Curtis Institute of Music Announces Spring Updates for 2024–25 Centennial Season: Great to Groundbreaking

Subscriptions and single tickets on sale at curtis.edu/100

View the performance calendar at curtis.edu/calendar

The season features over 30 new commissioned works and over 35 premieres, the exciting culmination of Curtis’ multi-year project, 100 for 100

Curtis’ historic 100th anniversary season continues this spring with Grammy Award-winning conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and superstar alumna Yuja Wang (’08) with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra

Curtis Opera Theatre announces casting for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center, and for Leonard Bernstein’s Candide at the Forrest Theatre

Curtis New Music Ensemble adds an additional performance of acclaimed composition faculty member Amy Beth Kirsten’s thrilling new world premiere work, the Curtis-commissioned Infernal Angel, paired with her theatrical piece, Savior

Press Contacts:
Patricia K. Johnson | patricia.johnson@curtis.edu | (215) 717-3190
Ryan Scott Lathan | ryan.lathan@curtis.edu | (215) 717-3145

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PHILADELPHIA, PA January 22, 2025—As the Curtis Institute of Music’s historic 100th anniversary season continues now through May 2025, additional information is available for previously announced spring programming.

Following the fall release of Curtis Studio’s acclaimed fifth recording, A Century of New Sounds, which celebrates Curtis’ longstanding and ever-evolving history and legacy of commissioning new works, the school will present the final compositions in its multi-year project to commission 100 works for the centennial. Since 2008, Curtis has commissioned more than a hundred new works, and 100 for 100 celebrates the music of our time with a showcase of fresh perspectives featuring cutting-edge original works by alumni composers such as Paul Brantley (’85), Stephen Cabell (’08), Sebastian Chang (’07), Chelsea Komschlies (’18), Riho Esko Maimets (’14), James Ra (’04), Dai Wei (’19), Alyssa Weinberg (’16), Elizabeth Younan (’21), and Tian Zhou (’05), inspired by and crafted specifically for Curtis for this once-in-a-lifetime landmark celebration.

“New music is embedded in the history of this school and has been a part of what Curtis is, and has done for 100 years now, having historically from the very beginning supported some of the greatest American composers of the 20th century,” says Roberto Díaz (Viola ’84), president and CEO of Curtis. “There is so much new music being written and performed at Curtis, and we have some of the leading [artists] of our time. It is the best place to have new music brought out into the world because the performances are fantastic.”

“Curtis’ 100 for 100 is a project that was designed to make sure that Curtis has commissioned one hundred works by the time it turns 100,” says Nick DiBerardino (Composition ’18), Curtis New Music Ensemble director, acclaimed composer, chair of composition studies, and provost and dean of the conservatory. “As we look backward at the impact that Curtis has had on the field, we can also look forward and think about what we want to leave for the next 100 years of music. As we’re thinking about the centennial at Curtis, we’re thinking about the impact the school has had in the past. We also want to think ahead, and commissioning is an important part of how we can contribute to the future of this art form that we all love.”

On Saturday, February 15, 2025, at 7:00 p.m., Curtis New Music Ensemble’s 2024–25 series continues with “Bold Experiment,” a concert featuring musical and academic explorations of the 20th century, including works by Curtis alumni, inspired by the “bold experiment” initiated by Mary Louise Curtis Bok in 1924 when she opened a conservatory in Philadelphia. The program opens with Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Choros No. 2 for flute and clarinet, inspired by the improvisatory music of Rio de Janeiro’s street musicians. This short, spiky, syncopated piece is followed by composer Ruth Crawford Seeger’s final work, her playful Suite for Wind Quintet, winner of the 1952 National Association for American Composers and Conductors’ composition.

