Carnegie Hall

The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra is regarded as one of the world’s finest orchestras. From the time of the company’s inception in 1883, the ensemble has worked with leading conductors in both opera and concert performances and has developed into an orchestra of enormous technical polish and style. The Met Orchestra maintains a demanding schedule of performances and rehearsals during its 32-week New York season, when the company performs as many as seven times a week in repertory that this season encompasses 18 operas.

In addition to its opera schedule, the orchestra has a distinguished history of concert performances. Arturo Toscanini made his American debut as a symphonic conductor with the Met Orchestra in 1913, and the impressive list of instrumental soloists who appeared with the orchestra includes Leopold Godowsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arthur Rubinstein, Pablo Casals, Josef Hofmann, Ferruccio Busoni, Jascha Heifetz, Moriz Rosenthal, and Fritz Kreisler. In recent years, instrumental and vocal soloists have included Itzhak Perlman, Maxim Vengerov, Alfred Brendel, Maurizio Pollini, Evgeny Kissin, Christian Tetzlaff, Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Natalie Dessay, Diana Damrau, Christine Goerke, Joyce DiDonato, Matthew Polenzani, and Peter Mattei. The group has also performed seven world premieres: Milton Babbitt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (1998), William Bolcom’s Symphony No. 7 (2002), Hsueh-Yung Shen’s Legend (2002), Charles Wuorinen’s Theologoumenon (2007) and Time Regained (2009), John Harbison’s Closer to My Own Life (2011), and Matthew Aucoin’s Heath (2023).

Maestro Myung-Whun Chung currently holds positions as direttore emeritus of Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, the first ever in the ensemble’s history; principal guest conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, also the first ever in the orchestra’s history; and honorary music director of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. He was recently appointed artistic director of the new Busan Opera and Concert Hall in his native South Korea. He made his Met debut in 1986 leading Simon Boccanegra and returned in subsequent seasons to conduct performances of Madama Butterfly and Don Carlo.

He has also held tenures as music director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Opéra Bastille, and Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra; principal guest conductor of the Teatro Comunale di Firenze; and principal conductor of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. In addition, he has taken the stage to lead many of the most renowned orchestras in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

He is the recipient of numerous prizes, including Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur from the French government, Commentatore dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia, the Premio Abbiati for Outstanding Conducting at the Teatro La Fenice, and Keumkwan, the highest culture award of the Korean government. In 2008, he became the first conductor to be named a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Universally hailed as one of the world’s finest musicians, Maxim Vengerov began his career as a solo violinist at age five; won the Henryk Wieniawski and Carl Flesch international violin competitions at ages 10 and 15, respectively; studied with Galina Turchaninova and Zakhar Bron; made his first recording at age 10; and went on to record for high-profile labels that include Melodia, Teldec, Deutsche Grammophon, and Warner, earning, among others, Grammy and Gramophone artist-of-the-year awards. He made his debut with the Met Orchestra in 1998, appearing alongside the ensemble in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto at Carnegie Hall.

This season marks the start of his three-year tenure as a Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist, which sees him headline more than a dozen concerts, beginning with all of Mozart’s violin concertos in the fall of 2024 and culminating with all of Beethoven’s violin sonatas in 2027. He also appears alongside the Met Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and London Symphony Orchestra, and joins forces with chamber-music partners who include Evgeny Kissin and Martha Argerich.

In 2007, he turned his attention to conducting, and in 2010, he was appointed the first chief conductor of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra. He has also led performances with the Munich Philharmonic, BBC and Toronto symphony orchestras, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and Orchestre National de France, among others. He has also held various teaching positions around the world, including at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music in London. In 2018, he became Goodwill Ambassador of the Musica Mundi School, and in 2021, he launched his own online teaching platform, maximvengerov.com.

He has received numerous awards, including a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance and a World Economic Forum Crystal Award, as well as the Ordre du Mérite Culturel de Monaco. He plays the ex-Kreutzer Stradivari (1727).