Yale Philharmonia's Return to Carnegie Hall
Peter Oundjian, Conductor
Augustin Hadelich, Violin
Monday, January 27, 2025 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium
World Premiere by Joan Tower
Britten’s Violin Concerto, Op. 15
Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14
“…rippling with high-energy percussion and brass playing and a fluid interplay of polished strings as well as winds.”
The New York Times
Tickets start at $29
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To purchase tickets, visit carnegiehall.org. Student and Senior discount tickets are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue.
Peter Oundjian is a dynamic presence in the conducting world with an international career leading preeminent orchestras in many of the world's major musical centers. He is Music Director of the Colorado Symphony and the Colorado Music Festival. His 14-year tenure as Music Director of the Toronto Symphony (which ended in 2018) was transformational for the orchestra; he was also Music Director of the Scottish National Orchestra. Oundjian began his musical career as a solo violinist and first violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet. He has been a visiting professor at Yale School of Music since 1981, and has served as Principal Conductor of the Yale Philharmonia since 2017. For a complete biography, click here.
“I am thrilled to bring this exceptional orchestra of young players to Carnegie Hall,” said Oundjian, “and equally thrilled to be joined by the extraordinary violinist Augustin Hadelich, with whom I have joyously shared the stage many times. I’m also delighted to present a new work by Joan Tower, who is a longtime friend and colleague – and a national treasure.”
“The Yale School of Music is honored to have a longstanding relationship with Carnegie Hall, and being able to give our students the opportunity to play in one of the world’s great halls is an incredible privilege. We are delighted to have two world renowned musicians --Peter Oundjian and Augustin Hadelich – leading and inspiring the orchestra as they present this very special concert,” said Dean of the Yale School of Music, José García-León.
“The stage of Carnegie Hall is no stranger to Yale’s remarkable roster of alumni and students who have dedicated their lives to the arts. The Yale Philharmonia is emblematic of Yale’s deep commitment to the arts as part of its overall mission of enriching the world through education, dialogue and practice, and we are proud to see the Yale Philharmonia returning to this matchless concert hall with an exceptionally thoughtful program,” added Yale University President Maurie McInnis.
The concert opens with Tower’s world premiere, a new Suite based on her 1991 Concerto for Orchestra, which Oundjian conducted last summer at the Colorado Music Festival, with Tower in attendance. About the original Concerto, Tower wrote, “Although technically demanding, the virtuoso sections are an integral part of the music, resulting from accumulated energy, rather than being designed purely as display elements.” The new 11-minute Suite weaves together selected passages of the original 32-minute concerto to capture its energy and virtuoso elements in a shorter work, ideal for opening the concert on a high note.
Also in the first half is Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto, written just before World War II and given its premiere at Carnegie Hall in 1940. “This is music of enormous power and depth,” said Oundjian, “ominous and dark, tragically foreshadowing what was to come. It is an honor to revisit one of the great concerto masterpieces of the 20th century with the incomparable Augustin Hadelich right here in the hall where it premiered nearly 85 years ago.”
Hadelich, one of the great violinists of our time, has performed to enthusiastic acclaim with all the major American orchestras as well as the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam and many other eminent ensembles. He is known for his phenomenal technique, insightful and persuasive interpretations and ravishing tone. Hadelich joined the Yale School of Music violin faculty in 2021 and says of his teaching career, “My role in teaching is not only to help with violin-centered technique and advice, but also to serve as a guide in the process of students finding what they want to say to the world as artists.”
After intermission, Oundjian leads the Yale Philharmonia in a grand orchestra show piece, Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, groundbreaking in its time for the composer’s innovative use of the orchestra and what Berlioz called an “ideé fixe,” a recurring theme that runs through all five movements as the symphony tells the story of an artist’s unrequited love and opium-fueled demise.
Yale Philharmonia
Monday, January 27, 2025 at 8:00 p.m.
Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium
Peter Oundjian, Conductor
JOAN TOWER Suite from Concerto for Orchestra (World Premiere)
BENJAMIN BRITTEN Violin Concerto, Op. 15 (1938-39), Augustin Hadelich, Violin
HECTOR BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 (1830)
About Yale Philharmonia
The Yale Philharmonia, led by Principal Conductor Peter Oundjian and some of the world’s finest guest conductors, is one of America’s foremost music school ensembles. The largest performing group at the Yale School of Music, the Yale Philharmonia offers superb training in orchestral playing and repertoire.
The Yale Philharmonia first appeared at Carnegie Hall in 1976, when they performed an all-Sibelius program led by Jussi Jalas. The orchestra’s most recent appearance there was in 2012, when William Christie led an all-Handel program. Other Yale Philharmonia highlights at Carnegie Hall include an all-Penderecki program conducted by the composer himself in 2010 and a concert in 2006 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
Recent appearances at Carnegie Hall as part of the Yale in New York series have been praised by The New York Times as “sensational” and “tightly wrought, polished, and dramatic.”
The beginnings of orchestral music at Yale can be traced to 1894, when an orchestra was organized under the leadership of the school’s first dean, Horatio Parker. The orchestra took on the name The orchestra became known as the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale, or Yale Philharmonia in 1973. In the early 1970s, the orchestra gained attention in New Haven and beyond, and welcomed distinguished guest conductors Leopold Stokowski, Danny Kaye, Georg Solti, Aaron Copland and Pierre Boulez, who led the orchestra in rehearsals and performances.
In more recent years, guest conductors who have worked with the orchestra include John Adams, Marin Alsop, William Christie, James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, Giancarlo Guerrero, Carolyn Kuan, Jahja Ling, Krzysztof Penderecki, David Robertson, Leonard Slatkin, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, and Jean-Marie Zeitouni.
The orchestra’s current performances include an annual series of concerts in Woolsey Hall at Yale University as well as Yale Opera productions. In addition to Carnegie Hall, the Yale Philharmonia has performed on numerous occasions in Alice Tully Hall in New York City, Symphony Hall in Boston, and at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The Yale Philharmonia has toured in France and Italy, and in 2008 undertook its first tour of Asia, with acclaimed performances in the Seoul Arts Center, the Forbidden City Concert Hall and National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), and the Shanghai Grand Theatre.