The concert continues with two piano works for two pianists—Folkdance and Ellis Island—by award-winning composer, vocalist, director, choreographer, and filmmaker Meredith Monk; late pioneering avant-garde composer and Curtis alumnus Julius Eastman’s (’63) improvisatory work Buddha; and “indie pop diva with an avant-garde edge” (New York Times) Du Yun’s The Ocean Within for solo harp. The program closes with late Pulitzer Prize-winning modern classical and avant-garde composer George Crumb’s foreboding “voyage of the soul,” Black Angels, for electric string quartet. “Bold Experiment” is currently sold out. Join the waitlist to be notified when additional tickets become available.

Curtis Opera Theatre presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte’s timeless masterpiece, Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), on Thursday and Friday, February 27–28, 2025, at 7:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, March 1–2, 2025 at 2:00 p.m., at the Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center. Love, intrigue, and politics hilariously collide on the eve of Figaro and Susanna’s wedding. Celebrated conductor Nicholas McGegan and acclaimed director Marcus Shields return to Curtis to lead a thrilling cast of young opera stars and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. Based on the enormously popular play by French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais, this “sequel” to The Barber of Seville revolutionized opera at its 1786 premiere by merely existing. Banned in Vienna after its first performance, it is now hailed as one of the greatest comic operas ever written.

Set in a single, ever-evolving space, Curtis’ vibrant production combines sleek, contemporary design with a narrative-driven focus, reinterpreting this timeless comedy for modern audiences. Through its exploration of gender roles, class struggles, power dynamics, and fidelity, the world of Figaro unfolds in twists and turns as its captivating characters navigate the messy complexities of human relationships. Mozart’s ingenious comedy—brimming with mistaken identities, secrets, disguises, lovers, and intrigues—boldly challenged 18th-century norms with its daring portrayal of servants and nobility, tackling themes that remain strikingly relevant today.

The Curtis Presents series resumes on Thursday, March 13, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. in Field Concert Hall with a performance from the internationally acclaimed Rosamunde String Quartet, who recently joined Curtis Artist Management’s roster for general management and worldwide representation. The quartet will join an ensemble of Curtis students for an unforgettable night of chamber music. This remarkable ensemble features young stars from some of the world’s greatest orchestras: Noah Bendix-Balgley, first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic; Shanshan Yao (Violin ’08), concert violinist and former member of the Pittsburgh Symphony and New York Philharmonic; Teng Li (Viola ’05), principal violist of Chicago Symphony; and Nathan Vickery (Cello ’13), cellist in the New York Philharmonic. The concert features Ludwig van Beethoven’s late masterpiece, the elegant, rhythmically mischievous String Quartet in D major, Op. 18, No. 3; Béla Bartók’s transcendent String Quartet No. 3, Sz. 85; and Franz Schubert’s intensely soulful String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 (“Death and the Maiden”), written as the dying composer wrestled with his demons, despair, and mortality. “Rosamunde String Quartet” is currently sold out. Join the waitlist to be notified when additional tickets become available.

Curtis Opera Theatre’s 2024–25 series concludes on Friday, April 11, 2025, at 7:00 p.m., and Sunday, April 13, 2025, at 2:00 p.m., with Curtis alumnus Leonard Bernstein’s (Conducting ’41) Candide. Renowned conductor David Charles Abell and theater and opera director Emma Griffin, managing artistic director of Mannes Opera, lead a sparkling cast and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in this clever adaptation of Voltaire’s philosophical French novella. Filled with razor sharp wit, soaring melodies, and globe-trotting grandeur, Bernstein’s outrageous, wildly entertaining philosophical operetta is an absurdist romp across “the best of all possible worlds,” drawing on classic vaudeville tropes and layering them with irony, to satirize the rampant excesses of a materialistic society in the Age of Enlightenment and the post-World War II boom years. Featuring iconic songs like “Glitter and Be Gay” and “Make Our Garden Grow,” Candide’s tale of youthful innocence and human folly in war-torn times of crisis is as relevant today as it was when it was first published in 1759.

