New York City. (Apr. 24, SA/PS) Season Highlights Page 3 of 12 Orchestras • Music Director Valery Gergiev leads the Mariinsky Orchestra in two performances. The first includes Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4, “Romantic.” (continued) For the second concert, the orchestra performs Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. (May 3 and 4, SA/PS) • The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst perform G. Walker’s Sinfonia No. 4, “Strands”; Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with soloist Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider; and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, “Great.” (June 1, SA/PS) • Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin returns with The MET Orchestra for two concerts in June 2022. The first program features Act I of Wagner’s Die Walküre with soprano Christine Goerke, tenor Brandon Jovanovich, and bass-baritone Eric Owens; also on the program is Missy Mazzoli’s Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) and R. Strauss’s Don Juan. Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato joins the orchestra for an all-Berlioz program the following evening. (June 15 and 16, SA/PS) Season Highlights Page 4 of 12 Contemporary • Sō Percussion and Friends features the percussion quartet with beatboxer, vocal percussionist, and breath artist Dominic “Shodekeh” Talifero for the American Composers Orchestra artist’s Vodalities: Paradigms of Consciousness for the Human Voice; the New York premiere of Nathalie Joachim’s Note to Self with the composer on Asphalt Orchestra vocals; Caroline Shaw’s Narrow Sea with soprano Dawn Upshaw and pianist Ensemble Connect Gilbert Kalish; and Amid the Noise composed by Sō Percussion’s Jason Osvaldo Golijov: Falling Out of Time Treuting and featuring Pan in Motion. (Dec. 11, ZH) Kronos Quartet • Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Julia Wolfe is holder of the Richard and Music Kitchen Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair for the 2021–2022 season. At the center of Ms. Wolfe’s residency are performances of three of her seminal works Sō Percussion and Friends presented in Zankel Hall: Steel Hammer with Bang on a Can All-Stars and Julia Wolfe: Anthracite Fields vocalists Rebecca L. Hargrove, Sonya Headlam, and Molly Netter (Mar. 3, ZH); Ensemble Signal performing Cruel Sister, as well as With a blue dress Julia Wolfe: Cruel Sister on with violinist Tessa Lark and Michael Gordon’s Weather One (Apr. 13, Julia Wolfe: Oxygen ZH); and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Anthracite Fields with Bang on a Can Julia Wolfe: Steel Hammer All-Stars and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, led by Julian Wachner, with projection and scenic design by Jeff Sugg (May 19, ZH). Before her in-person concerts, Ms. Wolfe’s residency kicks off with the film premiere of Oxygen, a rapid-fire work for 12 flutes written during this past year of isolation. She champions the work of a wide-ranging roster of composers—several of whom she has mentored and others she admires—in performances with Ensemble Connect (May 2, REW) and the Asphalt Orchestra in spring 2022. A new- music marching band, the Asphalt Orchestra’s event will include world premieres by first-time Carnegie Hall–commissioned composers Leila Adu, Jeffrey Brooks, and Kendall Williams. • American Composers Orchestra performs the New York premiere of Lisa Bielawa’s Sanctuary (co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall), featuring violinist Jennifer Koh, and the world premiere of “Materia Prima” by Carlos Bandera. (Mar. 25, ZH) • For more than 15 years, Music Kitchen–Food for the Soul, founded by violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, has brought chamber music to people nationwide who experience homelessness. In celebration of that anniversary, Music Kitchen presents Forgotten Voices, a composite song cycle that sets comments written by homeless-shelter clients to music. Featuring works by 15 award- winning composers—Courtney Bryan, Jon Grier, Kelly Hall-Tompkins, Gabriel Kahane, James Lee III, Beata Moon, Paul Moravec, Angélica Negrón, Kevin Puts, Steve Sandberg, Kamala Sankaram, Jeff Scott, Carlos Simon, Errollyn Wallen, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich—each song in the cycle received its world premiere in a shelter. Presented in association with Carnegie Hall, the complete cycle now receives its world premiere.