Kent Nagano and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra go on tour! (April 2023)

The State Orchestra is playing in New York, but there is also the opportunity to experience the concert program presented in Carnegie Hall in Germany. On Saturday, April 22, 2023, General Music Director Kent Nagano will lead a concert at Carnegie Hall that brings together cellist Jan Vogler, 90 musicians from the Staatsorchester, and 100 young choral singers between the ages of eleven and 27 from Hamburg, Germany, and New York. The program will be presented again on April 28 and 30, 2023, in the Elbphilharmonie for the opening of the International Music Festival Hamburg, and on May 5, 2023, as part of the Dresden Music Festival.

The program takes up the unifying idea by combining Johannes Brahms from Hamburg (Schicksalslied for choir and orchestra) and Ludwig van Beethoven (8th Symphony), arguably the most important German composer in the world, with a contemporary U.S. composer living in New York: Sean Shepherd’s work “An einem klaren Tag – On a Clear Day,” which will be premiered here, is based on a cycle of poems by the lyricist Ulla Hahn. Shepherd’s composition for cello, choirs and orchestra was commissioned by the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester and the Dresden Music Festival.