The 2024–25 Curtis Presents series closes Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. in Field Concert Hall with a must-see concert event featuring pianist Michelle Cann (Piano ’13), Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies at Curtis; and 2024 Grammy-winning ensemble and Curtis faculty members Imani Winds—flutist Brandon Patrick George, oboist Toyin Spellman-Diaz, clarinetist Mark Dover, horn player Kevin Newton, and bassoonist Monica Ellis. Ms. Cann, American Pianists Association’s first Christel DeHaan Artistic Partner and recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence and the 2022 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, joins forces with Imani Winds for Grammy-winning Latin Jazz artist Paquito D’Rivera’s A Little Cuban Jazz Waltz, and the Philadelphia premiere of Curtis alumnus Viet Cuong’s (Composition ’19) Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano. The set continues with Francis Poulenc’s whimsical Trio for oboe, bassoon, and piano and Valerie Coleman’s six-movement tour de force, Portraits of Langston for flute, clarinet, and piano. The evening concludes with another Poulenc work, the French composer’s ingenious, jazzy Sextet for Piano and Winds, Op. 100. “Michelle Cann & Imani Winds” is currently sold out. Join the waitlist to be notified when additional tickets become available.

On Saturday, April 26, 2025, at 2 p.m., one of the world’s most celebrated pianists, superstar Curtis alumna Yuja Wang (’08), known for her “exceptional power, depth, and dazzle” (Los Angeles Times), joins the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and award-winning conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Curtis’ head of conducting, for the final performance of the orchestra’s 2024–25 series, “Yuja Wang Plays Rautavaara.” Prix de Rome winner Lili Boulanger’s joyful D’un Matin de printemps (“Of a Spring Morning”) opens the concert, under the baton of Mariana Corichi Gomez, first-year Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow.

Yuja Wang’s tour de force performance of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Piano Concerto No. 1 follows—a powerful work that juxtaposes raw, primal energy with quiet, reflective beauty. This post-modernist triumph from 1969 features soaring melodies, sharp dissonances, and explosive palm and forearm clusters that shock and thrill. Filled with unbridled tension and aching romanticism, the concerto’s relentless interplay between the piano and orchestra builds to a rhythmically charged, breathless finale. Maurice Ravel’s sumptuous orchestral song cycle Shéhérazade, inspired by the wildly imaginative tales of The Arabian Nights, follows. This lush musical travelogue features a guest appearance by exciting mezzo-soprano Judy Zhou, Curtis’ Horace W. Goldsmith Fellow. The concert concludes with French impressionist composer Claude Debussy’s childhood recollections of the sea, the atmospheric symphonic sketches, La mer.

On May 8, 2025, international opera stars mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges (’12), soprano Amanda Majeski (’09), baritone Jarrett Ott (’04), and soprano Karen Slack (’02), will headline Curtis’ annual gala, alongside pianist Miloš Repický, Director and Hirsig Family Chair in Vocal Studies and Opera, at Philadelphia’s landmark archeological and anthropological institution, the Penn Museum. The Curtis Centennial Gala will honor the school’s 100-year legacy of singing, vocal music, and opera, highlighting the music and influential artists that have shaped the culture of Curtis and the world’s classical music landscape. Guests will experience captivating performances while savoring culinary delights and commemorating Curtis’ profound impact on the global music landscape. To learn more about this unforgettable evening of music honoring Curtis’ enduring impact, visit curtis.edu/gala100. Gala tickets are now available.

