Opening Night Gala Concert to be Webcast Live
Carnegie Hall’s Opening Night Gala concert on Wednesday, October 6 at 7:00 p.m. EST, will be webcast free of charge to a worldwide audience on carnegiehall.org, the Hall’s social media channels, and on partner sites. The festive evening— featuring The Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin and joined by renowned pianist Yuja Wang—launches Carnegie Hall’s 2021–2022 season and is the first performance in its famed Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage following the Hall’s unprecedented 18-month closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This historic performance will also be shared broadly with music lovers everywhere via live webcasts by Carnegie Hall’s partners: medici.tv and philorch.org. Following the Hall’s opening, free replay of this concert webcast will be available on demand for a limited time.
Along with the webcast, Carnegie Hall’s Opening Night performance will also be heard live by listeners around the globe as part of the Carnegie Hall Live radio broadcast and digital series. Produced by WQXR and Carnegie Hall and hosted by WQXR’s Jeff Spurgeon and New Sounds’s John Schaefer, the concert will be broadcast by WQXR 105.9 FM in New York, streamed on wqxr.org and carnegiehall.org/wqxr.
Carnegie Hall’s Opening Night program will begin with a new work by Valerie Coleman titled Seven O’Clock Shout. Commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra, it is an anthem in response to COVID-19, honoring frontline workers and celebrating the strength of human connection even during times of isolation. Yuja Wang will join Maestro Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestra as soloist for Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The performance continues with Bernstein’s Overture to Candide followed by another topical Philadelphia commission—Iman Habibi’s Jeder Baum spricht—a rhapsodic reflection on the climate crisis written in dialogue with Beethoven’s music. The finale of this exciting event will be Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
This Opening Night Gala benefits Carnegie Hall’s artistic and education programs. Mercedes T. Bass and Hope and Robert F. Smith are the Gala Lead Chairmen for Carnegie Hall’s Opening Night Gala event. The Gala Chairmen Committee includes Len and Emily Blavatnik, Annette de la Renta, Maral and Sarkis Jebejian, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis, Beatrice Santo Domingo, David M. Siegel and Dana Matsushita, S. Donald Sussman, and Joan and Sanford I. Weill. PwC is the Opening Night Gala Lead Sponsor for the 18th consecutive season, and Dennis M. Nally, Retired Chairman, PwC, Roy Weathers, Vice Chairman, PwC, and Brad Silver, New York Office Managing Partner, PwC, are the Corporate Chairmen for the event. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is the Opening Night Gala Dinner Sponsor.
Carnegie Hall has been closed to the public since March 13, 2020 due to COVID-19, the longest closure period in the Hall’s 130-year history. This Opening Night event launches a 2021–2022 season with more than 100 performances presented on Carnegie Hall’s three stages and across New York City, plus a wide range of music education and social impact programming created by the Hall’s Weill Music Institute. Presented from October through June, the season will include appearances by many of the world’s greatest artists and ensembles encompassing classical, jazz, and popular music.
Program Information
Wednesday, October 6, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
CARNEGIE HALL’S OPENING NIGHT GALA
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Music Director and Conductor
Yuja Wang, Piano
VALERIE COLEMAN Seven O’Clock Shout
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102
LEONARD BERNSTEIN Overture to Candide
IMAN HABIBI Jeder Baum spricht
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67
Opening Night Gala Lead Sponsor: PwC
Opening Night Gala Dinner Sponsor: Kirkland & Ellis LLP
