Carnegie Hall

AYNUR
Friday, May 5, 2023 at 7:30 PM
(Zankel Hall)

Singer and composer Aynur  is a fearless artist and folk icon who freshly blends Kurdish and Western traditions, drawing upon centuries of musical and cultural history while also revealing the harsh realities faced today by Kurdish and Alevi people. “To hear Aynur’s voice is to hear the transformation of all the layers of human joy and suffering into one sound,” says Yo-Yo Ma.

CARNEGIE HALL CITYWIDE: SONNY SINGH
Saturday, May 6, 2023 at 5:00 PM
(Brooklyn Museum)

Simultaneously spiritual and rebellious, Sonny Singh’s music is a reminder of hope, love, and devotion. For more than a decade, he has brought his fiery trumpet playing and vocals around the world as an original member of the bhangra brass band Red Baraat, and he recently released his own debut album, Chardi Kala—a reference to the Sikh concept of revolutionary eternal optimism—called “vibrant, ebullient, and energized ... a prayer for our ailing world” (JazzTimes). Audiences will hear him with his four-piece band in this free Carnegie Hall Citywide performance at Brooklyn Museum.

THE MET ORCHESTRA CHAMBER ENSEMBLE
Sunday, May 7, 2023 at 2:00 PM
(Weill Recital Hall)

For the group’s final concert of the season, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble along with bass-baritones Ryan Speedo Green and Eric Owens in a program that includes selections from Terence Blanchard’s Champion (which receives its Metropolitan Opera premiere this spring); Michael Tilson Thomas’s Street Song (in the work’s first Carnegie Hall performance); Bernstein’s West Side Story Suite in an arrangement for brass quintet; as well as an interesting pair of trios: Wuorinen’s Trio for Trombone, Mallet Instruments, and Piano; and Valerie Coleman’s Rubispheres.

ENSEMBLE CONNECT UP CLOSE
Monday, May 8, 2023 at 7:30 PM
(Resnick Education Wing)

Tabla player Sandeep Das and cellist/vocalist Mike Block have collaborated for more than 15 years to bring different worlds of music together so that they seamlessly flow as one. In this concert, through improvisation and the tradition of learning music aurally, they collaborate with members of Ensemble Connect to achieve a sangam, a confluence of different musical ideas that join like tributaries to form a mighty river of music. The repertoire includes original compositions; traditional music from India, Nepal, and Greece; and adaptations of contemporary music from Finland, Norway, and the US.

HELSINKI PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Tuesday, May 9, 2023 at 8:00 PM
(Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall for the first time since 1968. Susanna Mälkki—appearing in her final season as the orchestra’s Chief Conductor—leads Sibelius’s “Lemminkäinen’s Return” from Lemminkäinen Suite, and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2, paired with pre-eminent Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s Aile du songe featuring flute soloist Claire Chase, holder of Carnegie Hall’s Richard and Barbara Debs Creative Chair this season. This concert will be heard live by listeners around the world through the Carnegie Hall Live broadcast and digital series, created in partnership with WQXR. Co-hosted by WQXR’s Jeff Spurgeon and New Sounds’ John Schaefer, the performance will be broadcast on WQXR 105.9 FM in New York and streamed online at wqxr.org and carnegiehall.org/wqxr.

MUSICAL EXPLORERS FAMILY CONCERT
Tuesday, May 9, 2023 at 12:00 PM
Saturday, May 13, 2023 at 3:00 PM
(Zankel Hall)

Meet artists from around the world with magnetic personalities who lead this vibrant, highly interactive concert for children. Young audience members are invited to discover a range of unique musical traditions found right here in New York City, including cumbia with Gregorio, Vietnamese folk music with Vân-Ánh, and Jordanian folk music with Farah. Free pre-concert activities take place in Zankel Hall one hour before the performance.

DENSITY 2036: PART I & II
DENSITY 2036: PART X
Thursday, May 18, 2023 at 7:30 PM(Density 2036: part i & ii, Zankel Hall)
Friday, May 19, 2023 at 6:30 PM(Density 2036: part iii, The Kitchen at Westbeth)
Friday, May 19, 2023 at 9:00 PM(Density 2036: part iv, The Kitchen at Westbeth)
Saturday, May 20, 2023 at 6:30 PM(Density 2036: part v, The Kitchen at Westbeth)
Saturday, May 20, 2023 at 9:00 PM(Density 2036: part vi, The Kitchen at Westbeth)
Tuesday, May 23, 2023 at 6:30 PM(Density 2036: part vii, The Kitchen at Westbeth)
Tuesday, May 23, 2023 at 9:00 PM(Density 2036: part vii, The Kitchen at Westbeth)
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 6:30 PM(Density 2036: part viii, The Kitchen at Westbeth)
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 9:00 PM(Density 2036: part ix, The Kitchen at Westbeth)
Thursday, May 25, 2023 at 7:30 PM(Density 2036: part x, Zankel Hall)

