Carnegie Hall

Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) performs and produces in a variety of formats throughout New York City, including orchestra and chamber music series on each of Carnegie Hall’s iconic stages, programs focused on contemporary composers presented throughout the five boroughs, collaborations with Paul Taylor Dance Company at Lincoln Center, a composition institute, education and community engagement programs, and much more. Founded in 1974 when a group of virtuoso chamber musicians began performing together in Greenwich Village at The Church of St. Luke in the Fields, the ensemble expanded into an orchestra in 1979 and is today “a mainstay of New York’s classical scene” (The New Yorker) under the baton of Principal Conductor Bernard Labadie, a celebrated specialist in 18th-century music, and special guests. OSL has participated in 120 recordings, four of which have won Grammy Awards; has commissioned more than 70 new works; and has given more than 200 world, US, and New York City premieres. OSL champions the work of historically underrepresented composers, who in recent seasons have included Florence Price, Julius Eastman, Joseph Bologne, and others along with living composers who have recently included Valerie Coleman, Eleanor Alberga, Anna Clyne, and Joan Tower, among others. OSL’s Education and Community Engagement programs include accessible, interactive concerts for New York City public school students in addition to the 100-member Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s (YOSL), now in its 10th season and the only youth orchestra under the umbrella of a professional group in the city; concert tours that introduce classical music to new audiences; a mentorship program for pre-professional musicians; and the DeGaetano Composition Institute, which mentors developing composers and commissions new work each season. OSL built and operates The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in Midtown Manhattan, the city’s only rehearsal, recording, and performance space built specially for classical music. Thousands of local and international musicians create work at The DiMenna Center, where they not only stage performances, but also rehearse, record, and broadcast music heard throughout the city and around the world. To learn more, visit OSLmusic.org or follow @OSLmusic on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, or Facebook.

Now in his 10th season as the Virginia G. Piper Music Director of The Phoenix Symphony, Tito Muñoz previously served as music director of the Opéra national de Lorraine and Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy in France. Other prior appointments include assistant conductor positions with The Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and Aspen Music Festival and School.

Mr. Muñoz has appeared with many of the most prominent orchestras in North America, including those of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, New York, and Utah. He also maintains a strong international conducting presence that includes engagements with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, SWR Symphonieorchester, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, BBC and BBC Scottish symphony orchestras, Ulster Orchestra, Royal and Luxembourg philharmonic orchestras, Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, Opéra Orchestre national Montpellier, Opéra de Rennes, Auckland Philharmonia, and Sydney and São Paolo State symphony orchestras.

A proponent of new music, Mr. Muñoz champions the composers of our time through expanded programming, commissions, premieres, and recordings. He has conducted important premieres of works by Christopher Cerrone, Kenneth Fuchs, Dai Fujikura, Michael Hersch, Adam Schoenberg, and Mauricio Sotelo.

Born in Queens, New York, Mr. Muñoz began his musical training as a violinist in New York City public schools. He made his professional conducting debut in 2006 with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, and made his Cleveland Orchestra debut at the Blossom Music Festival that same year.

Chinese soprano Ying Fang has been praised as “indispensable at the Met in Mozart” (The New York Times) and for “a voice that can stop time, pure and rich and open and consummately expressive” (Financial Times). In the 2023–2024 season, Ms. Fang returns to Opéra national de Paris as Zerlina in Don Giovanni conducted by Antonello Manacorda, Dutch National Opera as Poppea in Agrippina and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte conducted by Riccardo Minasi, Metropolitan Opera in her role debut as Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice, and Santa Fe Opera in her role debut as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier. On the concert stage, she reunites with conductor Raphaël Pichon for Mozart’s Requiem on tour with Ensemble Pygmalion—a project that also features a recording on the Harmonia Mundi label—and joins Mr. Pichon for Mozart’s Mass in C Minor in her debut with the Munich Philharmonic. In addition, she joins Noord Nederlands Orkest for Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Chicago Symphony Orchestra for G. Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Susanna Mälkki, and Carmina Burana with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Stéphane Denève.

In the 2022–2023 season, Ms. Fang made her Vienna State Opera debut as Susanna in a new production of Le nozze de Figaro by Barrie Kosky conducted by Philippe Jordan; she reprised the role for the Handel and Haydn Society under the baton of Mr. Pichon. She returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Ilia in Idomeneo conducted by Manfred Honeck, and as Zerlina in a new production of Don Giovanni conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann. On the concert stage, she returned to the San Francisco Symphony for G. Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 conducted by Robin Ticciati, debuted with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Ein deutsches Requiem led by Sir Donald Runnicles, and performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in Mozart’s Mass in C Minor and Handel’s Messiah, led by Mr. Honeck. She also performed recitals at the Park Avenue Armory, Cal Performances, and
The Dallas Opera.

