Carnegie Hall

Celebrating 50 years during the 2024–2025 season, Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) makes its artistic home in Carnegie Hall, where it has performed more than any other orchestra since its premiere there in 1983. OSL’s annual season features a concert series in each of Carnegie Hall’s three venues as well as the Visionary Sounds and DeGaetano Composition Institute programs focused on contemporary composers at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music—the rehearsal, recording, and performance facility OSL built in 2011 on Manhattan’s West Side. OSL collaborates with Paul Taylor Dance Company in its Lincoln Center season each year and performs with a variety of artistic partners at venues throughout the city and beyond. 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 later expanded into an orchestra before catching fire in New York’s classical music scene. OSL has participated in 120 recordings, four of which have won Grammy Awards, has commissioned more than 75 new works, and has given more than 200 world, US, and New York City premieres. In recent seasons, OSL has presented works by Kinan Azmeh, Margaret Bonds, Valerie Coleman, Julius Eastman, Wynton Marsalis, Florence Price, Rita Dove, and Chen Yi, among others. Central to OSL’s mission, the Education and Community Engagement program presents free concerts to thousands of New York City public school students each year; offers the 120-student-strong Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s (YOSL), the city’s only youth orchestra under the umbrella of a professional group; provides a mentorship program for pre-professional musicians; and brings accessible concerts to all five boroughs. To learn more, visit OSLmusic.org and follow @OSLmusic on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, TiKTok, and YouTube.

One of today’s most versatile and respected conductors, James Conlon has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic, and choral repertoire. Since his 1974 debut with the New York Philharmonic, he has conducted virtually every major American and European orchestra. Through worldwide touring, an extensive discography and videography, numerous writings, television appearances, and guest-speaking engagements, he is one of classical music’s most recognized figures.

Mr. Conlon is music director of LA Opera, where since 2006 he has led more performances than any other conductor in the company’s history. He will continue to serve as music director until 2026 (his 20th season), at which time he will become conductor laureate. He has been principal conductor of the Opéra de Paris; general music director of the City of Cologne, Germany, where he was music director of both the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne and the Cologne Opera; music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra; and principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Turin, Italy. He has also served as music director of the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and as artistic advisor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He is now music director laureate of the Cincinnati May Festival, where he was music director for 37 years. At the Metropolitan Opera, he has led more than 270 performances as a guest conductor since his debut in 1976.

Mr. Conlon is a noted advocate for composers suppressed by the Nazi regime and an enthusiastic advocate of public scholarship, and he appears throughout the country as a speaker on a variety of cultural and educational topics. At LA Opera, his popular pre-performance talks—each attended by more than 1,000 people—draw upon musicology, literary studies, history, and social sciences to contemplate the enduring power and relevance of opera and classical music in general. His accolades include a 2002 Légion d’Honneur from former French President Jacques Chirac; a 2018 Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana from Sergio Mattarella, President of the Italian Republic; and a 2023 Cross of Honor for Science and Art from the Republic of Austria.

Judith Pisar was appointed UNESCO Special Envoy for Cultural Diplomacy in 2017, in recognition of her lifelong commitment to cultural exchange and international dialogue. In 2021, in partnership with the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, The Juilliard School, and Villa Albertine, she created a prize to recognize young contemporary composers. As president of Arts France-USA, she has produced concerts and festivals of American music in Europe that have included tributes to Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Broadway, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong.

Once described by architect Philip Johnson as “America’s cultural czarina in Europe,” Judith Pisar served for 17 years as chair of the American Center of Paris, the avant-garde meeting place for French and American artists. In that capacity, in 1988 she selected Frank Gehry to design a new building—among the first he designed in Europe.

Before marrying Samuel Pisar and moving to France, she served as director of music at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and executive director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Prior to that, she founded The Composer Speaks, a lecture bureau that brought some of the greatest composers of the 20th century to cities and universities throughout the US. A Commander of the French Legion of Honor and a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, she serves on the board of Young Concert Artists and as honorary trustee of the Fontainebleau Schools of Music and Fine Arts. Her children, Antony Blinken and Leah Pisar; two stepdaughters, Helaina Pisar-McKibbin and Alexandra Pisar-Pinto; and five grandchildren are honoring and pursuing the legacy of Samuel Pisar.

Leah Pisar is honorary chair of Project Aladdin, which works to counter anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, hatred, and extremism by teaching the universal lessons of the Holocaust and building bridges of knowledge among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It works with governments, civil society leaders, and educators throughout the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Dr. Pisar’s father—a teenage survivor of Auschwitz, Dachau, and Majdanek—instilled in her the firm belief that there is no such thing as hereditary enemies.

A US citizen, she was born and raised in Paris. She holds a BA degree in government from Harvard College, a master’s degree in political science from the Institut d’études politiques de Paris (where she also taught a graduate seminar from 2013 to 2018), and a PhD in international law from the University of Paris. An expert on transatlantic relations and US and EU foreign policy, she held several positions in the Clinton administration: at the White House as director for communications at the National Security Council; at the US Department of State in the Bureau of Public Affairs; and at the US Embassy in Paris as speechwriter to Ambassador Pamela Harriman.

After leaving the White House in 2001, she completed her doctoral dissertation, which focused on Euro-American diplomatic tensions over the Iraq War and was published in France under the title Orage sur l’Atlantique (Fayard, 2010). During this time, she was a visiting scholar at the Center for American Progress and co-edited a book, The US and the EU: Perceptions and Challenges (Global Understanding Series, 2008). She is a frequent television, radio, and print commentator on both sides of the Atlantic.

