Created by Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute (WMI) in the summer of 2016, NYO2 brings together outstanding young American instrumentalists ages 14-17 for a summer orchestral training program with a particular focus on attracting talented students from groups underserved by and underrepresented in the classical orchestral field. Running in conjunction with the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA)'s annual summer residency at Purchase College, SUNY, NYO2 offers an opportunity for participants to play alongside exceptionally talented peers and learn from a world-class faculty.

As a central part of this free program, NYO2 musicians have the opportunity to work closely with select members of The Philadelphia Orchestra, an organization with its own deep commitment to education and artist training, thanks to a partnership formed between Carnegie Hall and the orchestra in 2016 around this initiative. The program aims to expand the pool of young musicians across the country equipped with the tools to succeed at the highest level, particularly those who will bring greater diversity to classical orchestral music and/or those who have not had access to highly selective training opportunities through major youth orchestra programs, summer festivals and camps, or similar experiences outside of their local communities.

NYO2's inaugural season in the summer of 2016 culminated in a free side-by-side concert with The Philadelphia Orchestra at Verizon Hall led by conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, as well as a performance at the 23rd Street Armory that featured NYO2, NYO-USA, and members of The Philadelphia Orchestra, along with local instrumentalists from Philadelphia-area youth orchestras. Ten musicians from the 2016 NYO2 orchestra have joined the 2017 NYO-USA roster.

Giancarlo Guerrero

Giancarlo Guerrero is a five-time Grammy Award winner and the music director of the Nashville Symphony, a position he has held since 2009 and recently committed to through the 2024-2025 season. He has also been named the music director of the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra at the National Forum of Music in Poland, beginning in the 2017-2018 season.

A natural and instinctive musician, Mr. Guerrero has a charismatic presence on the podium. A passionate proponent of new and contemporary music, he has championed the works of several of the most respected composers in the US, and has presented eight world premieres with the Nashville Symphony, including a 2016 performance and Grammy-winning recording of Michael Daugherty's cello concerto Tales of Hemingway. The 2016-2017 season saw the release of new albums with the Nashville Symphony dedicated to the music of Richard Danielpour and Jennifer Higdon. Together with composer Aaron Jay Kernis, Mr. Guerrero recently developed and guided the creation of the Nashville Symphony Composer Lab & Workshop to foster and promote new American orchestral music.

Mr. Guerrero has appeared with many prominent North American orchestras, including the orchestras of Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Montreal, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, and Philadelphia, as well as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and National Symphony Orchestra. He has developed a strong guest conducting profile in Europe, and has worked with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra in The Hague, and London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. Guerrero's guest conducting engagements during the 2017-2018 season include the Boston, Detroit, Queensland, and Sydney symphony orchestras, as well as The Cleveland Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Residentie Orchestra in The Hague, and Lisbon's Gulbenkian Orchestra, among others.

Mr. Guerrero made his Houston Grand Opera debut in 2015 conducting Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Early in his career, Mr. Guerrero worked regularly with the Costa Rican Lyric Opera, for which he conducted new productions of Carmen, La bohème, and Rigoletto in recent seasons. In 2008, he gave the Australian premiere of Osvaldo Golijov's one-act opera Ainadamar at the Adelaide Festival to great acclaim. Mr. Guerrero served as associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1999 to 2004, music director of Oregon's Eugene Symphony from 2002 to 2009, and principal guest conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra Miami from 2011 to 2016.

The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, renowned for its distinctive sound, desired for its keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences, and admired for a legacy of imagination and innovation on and off the concert stage. The orchestra is inspiring the future and transforming its rich tradition of achievement, sustaining the highest level of artistic quality, but also challenging--and exceeding--that level, by creating powerful musical experiences for audiences at home and around the world.

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin's connection to the orchestra's musicians has been praised by both concertgoers and critics since his inaugural season in 2012. Under his leadership the orchestra returned to recording, with two celebrated CDs on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label, continuing its history of recording success. The orchestra also reaches thousands of listeners on the radio with weekly Sunday-afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM.

Philadelphia is home, and the orchestra continues to discover new and inventive ways to nurture its relationship with its loyal patrons at its home in the Kimmel Center, and also with those who enjoy the orchestra's area performances at the Mann Center, Penn's Landing, and other cultural, civic, and learning venues. The orchestra maintains a strong commitment to collaborations with cultural and community organizations on a regional and national level, all of which create greater access and engagement with classical music as an art form.

The Philadelphia Orchestra serves as a catalyst for cultural activity across Philadelphia's many communities, building an offstage presence as strong as its onstage one. With Mr. Nézet-Séguin, a dedicated body of musicians, and one of the nation's richest arts ecosystems, the orchestra has launched its HEAR initiative, a portfolio of integrated initiatives that promotes Health, champions music Education, eliminates barriers to Accessing the orchestra, and maximizes impact through Research. The orchestra's award-winning Collaborative Learning programs engage more than 50,000 students, families, and community members through programs such as PlayINs, Side-By-Sides, PopUP Concerts, free Neighborhood Concerts, School Concerts, and residency work in Philadelphia and abroad.

Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, The Philadelphia Orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the US. Having been the first American orchestra to perform in China (at the request of President Nixon in 1973), the ensemble today boasts a new partnership with Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts and the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre. The orchestra annually performs at Carnegie Hall while also enjoying summer residencies in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Vail. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit philorch.org.

Four-time Grammy Award-winner Esperanza Spalding has brilliantly married genres, pushed boundaries, and created groundbreaking work in the past decade of her illustrious career. She has performed at the Academy, Grammy, and Nobel Prize award ceremonies, as well as at the White House. As a composer, bassist, and vocalist, Ms. Spalding is expansive, iterative, shape-shifting, open, and progressively innovative. A voracious and magnetic performer, she has shared the stage with her own revolving ensembles, as well as artists who include Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Janelle Monáe, and Prince.

Ms. Spalding has recorded seven collaborative and five solo albums, the most recent of which--Emily's D+Evolution--is a fresh artistic vision that combines a daring tapestry of music, vibrant imagery, performance art, and stage design. Co-produced by Ms. Spalding and Tony Visconti, the album is an electrifying take on the power trio, and is adorned with rich vocal arrangements and touches of synthesizer. Released in 2012, her album Radio Music Society debuted on Billboard's Top 10. Ms. Spalding's other albums include Chamber Music Society; the eponymous Esperanza, which was performed in English, Spanish, and Portuguese; and her 2006 debut, Junjo.

Ms. Spalding began studying the violin, her first instrument, at a time when most children her age were learning to read. She began playing with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon in her hometown of Portland at the age of five, and by the time she left the group as a 15-year-old concertmaster, she was already composing and playing acoustic bass professionally with local bands. The upright bass quickly became the instrument most central to her work, and she joined her first band, Noise for Pretend, as a bassist and vocalist. Ms. Spalding became one of the youngest bassists at Portland State University, later graduating from Berklee College of Music. She went on to become Berklee's youngest-ever instructor upon graduating at the age of 20.