The New York Philharmonic’s 2024–25 season is unusual: Gustavo Dudamel becomes Music and Artistic Director in 2026 after serving as Music Director Designate next season, so for now there is no maestro overseeing the programming. Rather than treat this as a challenge, the NY Phil has seized it as an opportunity to program in collaboration with a handful of Artistic Partners. 

They are accomplished and innovative musicians drawn from across the world of classical music; for the September 19 and 21 concerts, the Artistic Partner is NY Phil musicians themselves. They have curated a fascinating and enticing exploration of the past, present, and future of the Orchestra that harnesses their virtuosity and expresses their musical priorities.

One element is novelty. “We wanted to include music that the NY Phil had never or seldom done, or not recently,” explains Principal Flute Robert Langevin, one of a committee of Philharmonic musicians who crafted the program. The concert opens with a World Premiere by Augusta Read Thomas, whose work the Philharmonic has performed for almost 35 years, including the World Premieres of Wind Dance (1990) and the NY Phil–commissioned Gathering Paradise: Emily Dickinson Settings (2004). This month’s audiences will hear Bebop Kaleidoscope — Homage to Duke Ellington, an NY Phil commission by the award-winning composer. The selection echoes and continues the NY Phil’s recent commitment to women composers under Project 19 (the Orchestra’s women-only commissioning initiative commemorating the centennial of the 19th Amendment), Langevin adds.

Bebop Kaleidoscope will also serve as a contemporary lead-in to a work by the Duke himself, Harlem, heard later on the program. The Orchestra has performed Ellington’s music in more than 150 concerts since 1933, and he conducted the Orchestra twice in 1965. It’s a nod to our hometown and its immense African American musical heritage.

Paul Hindemith appeared with the NY Phil as conductor, including leading the World Premiere of his Organ Concerto in 1963, and violist, in the New York Premiere of his Viola Concerto in 1937. And the Orchestra has premiered five of his works. To the committee’s surprise, the last time the Philharmonic had performed his music was in 2010, so they chose his Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber. “I don’t think any of us was aware we gave the World Premiere [in 1944],” says Langevin. “It is interesting because each movement highlights a different section; it’s almost a concerto for orchestra."

Once this theme of historical connections to the NY Phil crystallized, the committee naturally sought links to previous Music Directors. Three works highlight the legacy of Gustav Mahler (Music Director, 1909–11) as composer, arranger, and programmer: his orchestration of movements he selected from J.S. Bach’s Orchestral Suites (the first performances since 1933); Blumine, a seldom-heard movement originally composed for Symphony No. 1, Titan; and the Prelude to Act II of Richard Strauss’s Guntram, a lesser-known work that Mahler — a champion and friend of Strauss — programmed and conducted on an NY Phil concert in 1910, and most recent performed in 1916. Most of today’s players have not performed it, or even heard it live.

The Guntram prelude was suggested by Ken-David Masur, son of the late Music Director Emeritus Kurt Masur, whom the committee picked to conduct the concerts. “We were very impressed by him when he conducted the 2023 Spring Gala Concert, and he had never conducted us in a subscription program,” Langevin recalls. “We thought all of this would make an interesting program with connections to two former Music Directors.”

Of course, every New York Philharmonic concert is the product of artistic partnerships — among conductor, orchestra, and soloists — with the NY Phil musicians at the center. And the Orchestra has a rich history of programming its own concerts running back to 1842, when it was founded and run by its musicians. On September 19 and 21 you will experience these dynamics in a fresh way as they perform music they are particularly excited about — new and rare works that are embedded in their DNA and tell their ongoing story.

In addition to the New York Philharmonic musicians themselves, this season’s Artistic Partners reflect a variety of gifts and interests, enriching the Orchestra’s explorations of a variety of themes.

Afromodernism, with International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)

• NY Phil subscription concerts, October 17–18
• A performance by ICE, October 25
• Plus additional activities

For more info, visit here.

American Vistas, with John Adams

• NY Phil subscription concerts, November 14 and 16
• Sound On, November 17

For more info, visit here.

Vocal Echoes, with Nathalie Stutzmann

• NY Phil subscription concerts, January 16, 18–19
• Bach: From Darkness to Light, January 17, Presented by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation

For more info, visit here.

Edward Lovett is the Associate Director, Publications, of the New York Philharmonic.