Michael Tilson Thomas Makes MET Orchestra Debut with Soprano Pretty Yende
Singing Mozart and Mahler on June 5 The MET Orchestra returns to Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage for a series of three concerts, led by three dynamic conductors, this May and June. For the first concert on Friday, May 18 at 8:00 p.m., the orchestra is led by Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla in her Carnegie Hall and MET Orchestra debut, performing Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36. Also on the program is Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death (orch. Shostakovich) featuring mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili. On Wednesday, May 30 at 8:00 p.m., the orchestra is led by Gianandrea Noseda and joined by violinist James Ehnes for a performance of Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219, "Turkish," on a program that includes Mahler's Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor. For the orchestra's final concert of the series, Tuesday, June 5 at 8:00 p.m., conductor Michael Tilson Thomas makes his MET Orchestra debut with soprano Pretty Yende singing Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate and Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in G Major. The program opens with Carl Ruggles's Evocations.
Read more about The MET Orchestra this season
here.
About the Artists
Mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili became internationally known on the opening night of the La Scala season in 2009, when she sang the title role in Carmen opposite
Jonas Kaufmann under the baton of
Daniel Barenboim. This performance marked her debut in the role and was televised all over the world. She has since debuted this signature role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, State Opera in Berlin, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, Teatro Regio in Turin, Canadian Opera Company, and Arena di Verona. She was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. Earlier this year, Rachvelishvili performed at the Met as Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore and next season will be seen in major roles in Verdi's Aida, Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur and Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila.
Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla was named Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in February 2016, following in the footsteps of
Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo, and Andris Nelsons. She has performed as a guest conductor all over the world. In Europe, she has collaborated with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, and the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie. With the Kremerata Baltica, she has enjoyed a dynamic collaboration with Gidon Kremer on numerous European tours. She has led operas in Heidelberg, Salzburg, Komische Oper Berlin, and Bern, where she served as Kapellmeister. In North America, she has worked with Seattle and San Diego symphonies and gave her New York conducting debut with the Juilliard Orchestra.
With the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gražinyte-Tyla was a Dudamel Fellow in the 2012-2013 season, Assistant Conductor for two seasons (2014-2016), and Associate Conductor for the 2016-2017 season. Gražinyte-Tyla was the Music Director of the Salzburg Landestheater from 2015 until 2017. Winner of the 2012 prestigious Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award, she subsequently made her debut with the Gustav >Mahler Youth Orchestra in a symphonic concert at the Salzburger Festspiele.
Gražinyte-Tyla was discovered by the German Conducting Forum (Deutsches Dirigentenforum) in April 2009. A native of Vilnius, Lithuania, she was born into a musical family. Before pursuing her studies at the Music Conservatory in Zurich, she studied at the Music Conservatory
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Leipzig and at the Music Conservatory in Bologna, Italy.
James Ehnes has established himself as one of the foremost violinists of his generation. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism, and an unfaltering musicality, he is a favorite guest of many of the world's most respected conductors including Ashkenazy, Alsop,
Sir Andrew Davis, Denève, Dutoit, Elder, Ivan Fischer, Gardner, Paavo Järvi, Noseda, Robertson, and Runnicles. Ehnes's long list of orchestras includes, amongst others, the Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, New York, London Symphony, Philharmonia, BBC Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, and the NHK Symphony orchestras. He began violin studies at the age of four, became a protégé of the noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin at age nine, made his orchestral debut with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal at thirteen, and graduated from The Juilliard School in 1997, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music.
Gianandrea Noseda is widely recognized as one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was named the National Symphony Orchestra's seventh music director in January 2016, with a four-year term beginning in the fall of 2017 for the 2017-2018 season. He has served as Music Director of the Teatro Regio Torino since 2007, ushering in a transformative era for
the company matched with international acclaim for its productions, tours, recordings, and film projects. His visionary leadership and ambitious global touring initiatives over the last decade have brought the opera house firmly into the realm of the leading international companies on the global stage, where it has become one of Italy's most important cultural ambassadors. Maestro Noseda also serves as Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Orquestra de Cadaqués, and Artistic Director of the Stresa Festival in Italy.
