Carnegie Hall

Created by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute in summer 2016, NYO2 brings together outstanding young American instrumentalists ages 14–17 for a summer orchestral training program that culminates in exciting concerts at Carnegie Hall and at the New World Center in Miami Beach. Running in conjunction with the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA) and NYO Jazz’s annual summer residencies at Purchase College, State University of New York, NYO2 offers an opportunity for participants to play alongside exceptionally talented peers and learn from a world-class faculty. The program aims to expand the pool of young musicians across the country equipped with the tools to succeed at the highest level, particularly those who come from communities that have often been underserved by and underrepresented in the classical music field. 

NYO2’s inaugural season culminated in a side-by-side concert with The Philadelphia Orchestra in Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall, led by conductor Giancarlo Guerrero. In summer 2017, NYO2 made its Carnegie Hall debut with Mr. Guerrero, members of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and Grammy Award–winning bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding. In 2018, NYO2 partnered with the New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy, for the first time, traveling to Miami Beach for a six-day residency culminating in performances at the New World Center and Carnegie Hall led by conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto and featuring violinist Gil Shaham. In 2019, the orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall and returned to Miami Beach for its residency with New World Symphony, once again led by Mr. Prieto, and joined by pianist Gabriela Montero. The ensemble participated in an all-digital residency due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and last summer, the orchestra was able to gather at Purchase College, where it recorded and shared vibrant digital video projects, including the world premiere performance of Molly Joyce’s Side by Side, led by Mei-Ann Chen. The 2021 residency marked the first time that most of the young musicians had the opportunity to play in full ensembles since the start of the pandemic. 

NYO2 is one of Carnegie Hall’s three acclaimed national youth ensembles, which also include NYO-USA for outstanding classical musicians ages 16–19, and NYO Jazz for the nation’s finest jazz instrumentalists ages 16–19. Each of these prestigious national programs—free to all participants—is dedicated to the proposition that talented young musicians thrive when given the opportunity to expand their musical, social, and cultural horizons and share their artistry with audiences around the globe. 

To learn more about NYO2, visit carnegiehall.org/NYO2. 

Praised for her dynamic, passionate conducting style, Taiwanese American conductor Mei-Ann Chen is acclaimed for infusing orchestras with energy, enthusiasm, and high-level music-making, galvanizing audiences and communities alike. 

Music director of the MacArthur Award–winning Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011, Ms. Chen was named chief conductor of Austria’s Recreation–Grosses Orchester Graz at Styriarte in fall 2021 after two seasons as the orchestra’s first-ever principal guest conductor, making her the first female Asian conductor to hold this position with an Austrian orchestra. 

Since September 2019, Ms. Chen has served as the first-ever artistic partner of Houston’s ROCO (River Oaks Chamber Orchestra). She has also served as artistic director and conductor for the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Summer Festival since 2016. Highly regarded as a compelling communicator and an innovative leader both on and off the podium, Ms. Chen is a sought-after guest conductor and has appeared with distinguished orchestras throughout the Americas, Europe, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Scandinavia, and continues to expand her relationships with orchestras worldwide, including more than 110 orchestras to date.

Ms. Chen is one of 2015’s Top 30 Influencers by Musical America; recipient of the Helen M. Thompson Award from the League of American Orchestras (2012); awardee of the Taki Concordia Fellowship (2007) founded by Marin Alsop; and first prize winner of the Malko Competition (2005), for which she remains the only woman in the competition’s history since 1965 to have won first prize. She has also been recognized with ASCAP awards for innovative programming.

Pianist and composer Aaron Diehl enthralls listeners with his layered artistry. At once temporal and ethereal, his expression transforms the piano into an orchestral vessel in the spirit of beloved predecessors Ahmad Jamal, Erroll Garner, and Jelly Roll Morton. Following three critically acclaimed albums on Mack Avenue Records and appearances at historic venues from Jazz at Lincoln Center and The Village Vanguard to David Geffen Hall and the Philharmonie de Paris, the American Pianist Association’s 2011 Cole Porter Fellow’s forthcoming solo record promises an exploration of self in a setting at once unbound and intimate.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Diehl traveled to New York in 2003 following his success as a finalist in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition and a subsequent European tour with Wynton Marsalis. His love affair with artistic tension has prompted a years-long immersion in distinctive repertoire from Meredith Monk and Ravel to Gershwin and Still. Among other towering figures, Still in particular inspires Mr. Diehl’s ongoing curation of Black American composers in his performance programming.

Mr. Diehl has enjoyed artistic associations with Wynton Marsalis, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, Buster Williams, Branford Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Philip Glass, and Cécile McLorin Salvant. He recently appeared with the New York Philharmonic and The Cleveland Orchestra as a featured soloist. Mr. Diehl holds a bachelor of music in jazz studies from The Juilliard School. A licensed pilot, when he’s not at the studio or on the road, he’s likely in the air.