Curtis’ 2024–25 Centennial Season: Great to Groundbreaking concludes with the final concert of the Curtis New Music Ensemble’s series with “Infernal Angel & Savior” on Friday, May 9, 2025 (newly added date), and Saturday, May 10, 2025—both at 7:00 p.m. —at Gould Rehearsal Hall. The performance features the world premiere of acclaimed composer, poet, filmmaker, vocalist, director, and Curtis composition faculty member Amy Beth Kirsten’s Infernal Angel focused on the life of Gille de Rais, the notorious 15th-century medieval knight turned serial killer. This thrilling, Curtis-commissioned chamber piece will be paired with another new full-length theatrical work, Savior, inspired by the mystical life and death of de Rais’ comrade-in-arms, Joan of Arc. Initially commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for MusicNOW with support from the Toulmin Foundation and hailed as an “ingenious, absorbing and quietly powerful” work (Chicago Tribune). Savior features the talents of guest artist Ty Bouque as Gille de Rais alongside Curtis vocalists and chamber ensemble.

Single tickets and subscriptions are available for Curtis’ 2024–25 season: Great to Groundbreaking. Single tickets start at $24 and subscriptions from $36.

 

MEDIA CALENDAR OF EVENTS

For season highlights and the latest performance information, visit curtis.edu/calendar.

SPRING 2025 PERFORMANCES

Student Recital Series and Graduation Recitals
Recitals are held Monday, Wednesday, Friday evenings throughout the school year
Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, 1726 Locust Street, Philadelphia

Curtis’s promise of “learn by doing” is on full display in the school’s acclaimed Curtis Recital Series. Starting in mid-October, more than 100 free chamber, ensemble, and graduation recitals are held on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings, as well as many weekends, at Field Concert Hall, with additional performances in the spring. This exciting series offers audiences an opportunity to experience the unparalleled artistry of Curtis’s gifted young musicians. After years of study, members of the class of 2025 share their talents and passion through final graduation recitals.

Highlights from the Student Recitals Series are featured year-round on YouTube and WHYY’s ongoing series, On Stage at Curtis. Recitals are free, but advance registration is required. For a complete listing of the week’s performances, visit curtis.edu/calendar. View Friday live streams at curtis.edu/YouTube.

FEBRUARY 2025

Bold Experiment                    Curtis New Music Ensemble
Saturday, February 15, 2025 at 7:00 p.m.
Gould Rehearsal Hall, Lenfest Hall, 1616 Locust Street, Philadelphia

Heitor Villa-Lobos	Choros No. 2
Ruth Crawford Seeger	Suite for wind quintet
Meredith Monk	Folkdance and Ellis Island
Julius Eastman (’63)	Buddha
Du Yun	The Ocean Within
George Crumb	Black Angels

This exciting concert features musical and academic explorations of the 20th century, including works by Curtis alumni inspired by the “Bold Experiment” initiated by Mary Louise Curtis Bok in 1924 when she opened a conservatory in Philadelphia.

Le nozze di Figaro               Curtis Opera Theatre
Thursday and Friday, February 27–28, 2025 at 7:00 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, March 1–2, 2025 at 2:00 p.m.
Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, music
Lorenzo Da Ponte, libretto

Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Marcus Shields, director
Curtis Symphony Orchestra

Revel in Mozart and Da Ponte’s comic masterpiece, Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), where love, intrigue, and politics hilariously collide on the eve of Figaro and Susanna’s wedding.

Le nozze di Figaro will be performed in Italian with English supertitles.

 

MARCH 2025

Rosamunde Quartet                        Curtis Presents
Thursday, March 13, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Field Concert Hall, 1726 Locust Street, Philadelphia

Ludwig van Beethoven	String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 18, No. 3
Béla Bartók	String Quartet No. 3, Sz. 85
Franz Schubert	String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 (“Death and the Maiden”)

The internationally acclaimed Rosamunde String Quartet joins an ensemble of Curtis students for an unforgettable night of chamber music. This phenomenal “Dream Quartet” continues to excite audiences with their distinctive sound and unanimity of expression.