Mr. Noseda has a cherished relationship with the Metropolitan Opera dating back to 2002. In the 2016-2017 season, he conducted a new production of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, which received its premiere at the New Year's Eve Gala; he also led a critically-acclaimed new production of Les pêcheurs de perles, which premiered at the New Year's Eve Gala in 2015. His widely praised 2013-2014 season interpretation of Prince Igor, for which he and director Dmitri Tcherniakov fashioned a new version, is available on DVD released by Deutsche Grammophon. Next season Noseda leads the Met's Adriana Lecouvreur, opening on New Year's Eve.
With her magnetic charm, critically- and popularly-acclaimed operatic and solo performances worldwide and a successful debut album, South African soprano
Pretty Yende has quickly become one of the brightest stars of the classical music world. Since making her professional operatic debut at the Latvian National Theatre in Riga as Micaela in Carmen, she has sung at nearly all of the major theaters of the world, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Opéra National de Paris, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Opernhaus Zürich, and Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
In January of 2013, Yende made her critically and popularly acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut, stepping in as the Countess Adele in Le Comte Ory on short notice, opposite
Juan Diego Florez. Immediately afterwards, she made her Vienna debut at the Theater an der Wien in the same opera.
A 2011 graduate of the Young Artists Accademia of the Teatro alla Scala, she made her debut with
the company in 2010 as Berenice in Rossini's L'Occasione fa il Ladro. In 2010, she became the first artist in the history of the Belvedere competition to win first prize in every category and went on to win First Prize in
Placido Domingo's Operalia Competition in 2011. Yende sings the title role in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met from April 25 and next season will be seen in Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perles and Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment.
Michael Tilson Thomas is Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, Founder and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony, and Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra. In addition to conducting the world's leading orchestras, MTT is also noted for his work as a composer and a producer of multimedia projects that are dedicated to music education and the reimagination of the concert experience. He has won eleven Grammy Awards for his recordings, is the recipient of the National Medal of Arts, and is a Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France.
Michael Tilson Thomas curates his second Perspectives series at
Carnegie Hall, leading four orchestras over seven concerts during the 2018-2019 season, in programs that reflect his multifaceted career and his commitment to shaping the future of classical music. The series features music by composers he has long championed as well of one of his own recent compositions, performed by artists with whom he frequently collaborates. For additional information, visit
carnegiehall.org/tilsonthomas.
The MET Orchestra is today 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 orchestra made its debut at
Carnegie Hall in 1894 and has since performed at the Hall more than 90 times. The MET Orchestra performs three times at
Carnegie Hall in spring 2019, including concerts conducted by Valery Gergiev and Music Director Designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The orchestra's concert repertoire will include Mahler's Rückert Lieder with mezzo-soprano
Elina Garanca, Bruckner's Symphony No. 7, Schubert's Symphony No. 9, "Great," and Schumann's Piano Concerto with Daniil Trifonov.
Program Information
Friday, May 18 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
THE MET ORCHESTRA
Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, Conductor
Anita Rachvelishvili, Mezzo-Soprano
Claude Debussy Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Modest Mussorgsky Songs and Dances of Death (orch. Shostakovich)
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36
______________
Wednesday, May 30 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
THE MET ORCHESTRA
Gianandrea Noseda, Conductor
James Ehnes, Violin
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219, "Turkish"
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor
______________
Tuesday, June 5 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
THE MET ORCHESTRA
Michael Tilson Thomas, Conductor
Pretty Yende, Soprano
CARL RUGGLES Evocations
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Exsultate, jubilate
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 4 in G Major
Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of
Carnegie Hall.
Ticket Information
Tickets, priced at $56-$185, are available at the
Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the
Carnegie Hall website,
carnegiehall.org.
For
Carnegie Hall Corporation presentations taking place in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, a limited number of seats, priced at $10, will be available day-of-concert beginning at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:00 noon on Sunday until one hour before the performance or until supply lasts. The exceptions are
Carnegie Hall Family Concerts and gala events. These $10 tickets are available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis at the
Carnegie Hall Box Office only. There is a two-ticket limit per customer.
In addition, for all
Carnegie Hall presentations in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage a limited number of partial view (seats with obstructed or limited sight lines or restricted leg room) will be sold for 50% of the full price. For more information on this and other discount ticket programs, including those for students, Notables members, and Bank of America customers, visit
carnegiehall.org/discounts. Artists, programs, and prices are subject to change.
