Carnegie Hall

Each summer, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute brings together the finest young musicians from across the country (ages 16–19) to form the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA). Following a comprehensive audition process and a training residency at Purchase College, State University of New York (SUNY), with faculty made up of principal players from top professional US orchestras, these remarkable teenagers perform at Carnegie Hall and embark on a tour to some of the great music capitals of the world, serving as America’s music ambassadors. As part of their travel schedule, NYO-USA musicians meet and collaborate with local musicians and experience the richness of other cultures.

NYO-USA has been praised for “exuding vitality and confidence” (The New York Times) in its performances. Following annual concerts at Carnegie Hall, NYO-USA has toured Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Since 2013, the orchestra has been invited to perform at leading international festivals and on landmark stages around the world, including the BBC Proms in London, National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Lotte Hall in Seoul, Lucerne Festival, and Teatro Mayor in Bogotá, among many others. In the more than 10 years since the ensemble’s creation, NYO-USA has worked with extraordinary conductors and guest artists, including Marin Alsop, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Sir Andrew Davis, Joyce DiDonato, Daniel Harding, Sir Antonio Pappano, Carlos Miguel Prieto, David Robertson, Gil Shaham, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Alisa Weilerstein.

NYO-USA is one of Carnegie Hall’s three acclaimed national youth ensembles, which also include NYO2 for outstanding classical musicians (ages 14–17), and NYO Jazz for the nation’s finest jazz instrumentalists (ages 16–19). Over the last decade, well over a thousand young musicians have performed in the three ensembles, creating a unique musical community, spotlighting musical excellence found across the United States, and transforming countless lives.

To learn more, please visit carnegiehall.org/NYOUSA.

One of the foremost conductors of our time, Marin Alsop represents a powerful and inspiring voice. The first woman to serve as the head of a major orchestra in the United States, South America, Austria, and Britain, she is internationally recognized for her innovative approach to programming and audience development, deep commitment to education, and advocating for music’s importance in the world.

Ms. Alsop serves as chief conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, where she curates and conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s summer residencies. She is also the first music director of the University of Maryland’s National Orchestral Institute + Festival (NOI+F), conductor of honor of Brazil’s São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP), and music director laureate and OrchKids founder of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, after an outstanding 14-year tenure as its music director. In fall 2023, she inaugurated a three-season appointment as principal guest conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra.

A regular guest of such major international ensembles as The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris, Ms. Alsop enjoys longstanding relationships with the London Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras, and has led the Filarmonica della Scala, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and more. An ardent champion of new composition, she was music director of California’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music for 25 years.

Recognized with BBC Music magazine’s Album of the Year award, Emmy nominations, and Grammy, Classical BRIT, and Gramophone awards, Ms. Alsop’s discography comprises more than 200 titles. They include recordings for Decca, Harmonia Mundi, and Sony Classical, as well as her acclaimed Naxos cycles of the works of Brahms, Dvořák, and Prokofiev. The first and only conductor to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, she has been honored with the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award, and made history as the first female conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms. In 2002, to promote and nurture the careers of her fellow female conductors, she founded the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship, now renamed the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship. The Conductor, an award-winning documentary about her life, debuted at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.

Through elegant musicality and an insightful approach to contemporary and established repertoire, Jean-Yves Thibaudet has earned a reputation as one of the world’s finest pianists. He is especially known for his diverse interests beyond the classical world, including numerous collaborations in film, fashion, and visual art. A recording powerhouse, Mr. Thibaudet appears on more than 70 albums and six film scores. He is a devoted educator and is the first-ever artist-in-residence at the Colburn School, which awards several scholarships in his name.

Mr. Thibaudet appeared as soloist in seven compositions throughout the 2023–2024 season, performed with 19 orchestras: Gershwin’s Concerto in F, Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 5, Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto, Ravel’s Concerto in G, Debussy’s Fantaisie, Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, and Scriabin’s Prometheus. In addition to his orchestral dates, Mr. Thibaudet joins longtime collaborators Gautier Capuçon and Lisa Batiashvili for a trio tour of the US. He also continues his multi-season focus on Debussy’s Préludes, performing both books in recitals throughout Europe. With Michael Feinstein, he continues the acclaimed program Two Pianos: Who Could Ask for Anything More?, presenting works by Gershwin, Rodgers, and more in new arrangements for piano, voice, and orchestra.

Mr. Thibaudet records exclusively for Decca. His most recent solo album, 2021’s Carte Blanche, features a collection of deeply personal solo piano pieces never before recorded by the pianist. Other highlights from Mr. Thibaudet’s catalog include a 2017 recording of Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety; recordings of the complete solo piano music of Debussy and Satie; and Grammy-nominated recordings of Ravel’s complete solo piano works and Saint-Saëns’s piano concertos Nos. 2 and 5. He is the soloist on Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch; his playing can also be heard in Pride & Prejudice, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Wakefield, and the Oscar-winning and critically acclaimed film Atonement.

Polyphony Education uses classical music to help bridge the divide between the Arab and Jewish communities in Israel. Polyphony believes that music has a unique power to transcend cultural and social boundaries while advancing the building of a rich and vibrant civil society. An essential step towards the advancement of a just and peaceful Israeli society is to educate the performer and audience in the art of listening and communicating while creating new channels for positive engagement between the two communities.

To further its mission, Polyphony has developed ground-breaking programs, such as the Music and Society Seminar—a two-year program for talented Arab and Jewish young musicians in partnership with the Tel Aviv University, the Israeli Conservatory (Tel Aviv), the Polyphony Conservatory (Nazareth), and leading international musicians. The program combines advanced chamber music study with an academic curriculum that develops participants as informed global citizens through intercultural dialogue and leadership training. The seminar alternates between Nazareth and Tel Aviv and includes 10 Arab and 10 Jewish participants—eight of them will take part in World Orchestra Week (WOW!).