Guitar Quartet                      Curtis Presents
Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Field Concert Hall, 1726 Locust Street, Philadelphia

Manuel de Falla	Suite Populaire Espagnole
Astor Piazzolla	Histoire du Tango
Astor Piazzolla	Oblivion, transcr. Julien Labro
Zhou Tian	Red Trees, Wrinkled Cliffs
Niccolò Paganini	Quartet in A minor, M.S. 42

Internationally renowned violist and Curtis president and CEO Roberto Díaz, Grammy Award-winning guitarist and Curtis faculty member Jason Vieaux, and Curtis students bring their spring Curtis on Tour guitar quartet concert to Philadelphia for one night only.

 

APRIL 2025

Candide                                 Curtis Opera Theatre
Friday, April 11, 2025 at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 2:00 p.m.
The Forrest Theatre, 1114 Walnut St., Philadelphia

Leonard Bernstein (Conducting ’41), music
Richard Wilbur, John Latouche, Dorthy Parker, Lillian Hellman, Stephen Sondheim, and Leonard Bernstein, lyrics
Lillian Hellman and Hugh Wheeler, book

David Charles Abell, conductor
Emma Griffin, stage director
Jeffrey Page, choreographer
Curtis Symphony Orchestra

Curtis Opera Theatre presents Leonard Bernstein’s timeless masterpiece, Candide. Filled with sparkling wit, soaring melodies, and globe-trotting grandeur, this bitingly clever adaptation of Voltaire’s philosophical French novella is an absurdist romp across “the best of all possible worlds.”

CAST

Michelle Cann & Imani Winds                         Curtis Presents
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Field Concert Hall, 1726 Locust Street, Philadelphia

Paquito D’Rivera	A Little Cuban Waltz
Viet Cuong (’19)	Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano**
Francis Poulenc	Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano
Valerie Coleman	Portraits of Langston for flute, clarinet, piano & narrator
Francis Poulenc	Sextet for Piano and Winds

**Philadelphia premiere. Commissioned by the Curtis Institute of Music, with co-commissioners Cleveland Chamber Music Society, and Da Camara of Houston, for the Imani Winds and Michelle Cann.

Lauded as “a pianist of sterling artistry” by Gramophone, Michelle Cann, Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies at Curtis, joins forces with renowned faculty members, the 2024 GRAMMY-winning ensemble Imani Winds for a night of breathtaking performances and unparalleled artistry.

Yuja Wang Plays Rautavaara                       Curtis Symphony Orchestra
The Jack Wolgin Orchestral Concerts
Saturday, April 26, 2025 at 3:00 p.m.
Marian Anderson Hall at the Kimmel Center; Broad and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia

Lili Boulanger	D’un matin de printemps
Einojuhani Rautavaara	Piano Concerto No. 1
Maurice Ravel	Shéhérazade, Three Poems of Tristan Klingsor for Voice and Orchestra
Claude Debussy	La mer, trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestra

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Mariana Corichi Gomez, conducting fellow
Yuja Wang (’08), piano
Judy Zhou, soprano
Curtis Symphony Orchestra

Witness the breathtaking culmination of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s 2024–25 series as acclaimed pianist and Curtis alumna Yuja Wang takes center stage with award-winning conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin to deliver a tour de force performance of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Piano Concerto No. 1, a stunning work of musical and emotional extremes—raw, primal, and explosively cinematic, yet achingly romantic and quietly ethereal.

 

MAY 2025

Curtis Centennial Gala
Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 6:00 p.m.
Penn Museum, 3260 South Street, Philadelphia

Curtis alumni, friends, and patrons are invited to experience captivating performances by star alumnae J’Nai Bridges (Opera ’12), Amanda Majeski (Opera ’09), Jarrett Ott (Opera ’14) and Karen Slack (Opera ’02), along with other world-renowned guest artists as they illustrate the legacy of singing, vocal music, and opera at Curtis—a history with an outsized influence on the landscape of performance not only in the United States but across the globe. Tickets for the Centennial Gala are sold separately from the 2024–25 season package. To learn more, visit curtis.edu/gala100.