Dr. Pisar is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has been a Young Leader of the American Council on Germany’s program on the Future of Europe and a Rising Talent of the Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society. She has served on the jury of the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity, under the patronage of Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar. She was awarded the Global Hope Coalition’s Hero Award in 2019 and the French National Order of Merit in 2021. In 2022, President Biden appointed her to serve on the Council of the United States Holocaust Memorial.

American soprano Diana Newman brings “fresh and intense” performances to opera houses and concert stages across the United States and Europe. Highlights of her 2024–2025 season include the role of Danica in the North American premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s The Listeners with Opera Philadelphia, and her debut with Atlanta Opera as the First Lady in The Magic Flute. Orchestral engagements in the 2023–2024 season included the world premiere of Aaron Zigman’s Émigré with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, followed by the US premiere with the New York Philharmonic; a program titled Hisaishi Conducts Hisaishi with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; A Century of Film Music with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by her father, David Newman; and her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood as Woglinde in Götterdämmerung.

On the concert stage, Ms. Newman recently appeared as a soloist in Maria Schneider’s Winter Morning Walks at the Lucerne Festival, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Eastern Sierra Symphony Summer Festival, and Vivaldi’s Gloria in Havana, Cuba. Committed to the performance of art song and new works, she has attended the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, SongFest, and the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar, which is run by mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe.

In 2014, Ms. Newman performed at Carnegie Hall in a master class led by legendary mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig as part of Marilyn Horne’s The Song Continues series. In addition, she performed George Crumb’s Madrigals Book IV at Music Academy of the West, Frank Ticheli’s Songs of Love and Life and Angels in the Architecture with the UT New Music Ensemble, and Lukas Foss’s Time Cycle with faculty members of the Aspen Music Festival and School, where she also covered the role of Daisy Buchanan in John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby. She has given multiple premieres of works by living composers, including Francesco Cilluffo, Dr. Alan L. Smith, and David Newman.

The Bard Festival Chorale was formed in 2003 as the resident chorus of the Bard Music Festival. It consists of the finest ensemble singers from New York City and surrounding areas. Many of its members have distinguished careers as soloists and performers in a variety of vocal groups; all possess a shared enthusiasm for the exploration of new and unfamiliar music. The chorale also serves as the chorus for the American Symphony Orchestra, appearing regularly at Carnegie Hall.

Notable performances have included Nono’s Intolleranza, Bernstein’s “Kaddish” Symphony, Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust, and, most recently, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, among many others. The chorale also serves as the opera chorus for Bard’s Summerscape festival, where it has appeared in such highly acclaimed productions as Meyerbeer’s Le prophète and Les Huguenots, Saint-Saëns’s Henry VIII, and Taneyev’s Oresteia.

James Bagwell serves as the ensemble’s music director and conductor. With performances described as “triumphant” (Tulsa World) and “galvanizing” (New York Classical Review), Mr. Bagwell maintains an active schedule as a conductor of choral, orchestral, and opera repertoire. He is a professor of music and music program director at Bard College, and also serves as director of performance studies at Bard College Conservatory of Music and as co-director of the Bard Conservatory’s graduate program in conducting.

From 2009–2015, Mr. Bagwell served as music director of The Collegiate Chorale. Highlights of his tenure included conducting rarely performed operas at Carnegie Hall, such as Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon, and Boito’s Mefistofele, as well as the New York premiere of Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 7, “Toltec,” and Osvaldo Golijov’s Oceana. His performance of Kurt Weill’s Knickerbocker Holiday at Alice Tully Hall was recorded live for Gaslight Records and is the only complete recording of the work. Mr. Bagwell has prepared the chorale for numerous concerts at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland as well as for programs with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Israel and at the Salzburg Festival.

Mr. Bagwell has trained choruses for American and international orchestras that include the New York Philharmonic; Boston, Indianapolis, and NHK symphony orchestras; San Francisco Symphony; Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra; St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra; Budapest Festival Orchestra; and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Since 2003, he has been director of choruses for the Bard Music Festival, conducting and preparing choral works at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. He has been a regular guest conductor of the Cincinnati and Tulsa symphony orchestras. In 2015, Mr. Bagwell was named associate conductor of The Orchestra Now (TŌN), and in 2009, he was appointed principal guest conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra. He has led both ensembles in concerts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.

Led by Founder and Artistic Director Dianne Berkun Menaker, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus is a Grammy Award–winning ensemble that has collaborated with a range of organizations and artists that include the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics, The National, Wye Oak, Bon Iver, Shara Nova, Davóne Tines, International Contemporary Ensemble, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Elton John, and Grizzly Bear. As a commissioner of new music, the chorus has introduced more than 120 original works and world premieres by contemporary composers, including collaborations with Caroline Shaw, Toshi Reagon, Tania León, David Lang, Philip Glass, and Nico Muhly. The chorus has a strong reputation as a producer of original works, including Silent Voices (National Sawdust, New Victory Theater) and Black Mountain Songs (BAM Next Wave Festival, 2014). In 2025, the chorus premieres Port(al)—an evening-length, site-specific work co-created by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, composer Paola Prestini, composer and librettist Jad Abumrad, and director Jessica Grindstaff, based on the history of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Founded in 1992, Brooklyn Youth Chorus has served nearly 10,000 students, with more than 500 students a year currently enrolled in its after-school and public-school programs.