Carnegie Hall

Teddy Abrams, Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year, is now in his 10th season as music director of the Louisville Orchestra (LO). As profiled by The New York Times, CBS Sunday Morning, The New Yorker, NPR, Opera News, The Wall Street Journal, PBS’s Articulate, and PBS NewsHour, he has been the galvanizing force behind the orchestra’s extraordinary artistic renewal and innovative community engagement since his appointment in September 2014.

Mr. Abrams and the LO began their 2023–2024 season with mandolinist, vocalist, and composer Chris Thile, who joins them for the next leg of their historic, multi-season state tour titled In Harmony—The Commonwealth Tour of the Louisville Orchestra. Other season highlights include music of Gabriel Kahane and John Adams; G. Mahler’s Symphony No. 6; and Creators Fest concerts that feature world premieres of works from the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps.

Mr. Abrams continues to be in high demand as a guest conductor, making his Helsinki and Buffalo philharmonic orchestra debuts and returning to the Utah Symphony this winter. Highlights of the 2022–2023 season included engagements with the Chicago and Cincinnati symphony orchestras; Colorado, Kansas City, and Pacific symphonies; Los Angeles Philharmonic; Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg; and Innsbruck’s Tyrol Symphony Orchestra.

An award-winning composer, in April 2023 Mr. Abrams premiered his own Mammoth with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bass-baritone Davóne Tines, and the LO in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave. Other recent composition highlights include a piano concerto for Yuja Wang, with which he and the LO made their Deutsche Grammophon debuts on her March 2023 release, The American Project; and Space Variations, composed for Universal Music Group’s 2022 World Sleep Day compilation. Mr. Abrams is now at work on ALI, a musical about Muhammad Ali scheduled to premiere in fall 2024 in Louisville, the boxer’s birthplace, before opening on Broadway in spring 2025.

Other notable Louisville collaborations include the song cycle The Order of Nature, composed with Jim James, vocalist and guitarist for My Morning Jacket, and recorded with the LO on Decca Gold. On the same label, Mr. Abrams, the LO, and singer-songwriter Storm Large recorded All In, featuring American music by Cole Porter, Aaron Copland, Mr. Abrams, and Ms. Large.

Native Tennessean Andrew Brady joined The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in the 2022–2023 season as principal bassoon. He came to Minnesota from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, having served there as principal bassoon since January 2016. Prior to the ASO, he held the same position for two years with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a soloist, Mr. Brady has performed concertos by Hertel, Rossini, Mozart, Weber, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Southeast Symphony, Los Angeles Doctors Symphony Orchestra, and Colburn Orchestra. He appears regularly as principal bassoon with the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra and has performed as guest principal with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as at Carnegie Hall and on European tours with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Mr. Brady’s artistry is in high demand and has taken him to South Africa, Korea, China, Mexico, and the United Kingdom as well as many destinations within the contiguous United States for both performances and teaching engagements. In past summers, he has been a proud member of the Chineke! Orchestra, and he appeared with the orchestra at the 2017 BBC Proms. The ensemble is the UK’s first Black and ethnically diverse orchestra and seeks to promote diversity and change within classical music by increasing representation and visibility of musicians of color. He is also thrilled to have participated in the Juneteenth: A Global Celebration for Freedom concert with the ReCollective Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl in 2022. The concert was broadcast live on CNN and marked the first performance of an all-Black orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl. The celebration featured such legendary artists as Chaka Khan, The Roots, Michelle Williams, and Earth, Wind & Fire.

Enthusiastically involved in music education, Mr. Brady has taught as an artist in residence at Kennesaw State University and is sought after for master classes and private tutelage. He has also served on the faculties of the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute, Brevard Music Center, Festival Napa Valley, and national youth ensembles at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. Brady graduated with his bachelor’s degree from the Colburn Conservatory of Music in 2013, where he studied with Richard Beene. Other major teachers and influences include Anthony Parnther, Richard Ranti, and Suzanne Nelsen.

Hailed for his “trademark brilliance, penetrating sound, and rich character” (The New York Times), clarinetist Anthony McGill enjoys a dynamic international solo and chamber music career and is principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic—the first African American principal player in the organization's history. He is the recipient of the 2020 Avery Fisher Prize, one of classical music’s most significant awards, and was named Musical America’s 2024 Instrumentalist of the Year. American Stories, his album with the Pacifica Quartet, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance.

Mr. McGill appears as a soloist with top orchestras, including the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics; the Met Orchestra; and the Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and Detroit symphony orchestras. He performed alongside Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and Gabriela Montero at the inauguration of President Barack Obama, premiering a piece by John Williams. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with the Brentano, Daedalus, Guarneri, JACK, Miró, Shanghai, Takács, and Tokyo quartets, and performs with leading artists that include Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnatan, Gloria Chien, Yefim Bronfman, Gil Shaham, Midori, Mitsuko Uchida, and Lang Lang.

Mr. McGill serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School and is the artistic director for Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program. He holds the William R. and Hyunah Yu Brody Distinguished Chair at the Curtis Institute of Music.

In 2020, Mr. McGill’s #TakeTwoKnees campaign protesting the death of George Floyd and historic racial injustice went viral. In 2023, he partnered with Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative to organize a classical music industry convening at EJI’s Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, in which leaders and artists in classical music examined America’s history of racial inequality and how this legacy continues to influence their work. He is a Backun Artist and performs exclusively on Backun Clarinets.

Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, Demarre McGill has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra; San Francisco, Seattle, and San Diego symphonies; Pittsburgh, Dallas, Winnipeg, Hawaiʻi, Hartford, and Baltimore symphony orchestras, and at age 15, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. McGill has participated in festivals around the globe, cofounded Art of Élan, is a founding member of the Myriad Trio, and has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, Moab Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival.

With clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Michael McHale, Demarre McGill founded the McGill/McHale Trio in 2014, and the trio’s debut recording, Portraits, was released in 2017 to rave reviews. Demarre McGill’s other recordings include Winged Creatures with Anthony McGill and the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. McGill performs, coaches, and presents master classes throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and South Africa. Committed to teaching, he holds the position of Associate Professor of Flute at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, is a member of the artist faculty at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and teaches at the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland.

Now principal flute of the Seattle Symphony, Mr. McGill previously served as principal flute of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and was acting principal flute of The Met Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

A native of Chicago, Mr. McGill studied there with Susan Levitin and continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School with Jeffrey Khaner and Julius Baker.

Titus Underwood is principal oboe of the Nashville Symphony, Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, and co-principal of the Chineke! Orchestra. He is also the Associate Professor of Oboe at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. In addition, he is a faculty artist at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and for Carnegie Hall’s national youth ensembles. A fierce advocate for amplifying voices of the historically underrepresented, he cofounded the Black Orchestral Network (BON) and Sphinx Orchestral Partners Auditions (SOPA). His personal endeavors in digital media have led to multiple releases, notably the short film A Tale of Two Tails. He has also won a Sphinx Medal of Excellence for his ongoing commitment to leadership and community, and an Emmy Award for his work executive producing We Are Nashville with the Nashville Symphony. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School, Colburn School, and Cleveland Institute of Music. Visit titusunderwood.com to learn more.