Given the lack of female conductors at the largest American orchestras, some have argued that the Philharmonic should choose a woman as its next conductor. Several emerging conductors, including many women, will make their debut with the ensemble next season, including Karina Canellakis, chief conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; Ruth Reinhardt, former assistant conductor of the Dallas Symphony; and Nathalie Stutzmann, who will take the stage of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra next season.
Borda declined to comment on the search for music director, except to say that the upcoming season was “obviously an opportunity to see some returning talent and some great new talent as well.”
Soloists performing with the orchestra for the first time include Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson, who will play Ravel’s Piano Concerto in November, and Cynthia Millar, who, along with pianist, plays the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument, in Messiaens “Turangalîla Symphony”. Jean-Yves Thibaudet, in March.
The season includes concert series designed to address modern issues, including “Liberation,” about social injustice; “Spirit”, about “humanity’s place in the cosmos”; and “Earth”, on the climate crisis.
As part of “Liberation” in March, the Philharmonic will premiere a work by Courtney Bryan and Tazewell Thompson. That same month ‘Spirit’ contains Bach’s ‘St. Matthew Passion”, which the Philharmonic has not performed since 2008.
‘Earth’ closes the season in June with the world premiere of Wolfe’s ‘unEarth’, a multimedia oratorio about forced migration, loss of nature and adaptation. John Luther Adams’ ‘Become Desert’, the sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘Become Ocean’, premieres in New York.