Described by the Boston Globe as “one of the world’s most remarkable singers,” American tenor Nicholas Phan is increasingly recognized as an artist of distinction with an incredibly diverse repertoire that spans nearly 500 years of music. He performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies, and is an avid recitalist and passionate advocate for art song and vocal chamber music. In 2010, he co-founded Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC), an organization devoted to promoting underserved repertoire.

Mr. Phan is a celebrated recording artist, and his most recent album, Stranger: Works for Tenor by Nico Muhly, was nominated for the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. His previous albums, Clairières and Gods and Monsters, were nominated for the same award in 2020 and 2017. He is the first singer of Asian descent to be nominated in the history of the category, which has been awarded by the Recording Academy since 1959.

In addition to his work as artistic director of CAIC, Mr. Phan is the host and creator of BACH 52, a web series that examines the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He has created programs for broadcast on WFMT and WQXR, and has also served as guest curator for projects with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Merola Opera, and San Francisco Performances, where he served as the vocal artist-in-residence from 2014 to 2018. Mr. Phan’s programs often examine themes of identity, highlight unfairly underrepresented voices from history, and strive to underline the relevance of music from all periods to the currents of the present day.

American baritone Norman Garrett, who has been called “scene-stealing” by The New York Times, is enjoying a varied and exciting career. In the 2023–2024 season, he makes his house debut at San Francisco Opera, singing Abdul and Abe in Omar; returns to LA Opera as Bob in William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA; and sings Masetto in Don Giovanni in a return to Houston Grand Opera.

Mr. Garrett’s engagements in the 2022–2023 season included his LA Opera debut as Abdul in Omar; Garby in the world premiere of The Factotum and Dr. T in the world premiere of Proximity, both at Lyric Opera of Chicago; and Ned in a new edition of Treemonisha at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. In concert, he performed Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Messiah with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with The Phoenix Symphony.

Engagements in recent seasons have included Conte in Le nozze di Figaro with Seattle Opera; Ríolobo in Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas with Houston Grand Opera; Escamillo in Carmen with Austin Opera, Opera Orlando, Opera Columbus, and Lubbock Symphony Orchestra; the title role in Chausson’s Le roi Arthus with Bard SummerScape; the Foreman / Adult James in Fire Shut Up in My Bones at the Metropolitan Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago; the title role in Don Giovanni and Jochanaan in Salome with Dayton Opera; the title role in Delius’s Koanga at Ireland’s Wexford Festival Opera; and Larkens in La fanciulla del West with the Bavarian State Opera.

Mr. Garrett is a former winner of the George London Foundation Competition, and he has received top prizes at competitions and from foundations that include The Gerda Lissner Foundation, The William Matheus Sullivan Foundation, Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition, Giulio Gari Foundation, Fort Worth Opera’s McCammon Voice Competition, and Licia Albanese–Puccini Competition. He is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music, Texas Tech University, and the Academy of Vocal Arts.

Led by James Jordan and Associate Director Tyler Weakland, Westminster Symphonic Choir is one of five renowned ensembles of Westminster Choir College of Rider University. The choir is recognized as one of the world’s leading symphonic choral ensembles and has routinely recorded and performed with major orchestras and internationally acclaimed conductors over the past 90 years.

The choir first performed in 1934, when it joined The Philadelphia Orchestra and Leopold Stokowski to perform Bach’s Mass in B Minor in the Princeton University Chapel to celebrate the choir’s move to New Jersey. Subsequent seasons have included a performance of Holst’s The Planets with The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Cristian Măcelaru; the premiere of Machover’s Philadelphia Voices with The Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado; Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Andrew Manze; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rossen Milanov. The choir can be heard on recordings with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic and, most notably, Bernstein’s Mass with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, released on the Deutsche Grammophon label, and Britten’s War Requiem with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Kurt Masur.

Last season, the choir performed Handel’s Messiah under the baton of Ruben Valenzuela with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s using a new libretto in Spanish. The choir also performed Orff’s Carmina Burana under Jenny Wong. The choir is featured on the 30th-anniversary broadcast of Christmas at Westminster: An Evening of Readings and Carols, available on more than 350 public television stations and for streaming nationwide, in addition to the release of a two-CD set of the complete performance. This season’s highlights include performances of Gregory Spears’s completion of the Mozart Requiem with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra led by Rossen Milanov.