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 won a Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance.

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.

Ricardo Morales is one of the most sought-after clarinetists of today. He joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as principal clarinet in 2003 and holds the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Chair. He made his solo debut with the orchestra in 2004. He previously served as principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. During his tenure with that ensemble, he soloed at Carnegie Hall and on two European tours. He has also been a featured soloist with the Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Memphis symphony orchestras; the Seoul Philharmonic; the Columbus Symphony; and the Flemish Radio Orchestra. In addition, he was a featured soloist with “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, with which he recorded Jonathan Leshnoff’s Clarinet Concerto, a piece commissioned for him by The Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Morales has been asked to perform as principal clarinet with the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and, at the invitation of Simon Rattle, the Berliner Philharmoniker.

An active chamber musician, Mr. Morales has performed at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Seattle Chamber Music Summer Festival, and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Mr. Morales’s debut solo recording, French Portraits, is available on the Boston Records label. His recent recordings include performances with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio; the Pacifica Quartet, which was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award; and the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Mito Chamber Orchestra (Japan).

A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mr. Morales began his studies at the Escuela Libre de Musica along with his five siblings, who are all distinguished musicians. He currently serves on the faculty of Temple University and is visiting professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

South-African soprano Pretty Yende has quickly become one of the brightest stars of the classical music world. Since making her professional operatic debut at the Latvian National Theatre in Riga as Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, she has been seen at nearly all of the major theaters, including the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra national de Paris, La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Berlin State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Opernhaus Zürich, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Vienna State Opera, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. This season, she returns to the Opéra national de Paris in Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet and Mozart’s The Magic Flute; makes her San Francisco Opera debut as Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata; returns to the Vienna State Opera in the title role in Massenet’s Manon and as Marie in Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment; and reprises Micaëla at the Berlin State Opera. At the Hamburg State Opera she makes her role debut as Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto and returns as all four heroines in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann.

Ms. Yende made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2021. This season she makes recital appearances in Kansas, Princeton, Geneva, Naples, Gstaad, Vienna, and at the Auvers-sur-Oise Festival. She also joins soprano Nadine Sierra in a series of concerts in Europe. Last season, she joined the Washington National Opera for Come Home: A Celebration of Return, appeared in two concerts with the Parisian Frivolities, performed with the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic in the Czech Republic, and joined Ms. Sierra and the Slovak Philharmonic in Vienna.

Ms. Yende’s debut album, A Journey for Sony Classical, won several awards, including the 2017 International Opera Award for Best Recording (Solo Recital) and a 2017 Echo Klassik award for best newcomer. Her second solo album, Dreams, won the Readers’ Choice Award at the 2018 International Opera Awards. She has appeared as a musical guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Wendy Williams Show, and Good Morning America, among others. She has received the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver from the South-African government for excellence in opera and serving as a role model to young musicians.