Carnegie Hall

The world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra strives to share the transformative power of music with the widest possible audience, and to create joy, connection, and excitement through music in the Philadelphia region, across the country, and around the world. Through innovative programming, robust education initiatives, a commitment to its diverse communities, and the embrace of digital outreach, the ensemble is creating an expansive future for classical music, and furthering the place of the arts in an open and democratic society. In June 2021, the orchestra and its home, the Kimmel Center, united to form The Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center, Inc., reimagining the power of the arts to bring joy, create community, and effect change.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin is now in his 11th season as music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra. His connection to the ensemble’s musicians has been praised by both concertgoers and critics, and he is embraced by the musicians of the orchestra, audiences, and the community.

The Philadelphia Orchestra takes great pride in its hometown, performing for the people of Philadelphia year-round, in Verizon Hall and community centers, in classrooms and hospitals, and over the airwaves and online. In response to the cancellation of concerts due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the orchestra launched the Digital Stage, providing access to high-quality online performances, keeping music alive at a time when it was needed most. It also inaugurated free offerings: HearTOGETHER, a podcast on racial and social justice, and creative equity and inclusion, through the lens of the world of orchestral music, and Our City, Your Orchestra, a series of digital performances that connects the orchestra with communities through music and dialogue while celebrating the diversity and vibrancy of the Philadelphia region.

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s award-winning education and community initiatives engage more than 50,000 students, families, and community members of all ages through programs such as PlayINs; side-by-sides; PopUP concerts; Our City, Your Orchestra Live; School Concerts; the School Partnership Program and School Ensemble Program; and All City Orchestra Fellowships.

Through concerts, tours, residencies, and recordings, the orchestra is a global ambassador and one of our nation’s greatest exports. It performs annually at Carnegie Hall, the Mann Center, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival. The orchestra also has a rich touring history, having first performed outside Philadelphia in its earliest days. In 1973, it became the first American orchestra to perform in the People’s Republic of China, launching a five-decade commitment of people-to-people exchange.

Under Yannick’s leadership, the orchestra returned to recording with 12 celebrated releases on the Deutsche Grammophon label, including the Grammy Award–winning Florence Price Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3. The orchestra also reaches thousands of radio listeners with weekly broadcasts on WRTI-FM and SiriusXM. For more information, please visit philorch.org.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin is currently in his 11th season as music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra. Additionally, he became the third music director of the Metropolitan Opera in 2018. Yannick, who holds the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair, is an inspired leader of The Philadelphia Orchestra. His intensely collaborative style, deeply rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. The New York Times has called him “phenomenal,” adding that “the ensemble, famous for its glowing strings and homogenous richness, has never sounded better.”

Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most thrilling talents of his generation. He has been artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000, and in 2017 he became an honorary member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He was also music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (he is now honorary conductor). He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles and at many of the leading opera houses. Yannick signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2018. Under his leadership, The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with 12 releases on that label, including Florence Price’s symphonies nos. 1 and 3, which recently won a Grammy Award.

A native of Montreal, Yannick studied piano, conducting, composition, and chamber music at Montreal’s Conservatory of Music and continued his studies with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini; he also studied choral conducting with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick’s honors are an appointment as Companion of the Order of Canada; Companion to the Order of Arts and Letters of Quebec; an Officer of the Order of Quebec; an Officer of the Order of Montreal; an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; Musical America’s 2016 Artist of the Year; ECHO Klassik’s 2014 Conductor of the Year; a Royal Philharmonic Society Award; Canada’s National Arts Centre Award; the Prix Denise-Pelletier; the Oskar Morawetz Award; and honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec, the Curtis Institute of Music, Westminster Choir College of Rider University, McGill University, Université de Montréal, University of Pennsylvania, and Laval University. To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit philorch.org/conductor.

Pianist Beatrice Rana made her Carnegie Hall debut with a recital in Zankel Hall in March 2019 and her Philadelphia Orchestra subscription debut three months later. She performs at the world’s most esteemed concert halls and festivals and collaborates with conductors of the highest level, including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jaap van Zweden, Antonio Pappano, Manfred Honeck, Klaus Mäkelä, Gianandrea Noseda, Fabio Luisi, Riccardo Chailly, Paavo Järvi, Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Jurowski, Lahav Shani, Trevor Pinnock, Louis Langrée, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Sakari Oramo, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Susanna Mälkki, Kent Nagano, and Zubin Mehta.

Highlights of Ms. Rana’s current performance schedule include a European tour with the Vienna Symphony; debuts with the Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony; and returns to the Orchestre de Paris, New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Stockholm and London philharmonic orchestras. She also has a residency at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and returns for recitals in venues that include the Philharmonie de Paris, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, and the Konzerthaus Vienna.

Ms. Rana records exclusively for Warner Classics. In 2015, her first album, featuring Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with Mr. Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, received international acclaim. Recent releases include solo albums featuring Bach’s Goldberg Variations and works by Stravinsky, Ravel, and Chopin. In 2017, Ms. Rana started her own chamber music festival in her native town of Lecce, Italy. In 2020, she became artistic director of the Orchestra Filarmonica di Benevento. Born in 1993 to a family of musicians, she made her debut as an orchestra soloist at age nine. She began her musical studies at age four and received her piano degree under the guidance of Benedetto Lupo at the Nino Rota Conservatory of Music in Monopoli, where she also studied composition. In 2011, she won First Prize and all special prizes at the Montreal International Musical Competition, and in 2013 she won the Second Prize and the Audience Award at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.