Infernal Angel & Savior                      Curtis New Music Ensemble
Saturday, May 10, 2025 at 7:00 p.m.
Gould Rehearsal Hall, Lenfest Hall, 1616 Locust Street, Philadelphia

Amy Beth Kirsten	Infernal Angel**
	Savior

CAST 

Gille De Rais	Ty Bouque*
Baron (The Devil)	Maya Mor Mitrani
Marceline, The Scholar	Katie Trigg
Francois Prelati	Jackson Allen

Chorus: Jeysla Rosario Santos, Shikta Mukherjee, Juliet Rand, Hongrui Ren, Ross Macatangay, and Robert Frazier

*guest artist
**world premiere

Immerse yourself in the captivating series finale, featuring the world premiere of Amy Beth Kirsten’s Infernal Angel. Renowned as an innovative composer and multi-talented artist, Kirsten’s work has earned accolades from BBC Music Magazine and prestigious organizations like the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Infernal Angel delves into the life of medieval knight turned serial killer Gilles de Rais, paired with Kirsten’s theatrical piece Savior, inspired by Joan of Arc.

 

About the Curtis Institute of Music
At Curtis, the world’s great young musicians develop into exceptional artists, creators, and innovators. With a tuition-free foundation, Curtis is a unique environment for teaching and learning. A small school by design, students realize their artistic potential through intensive, individualized study with the most renowned, sought-after faculty. Animated by a learn-by-doing philosophy, Curtis students share their music with audiences through more than 100 performances each year, including solo and chamber recitals, orchestral concerts, and opera—all free or at an affordable cost—offering audiences unique opportunities to participate in pivotal moments in these young musicians’ careers. Curtis students experience a close connection to the most renowned artists and organizations in classical music, as well as innovative initiatives that integrate new technologies and encourage entrepreneurship—all within a historic campus in the heart of culturally rich Philadelphia. In this diverse, collaborative community, Curtis’s extraordinary artists challenge, support, and inspire one another—continuing an unparalleled 100-year legacy of musicians who have led, and will lead, classical music into a thriving, equitable, and multidimensional future. Learn more at curtis.edu.

 

Philanthropic Support for Curtis’ 2024–25 Season
Curtis’ Centennial Season is made possible through the support of Derek and Sissela Bok, the Mary Louise Curtis Bok Foundation, Deborah M. Fretz, Charles C. Freyer and Judith Durkin Freyer, Mignon and Jim Groch, Rita E. Hauser, Lisa and Gie Liem, Bob and Guna Mundheim, Judith and James Ritchings, Bob and Caro Rock, and Mark and Robin Rubenstein.

Mainstage productions were financed in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development.

Curtis Institute of Music receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Guest conductor appearances for each Curtis Symphony Orchestra performance are made possible by the Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser Chair in Conducting Studies. Orchestral concerts are supported by the Jack Wolgin Curtis Orchestral Concerts Endowment Fund.

Yuja Wang’s performance is generously underwritten by Deborah M. Fretz. Additional support for Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s performance has been underwritten by Judith and James Ritchings.

Curtis Opera Theatre is generously supported by the Ernestine Bacon Cairns Trust, and the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, and the Wyncote Foundation.

Infernal Angel & Savior has received support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.

Generous support for Curtis New Music Ensemble is provided by the Daniel W. Dietrich II Foundation.

The Edith L. and Robert Prostkoff Fund supports the Curtis Recital Series.

Photo Credits: 1.) Dai Wei (Micah Gleason Photography); 2.) Roberto Díaz (Charles Grove); 3.) Nick DiBerardino (Gene Smirnov); 4.) Du Yun (Zhen Qin); 5.) Nicholas McGegan (Dario Acosta); 6.) Rosamunde String Quartet (Robb Davidson); 7.) David Charles Abell (Eric Richmond); 8.) Imani Winds (Shervin Lainez); 9.) Yuja Wang (Julia Wesely); 10.) Karen Slack (Kia Caldwell); 11) Amy Beth Kirsten (Gennadi Novash). 

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