Carnegie Hall

The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra is regarded as one of the world’s finest orchestras. Since the Met’s inception in 1883, it has worked with leading conductors in both opera and concert performances, and has developed into an orchestra of enormous technical polish and style. The musicians maintain a demanding schedule of performances and rehearsals during the 33-week Lincoln Center season, with as many as seven performances per week in repertory that this season encompasses 23 operas. In addition to its opera schedule, the orchestra has a distinguished history of concert performances, including an annual series at Carnegie Hall.

The history of the Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble goes back to 1998, when then–Music Director James Levine organized the group’s first performance at Carnegie Hall in an effort to showcase the artistry and virtuosity of the orchestra members, and to create an opportunity for the musicians to perform more intimate repertoire. The chamber ensemble gave performances until 2016, when the concerts were discontinued.

In 2021, the group returned in a new initiative of the Met, with an artistic committee of orchestra members planning its repertoire in collaboration with Met administration and music staff. All orchestra members have the opportunity to participate in the series, and the programs often feature guest singers from the Met’s roster. This season, the chamber ensemble presents six performances in Weill Recital Hall.

Visit metorchestramusicians.org to read bios for individual orchestra members.

Yamaha is the Official Piano of the Metropolitan Opera. The Met is grateful to Yamaha for providing the piano for this evening’s performance.

Canadian-born conductor and pianist Yannick Nézet-Séguin became the Metropolitan Opera’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director with the beginning of the 2018–2019 season. He made his company debut in 2009 with a new production of Carmen and has since returned every season, conducting nearly 150 performances of 17 operas, as well as numerous galas and concerts with the Met Orchestra. This season at the Met, he takes the podium to lead the company premieres of Kevin Puts’s The Hours and Terence Blanchard’s Champion, a new production of Lohengrin, a revival of La Bohème, and a pair of concerts with the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. He has been music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012 and held the same position with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra—where he now serves as honorary conductor—between 2008 and 2018. Since 2000, he has served as artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain. From 2008 to 2014, he was principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He enjoys close collaborations with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and has also led performances at La Scala, Covent Garden, Dutch National Opera, Vienna State Opera, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, and the festivals of Salzburg, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Grafenegg, Lanaudière, Vail, and Saratoga. Recent recordings include his first solo piano album, Introspection: Solo Piano Sessions, as well as albums with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, winning Best Orchestral Performance earlier this year for his recording with The Philadelphia Orchestra of Florence Price’s symphonies nos. 1 and 3.

Kansas-born mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is one of opera’s most popular and versatile artists, having sung to great acclaim the world over and earning the 2018 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera. She has been nominated for 10 Grammy Awards, winning for her solo albums Divo, Diva in 2012; Joyce and Tony in 2016; and Songplay in 2020. She was the 2007 recipient of the Metropolitan Opera’s Beverly Sills Artist Award and made her Met debut in 2005 as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro. Since then, she has appeared in more than 100 Met performances of 13 roles, including Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito, Adalgisa in Norma, Elena in La Donna del Lago, Sycorax in The Enchanted Island, Isolier in Le Comte Ory, and the title roles of Agrippina, Cendrillon, La Cenerentola, and Maria Stuarda. To date, she has appeared in four Met premieres, seven new productions, and nine Live in HD cinema transmissions. She returns during the 2022–2023 season to appear as Virginia Woolf in the world-premiere staging of Kevin Puts’s The Hours. During the 2019–2020 season, she was a Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist, and in recent seasons, she has also appeared at the Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, La Scala, Paris Opera, Teatro Real de Madrid, and Covent Garden, as well as at the Salzburg and Baden-Baden festivals. She regularly collaborates with the Baroque ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, with which she recorded her 2016 album, In War & Peace; toured with the program My Favorite Things during the 2021–2022 season; and appeared at Carnegie Hall earlier this year in EDEN.

Marc Kudisch was most recently seen in the Broadway production of Girl from the North Country, following the show’s New York premiere at the Public Theater. He was previously nominated for Tony Awards for his performances in Thoroughly Modern Millie (for which he was also nominated for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (for which he was also nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award), and 9 to 5 (for which he was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award). Additional Broadway credits include The Great Society, Finding Neverland, Hand to God, The Apple Tree, Assassins (Drama Desk Award nomination), Bells Are Ringing, The Wild Party, The Scarlet Pimpernel, High Society, Beauty and the Beast, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. His Off-Broadway credits include Fucking A (Signature Theatre), The Wayside Motor Inn (Signature Theatre), Hand to God (MCC), The Holiday Guys (co-creator/co-director), The Blue Flower (Second Stage), A Minister’s Wife (Lincoln Center), The Glorious Ones (Lincoln Center), and See What I Wanna See (Public Theater; Drama Desk Award nomination). He created the evening Baritones Unbound, which appeared in Boston, Sarasota, and Chicago, and his regional credits include the world premieres of Trading Places (Alliance Theatre) and The Flamingo Kid (Hartford Stage), Wonderful Town (LA Opera), Tartuffe (Westport Country Playhouse), Golden Age (Kennedy Center; Helen Hayes Award nomination), and Sycamore Trees (Helen Hayes Award nomination) and the American premiere of The Witches of Eastwick (Helen Hayes Award), both at Signature Theatre. His television and film credits include Billions, The Tick, The Good Fight, The Equalizer, Condor, Mindhunter, House of Cards, Unforgettable, Power, Person of Interest, Blue Bloods, Best Man in the Dark, Smash, Break-In, and Bye Bye Birdie.