Cello soloist to be announced

Repertoire
Jennifer Higdon: blue cathedral (2000)
V. Herbert: Cello Concerto No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 30 (1894)
L. Bernstein: Symphony No. 1. Jeremiah (1942)
L. Bernstein: ‘Somewhere’ from “West Side Story” (1957)

About the Artists

Born in North Carolina, David Charles Abell studied viola, trumpet, piano, organ, and composition, turning his attention to conducting at age 14. He subsequently studied with Leonard Bernstein and Nadia Boulanger, earning degrees from Yale University and The Juilliard School. He has worked with distinguished artists including Bryn Terfel, Simon Keenlyside, Diana Damrau, Stephen Hough, Judi Dench, Emma Thompson, Lea Salonga, Idina Menzel, Heather Headley, Petula Clark, Josh Groban, Matthew Morrison, Michael Ball, and Michael Feinstein. The many international orchestras he has conducted include the London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Prague Philharmonia, Atlanta Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony, and Boston Pops. Abell’s television and radio appearances encompass a wide repertoire, from Johann Strauss (with the period-instrument Wiener Akademie) to the launch of the Ten Pieces classical music education project with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Three of his five appearances at the BBC Proms were televised: the Richard Rodgers Centenary, Sondheim at 80, and the War Horse Prom in 2014. His particular affinity with the operatic repertoire has attracted repeat engagements with Cincinnati Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City as well as guest appearances with Opera Philadelphia, Michigan Opera Theatre, Atlanta Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, and many others. Considered one of the top international conductors of musical theatre, he led the French premieres of four Stephen Sondheim musicals and conducted the Les Misérables tenth and twenty-fifth-anniversary concerts. For the centennial of his mentor Leonard Bernstein, Abell conducted Songfest and the Serenade with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, West Side Story at Glimmerglass and Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and three concerts of Bernstein’s theater music with the Philly POPS. Recordings include excerpts from La Bohème and Madama Butterfly, Something’s Gotta Give (with Simon Keenlyside), Jonathan Dove’s opera Tobias and the Angel, and complete recordings of Miss Saigon and Man of La Mancha. Forever (with soprano Diana Damrau).

Michelle DeYoung is associate professor of music in voice at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. DeYoung has established herself as one of the most exciting artists of her generation. She continues to be in demand throughout the world, appearing regularly with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Met Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, and the Concertgebouworkest. She has also performed at the prestigious festivals of Ravinia, Tanglewood, Saito Kinen, Edinburgh, and Lucerne. In Australia, she has appeared multiple times with the Sydney Symphony and most recently sang Kundry in concert performances of Parsifal at Opera Australia. Equally at home on the opera stage, DeYoung has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Teatro alla Scala, Bayreuth Festival, Berliner Staatsoper, Paris Opera, Theater Basel, English National Opera and the Tokyo Opera. Her many roles include the title roles in Samson et Dalilah and The Rape of Lucretia, Fricka, Sieglinde and Waltraute in The Ring Cycle, Kundry in Parsifal, Venus in Tannhäuser, Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde, Eboli in Don Carlos, Amneris in Aida, Santuzza in Cavellaria Rusticana, Marguerite in Le Damnation de Faust, Dido in Les Troyens, Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle, and Jocaste in Oedipus Rex. She also created the role of the Shaman in Tan Dun’s The First Emperor at the Metropolitan Opera. A multi-Grammy Award-winning recording artist, DeYoung’s impressive discography includes Das Rheingold and Die Walküre with the Jaap van Zweden and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (Naxos), Kindertotenlieder, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, and Das Klagende Lied with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS Media), Les Troyens with Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO Live!), and Mahler Symphony No. 3 with both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Bernard Haitink (CSO Resound) and the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck (Challenge Records International). Her first solo disc was released on the EMI label.