Carnegie Hall

American conductor Joseph Young balances a vibrant guest conducting career with leadership roles as music director of the Berkeley Symphony, artistic director of ensembles for the Peabody Institute, and resident conductor of NYO2, one of Carnegie Hall’s three national youth ensembles.

His commitment to amplifying voices, both historic and contemporary, has resulted in electrifying programs featuring works by Juan Pablo Contreras, Brian Raphael Nabors, Florence Price, and Carlos Simon, alongside established greats including John Adams, Brahms, Dvořák, and Prokofiev.

Mr. Young’s 2022–2023 season features major debuts with orchestras, including the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl; the Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra, both at the Kennedy Center; and NYO2 at Carnegie Hall.

Recent conducting engagements include his San Francisco Symphony debut, the inaugural concert of the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra in Johannesburg, and the world premiere of William Menefield and Sheila Williams’s Fierce with the Cincinnati Opera. He has appeared with the Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música in Portugal, and the Orquesta Sinfónica y Coro de RTVE in Spain, among others in the US and Europe.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Young served as assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, and resident conductor of the Phoenix Symphony. He also served as a League of American Orchestras conducting fellow with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Young holds an artist diploma from the Peabody Institute, studying with Gustav Meier and Markand Thakar. His mentors include Jorma Panula, Robert Spano, and Marin Alsop, with whom he maintains an artistic partnership. Now a mentor himself, he shapes the future of classical music through his dynamic engagements with major symphony orchestras, his steadfast commitment to teaching in classrooms and concert halls, and his service on the board of New Music USA.

Grammy Award–winning violinist Jennifer Koh is recognized for her intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. A forward-thinking artist, she is dedicated to exploring a broad and eclectic repertoire while promoting equity and inclusivity in classical music. She has expanded the contemporary violin repertoire through a wide range of commissioning projects, and has premiered more than 100 works written especially for her.

This season, Ms. Koh performs works from her series Alone Together, a commissioning project, performance, and recording series in support of composers during the coronavirus crisis; Bach and Beyond, which traces the history of the solo violin repertoire from J. S. Bach’s sonatas and partitas to pieces by 20th- and 21st-century composers; and The New American Concerto, which invites a diverse collective of composers to examine socio-cultural topics relevant to American life today through the form of the violin concerto. As part of this latter series, she performs Missy Mazzoli’s violin concerto Procession with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Phoenix Symphony. Ms. Koh has appeared with orchestras worldwide that include the Atlanta, Baltimore, BBC, Chicago, Cincinnati, National, NHK, RAI National, and Singapore symphony orchestras; the Cleveland, Mariinsky, Minnesota, and Philharmonia (London) orchestras; the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics; the New World Symphony; and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

Named Musical America’s 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year, Ms. Koh has won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Concert Artists Guild Competition, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. She has a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Oberlin College and studied at the Curtis Institute, where she worked extensively with Jaime Laredo and Felix Galimir. She is also an active lecturer, teacher, and recording artist for Cedille Records, and is the newly named artistic director of the Kennedy Center’s Fortas Chamber Music Concerts and artistic director and founder of the nonprofit ARCO Collaborative.