Over the course of one week, Claire Chase—this season’s holder of the Richard and Barbara Debs Creative Chair—celebrates Density @ 10, performing 10 programs in New York City at Carnegie Hall and The Kitchen celebrating the tenth anniversary of Density2036, her monumental a 24-year project to commission an expansive body of music for the flute, leading up to the centennial of Varèse’s groundbreaking flute solo, Density 21.5. At Carnegie Hall, two Zankel Hall programs revisit works from the project and also include the world premiere of a new work by Anna Thorvaldsdottir (co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall) featuring cellists Katinka Kleijn and Seth Parker Woods, and pianist Cory Smythe.

The May 18 performance includes a post-concert conversation with Claire Chase and composers featured on the program, moderated by Ara Guzelimian. The May 25 performance begins with a discussion with Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Ara Guzelimian.

SIGNUM QUARTET
Thursday, May 18, 2023 at 8:00 PM
(Weill Recital Hall)

Signum Quartet performs at Carnegie Hall for the first time with Haydn’s String Quartet in D Major, Op. 20, No. 4; South African composer Matthijs van Dijk’s (rage) rage against the; the rarely heard Quartet for Strings by South African-British composer Priaulx Rainer; and Schubert’s String Quartet in D Minor, D. 810, “Death and the Maiden.”

BRUCE LIU
Friday, May 19, 2023 at 8:00 PM
(Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)

First prize winner of the 18th International Chopin Piano Competition, pianist Bruce Liu makes his New York recital debut with an exciting program featuring works by Chopin, including the Rondo à la mazur in F Major, Op. 5; Ballade No. 2 in F Major; Variations on “Là ci darem la mano” from Mozart’s Don Giovanni; Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 35; and Trois nouvelles etudes, Op. Posth. as well as Liszt’s Réminiscences de Don Juan.

BENJAMIN APPL
JAMES BAILLIEU
Saturday, May 20, 2023 at 7:30 PM
(Weill Recital Hall)

Baritone Benjamin Appl performs at Carnegie Hall for the first time, partnering with pianist James Baillieu to present art songs by Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, Hahn, Somervell, Vaughan Williams, Robert Schumann, William Bolcom, Quilter, Gurney, Brahms, Schoenberg, Wolf, Grieg, Ilse Weber, and James MacMillan.

CARNEGIE HALL CITYWIDE:
VUYO SOTASHE, Vocals
CHRIS PATTISHALL, Piano
Sunday, May 21, 2023 at 4:00 PM
(Brooklyn Public Library, Central Library)

Audiences are invited to hear a very special rising star jazz singer in this free Carnegie Hall Citywide performance at Brooklyn Public Library. Originally from South Africa, the New York–based Vuyo Sotashe has cultivated a seamless blend of influences from both musically rich locales. Along with world-class collaborators—in this case, Chris Pattishall, one of New York’s most in-demand pianists—Sotashe brings soulful arrangements and powerful improvisation to a wide range of repertoire.

CONCERT IN HONOR OF ANDREI SAKHAROV
Sunday, May 21, 2023 at 3:30 PM
(Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)

An extraordinary lineup of internationally renowned musicians including violinists Gidon Kremer and Maxim Vengerov; cellist Steven Isserlis; pianists Evgeny Kissin and Lera Auerbach; and the Emerson String Quartet come together to celebrate the centenary of Andrei Sakharov—for whom the European Union’s highest recognition of human rights work, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, is named—a Nobel Peace Prize winner for defending human rights in the Soviet Union and his efforts toward worldwide disarmament. The program includes Igor Loboda’s Requiem, Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major; Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G Major, Op. 32, No. 5;Étude-tableauin A Minor, Op. 39. No. 2; and Étude-tableauin C Major; Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2; Weinberg’s Violin Sonata No. 6, Op. 136bis; and Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81.

JOSHUA BELL
DANIIL TRIFONOV
Tuesday, May 30, 2023 at 8:00 PM
(Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)

An all-star duo—violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Daniil Trifonov— perform a trio of sonatas by Beethoven, Prokofiev, and Franck, works sure to highlight their exceptional collective talents.

RENÉE FLEMING
EVGENY KISSIN
Wednesday, May 31, 2023 at 8:00 PM
(Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)

In another all-star pairing, soprano Renée Fleming appears in duo-recital with pianist Evgeny Kissin including works by Schubert, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Duparc.