Sunday, April 21, 2024 2:00 PM
Hill Auditorium
The Philadelphia Orchestra
in two different programs
$12-20 student tickets available
In his 12th year as music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin has created a new golden age for the ensemble, and we’re thrilled to close our 2023/24 season with two performances by the Orchestra.
Saturday night’s program opens with Florence Price’s Symphony No. 4, which incorporates melodies from spirituals, including a beautifully-orchestrated theme from “Wade in the Water”; The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Grammy-winning record of Price’s first and third symphonies (2022 “Best Orchestral Performance”) helped spark intense global interest in the Arkansas-born composer. The program also features Rachmaninoff’s warm and melodious Symphony No. 2, a lush and sentimental work of immense power and beauty that has not been performed on a UMS program in over 30 years.
Sunday afternoon’s season finale puts the UMS Choral Union on display with Johannes Brahms, who poured his soul into his utterly personal German Requiem, which was composed after the death of his mother. Departing from the conventional Latin Mass adopted by Mozart and Berlioz, and instead incorporating texts from the German Lutheran Bible, the work celebrates the joy of remembrance and offers comfort to those left behind. Its rich harmonies and intricate counterpoint create a spiritually evocative experience that is profoundly personal, offering solace and an opportunity for introspection.
PROGRAM (Sat 4/20/2024: Hill Auditorium)
Florence Price Symphony No. 4 in d minor
Sergei Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 in e minor, Op. 27
Join host Doyle Armbrust for “The Society of Disobedient Listeners” — a special pre-performance talk before Saturday evening’s performance, 6:30 pm in the lower lobby of Hill Auditorium.
PROGRAM (Sun 4/21/2024: Hill Auditorium)
Johannes Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45
Thank You to Our Sponsors
PERMANENTLY ENDOWED SUPPORT
- Darragh Humphrey Weisman Memorial Endowment Fund
TITLE SPONSOR
PRINCIPAL SPONSOR
- Frances Mauney Lohr Choral Union Endowment Fund
- Doris and Herbert E. Sloan Endowment Fund
SUPPORTING SPONSOR
- UMS Medical Community Endowment Fund
- James and Nancy Stanley
PATRON SPONSOR
- Ken and Penny Fischer
MEDIA PARTNERS
Montreal-born Yannick Nézet-Séguin was appointed as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, New York in 2018, adding this to his Music Directorship of The Philadelphia Orchestra (where he has served since 2012) and to the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal), of which he has been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor since 2000. He joined Harnoncourt and Haitink to become the third-ever Honorary Member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in 2016-17. The end of his ten-year tenure with Rotterdam Philharmonic coincided with the orchestra’s centenary celebrations in its home city and culminated in an acclaimed European summer festivals tour in 2018.
Yannick has worked with many leading European ensembles and has enjoyed many close collaborations with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Chamber Orchestra of Europe, as well as with London Philharmonic Orchestra, of which he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2008 to 2014. He has appeared several times at the BBC Proms and at many European festivals, among them Edinburgh, Lucerne, Salzburg, Berlin and Grafenegg. North American summer appearances include New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Lanaudière, Vail and Saratoga. Once Chorus Master, Assistant Conductor and Music Adviser at Opéra de Montréal he has since conducted at the Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Netherlands Opera, Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival.
Chinese soprano Ying Fang has been praised as “indispensable at the Met in Mozart” (The New York Times) and for “a voice that can stop time, pure and rich and open and consummately expressive” (Financial Times). A native of Ningbo, China, Ms. Fang is the recipient of the Martin E. Segal Award, the Hildegard Behrens Foundation Award, the Rose Bampton Award of The Sullivan Foundation, The Opera Index Award, and First Prize of the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition. In 2009, she become one of the youngest singers to win one of China’s most prestigious awards – the China Golden Bell Award for Music. She has been hailed as “the most gifted Chinese soprano of her generation” by Ningbo Daily.
Called “a voice for this historic moment” (Washington Post), GRAMMY Award winning baritone Will Liverman is the recipient of the 2022 Beverly Sills Artist Award by The Metropolitan Opera and the co-creator of The Factotum – called “mic-drop fabulous good” (Opera News) – which premiered at the Lyric Opera Chicago in 2023. Described as “nothing short of extraordinary” (Opera News) with a “beaming, high baritone that easily asserts” (LA Times), Liverman has been hailed by critics for his versatility in dramatic and comedic roles, as well as on concert stages in North America and internationally, and his dedication and vision as a composer, artist, and advisor helping to evolve and push the performing arts industry forward.
Cedille Records released Liverman’s Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers with pianist Paul Sanchez in February 2021. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical chart and was nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.