Joseph Young in 2024-25

Joseph Young’s 2024—2025 Season Highlights

In his sixth season leading the Berkeley Symphony, Young’s approach to musical storytelling speaks to the vibrancy of the Bay Area

The season opens with Young in his National Philharmonic debut in an all-Rachmaninoff piano program featuring Daniil Trifonov, Oleg Volkov, and Sergei Babayan

Young makes his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut with Blue

Additional U.S. debuts include the Arkansas Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, and Madison Symphony Orchestra

European engagements include his Liverpool Philharmonic debut and his return to Orquesta Sinfónica RTVE

August 28, 2024 – “Strong, lithe, and deeply expressive” (SF Classical Voice), American conductor Joseph Young embarks on a 2024-25 season of debuts, major works, and creative partnerships with orchestras, soloists, and contemporary composers. 

Young’s fall engagements begin with his National Philharmonic debut (September 14) in an all-Rachmaninoff festival program featuring pianists Daniil Trifonov, Oleg Volkov, and Sergei Babayan. 

He returns to Orquesta Sinfónica RTVE (Madrid; October 17-18) for a program featuring Schumann’s Symphony No. 1, along with Albert Guinovart’s delightful 2023 work Les aventures de Monsieur Jules Verne featuring the Spanish Brass.

Young makes his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut with Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s Blue (November 16-December 1), a work he led to great acclaim with the Washington National Opera in 2023. 

Now in his sixth season as Music Director of the Berkeley Symphony, Young has programmed a season that exemplifies his compelling, inclusive approach to musical storytelling. Each symphonic program includes at least one work that speaks to the vibrancy and cultural heritage of the Bay Area. The opening program (Stories from Home, November 10) nods to the region’s rich Hispanic roots, ties to the labor movement, and maritime history with Revueltas’ Redes Suite, which tells the story of a Mexican fishing village that comes together in the face of corporate greed.

Subsequent Berkeley Symphony programs include Berkeley native John Adams’ The Chairman Dances and former composer-in-residence Anna Clyne’s DANCE (Music in Motion, February 9); an ode to the Bay Area’s spring with Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 and Rautavaara’s Cantus Articus–Concerto for Birds and Orchestra (Spring’s Awakening, March 16); and an homage to the majesty and resilience of the Bay Area with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, Piazzolla’s Aconagua, and the Bay Area premiere of Gity Razaz’s Methuselah (In Chains of Time) (Triumph, June 1).

Additional debut engagements throughout the 2024—2025 season include the Liverpool Philharmonic, Arkansas Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, and Madison Symphony Orchestra. 

The 2024-25 season builds upon a series of highly successful recent debuts, including the San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Detroit Symphony, the Sphinx Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música (Portugal), and the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra on tour throughout South Africa. In summer 2024, he led the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in the Cincinnati Opera’s world-premiere staging of Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio.

 

Additional information

www.josephyoung.com 

www.facebook.com/youngconductor

www.instagram.com/youngconductor

   

Joseph Young, Conductor | 2024—2025 Season Calendar

 

Debuts denoted in red.

 

National Philharmonic | September 14

Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

            Oleg Volkov, piano

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 1

            Daniil Trifonov, piano

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3

            Sergei Babayan, piano

 

Orquesta Sinfónica RTVE | October 17-18

Guinovart: Les Aventures de Monsieur Jules 

            Spanish Brass, soloists

R. Schumann: Symphony No. 1

 

Berkeley Symphony | November 10

Revueltas: Redes Suite

Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915

               Lisa Delan, soprano

Kris Bowers: For A Younger Self  (Bay Area Premiere)

              Charles Yang, violin

Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

 

Blue at Lyric Opera of Chicago | November 16-December 1 

Music by Jeanine Tesori, libretto by Tazewell Thompson.

Featuring Kenneth Kellogg, Zoie Reams, and Norman Garrett.

 

Liverpool Philharmonic | January 16

Barber: Essay No. 2

Philip Glass: Violin Concerto No. 1

            Chloë Hanslip, violin

Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

Bernstein: Three Dance Episodes from On The Town

 

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra | January 25-26

Coleridge-Taylor: Ballade

Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1

           Zee Zee, piano

Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony

 

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra | January 31-February 1

Coleridge-Taylor: Ballade

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3

            Awadagin Pratt, piano

Dvorák: Symphony No. 7

 

Berkeley Symphony | February 9

John Adams: The Chairman Dances

Anna Clyne: DANCE

            Inbal Segev, cello

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

 

Las Vegas Philharmonic | February 15

Brahms: Variations on a Theme of Haydn

Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini 

             Joyce Yang, piano

Prokofiev: Suite from Romeo and Juliet

 

Kansas City Symphony | February 21-23 

Brian Raphael Nabors: Pulse

Glazunov: Violin Concerto in A Minor

                  Hannah Tam, violin

Mussorgsky (arr. Ravel): Pictures at an Exhibition

 

Louisville Orchestra | March 7-8 

Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Concerto for Violin and Violoncello

                 Gabriel Lefkowitz, violin 

                 Nicholas Finch, cello

Alex Berko: New Work

Stravinsky: Firebird Suite

 

Berkeley Symphony | March 16

Rautavaara: Cantus Arcticus—Concerto for Birds and Orchestra

Huang Ruo: Tipping Point

R. Schumann: Symphony No. 1

 

Florida Orchestra | March 29-30 

John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine

Guillaume Connesson: A Kind of Trane 

                       Dr. Robert Young, saxophone

Prokofiev: Suites from Romeo and Juliet

 

Madison Symphony Orchestra | April 11-13 

Barber: Second Essay 

Kevin Puts: Contact  

         Ft. Time for Three 

Prokofiev: Selections from Romeo and Juliet

 

Berkeley Symphony | June 1

Gity Razaz: Methuselah (In Chains of Time) (Bay Area Premiere)

Commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

Piazzolla: Aconcagua—Concerto for Bandoneon, String Orchestra and Percussion

               Hanzhi Wang, bandoneon

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5