Young People’s Concert: Celebration
Celebrate 100 years of Young People’s Concerts™ with madcap sounds, humor, and surprises — and discover how composers throughout the ages have used these tools to comment on important issues of their day. Featuring cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason.
Arrive early for YPC Overtures, on the Leon and Norma Hess Grand Promenade and Hearst Tier 1, where children can try out orchestral instruments and families can engage in crafting and interactive workshops. Activities begin at 1:00 PM.
Date / Time
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Create-Your-Own Subscriptions for the 2023–24 season are available; purchase 3+ concerts and save at least 10% off single ticket prices. Plus, you’ll enjoy other great benefits, including no-fee ticket exchanges.
Program to Include
Shostakovich
Shostakovich
Jie Wang
Very Young Composer George Socolow
Ligeti
Bernstein
Eleanor Alberga
Artists
Doug Fitch has directed and designed several staged projects for the New York Philharmonic, including Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, and A Dancer’s Dream (combining Stravinsky’s ballet scores for The Fairy’s Kiss and Petrushka), as well as HK Gruber’s Gloria — A Pig Tale, which the NY Phil co-presented with MetLiveArts and The Juilliard School. He has also directed several NY Phil Young People’s Concerts and Very Young People’s Concerts. Fitch’s career highlights include designing and directing Puccini’s Turandot at Santa Fe Opera; Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel at Los Angeles Opera; and Peter and the Wolf in Hollywood at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which became an award-winning app narrated by Alice Cooper; and he designed sets and costumes for the PBS Great Performances broadcast of Black Lucy and the Bard for the Nashville Ballet with music by Rhiannon Giddens, and Suzanne Farrin’s Dolce la Morte for MetLiveArts. He created Tanglewood’s production of Carter’s What Next?, which was filmed and screened at The Museum of Modern Art. Fitch’s production of Orphic Moments (comprising works by Matthew Aucoin and Gluck) was premiered at National Sawdust and reprised at Salzburg’s Landestheater and The Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Le Grand Macabre was remounted at Hamburg’s ElbPhilharmonie. Fitch devised a puppet production titled Punkitititi, featuring the Salzburg Marionette Theater and starring Geoff Sobelle, which was presented by Mozart Woche 2020. Currently, he is developing several new music / theater projects with composers Shih-hui Chen, Scott Wheeler, and Doug Cuomo, and will direct and design a production of Matthew Aucoin and Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice at Boston Lyric Opera.
Kevin del Aguila is an award-winning actor, writer, and director in New York City. He has been the director of Lincoln Center Theater’s annual Celebration of Student Songs since 2008, and he helmed the world premiere productions of See Rock City and Other Destinations and Kirsten Childs’s Funked Up Fairy Tales for William Finn’s musical theater lab at Barrington Stage in Massachusetts. He has directed several productions of his own plays, including A Touch of Rigor Mortis, Number One: A Pollock Painting, his celebrated comedy 6 Story Building (which took top award at the New York Fringe Festival), and productions for TheaterWorks USA, including the Off-Broadway productions of Skippyjon Jones, Skippyjon Jones: Snow What, and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Mr. del Aguila is the Emmy Award–winning writer of the PBS show Peg + Cat, recipient of the Heideman Award for his play The Greekest of Tragedies, and bookwriter of the hit comedy Altar Boyz (Outer Critics Circle Award), which made history as one of the longest-running Off-Broadway musicals of all time. His other work includes musical adaptations of the DreamWorks film Madagascar, the popular book series Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Dog Man: The Musical, which made its debut Off-Broadway this summer. Kevin del Aguila currently plays the role of Oaken in the Broadway production of Frozen.
Born in Canada and raised on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, Kwamé Ryan discovered his passion for conducting at the age of nine. He read musicology at Cambridge University and studied conducting under the guidance of renowned composer / conductor Peter Eötvös. Ryan held the position of general music director of Freiburg Opera, 1999–2003, and served as musical and artistic director of the National Orchestra of Bordeaux Aquitaine, 2007–13.
Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s mission is to make music accessible to all, whether performing for children in a school hall, at an underground club, or in the world’s leading concert venues. After winning the 2016 BBC Young Musician competition, his 2018 performance at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was watched by two billion people.
SPECIAL THANKS
Lead support for Young People’s Concerts is provided by Evalyn E. and Stephen E. Milman.
Major support for Young People’s Concerts is provided by the Tiger Baron Foundation.
Generous support for the May 4 concert is provided by the Eagan Family, in memory of John F. Eagan and his 100th birthday.
Support for Young People’s Concerts is provided by The Theodore H. Barth Foundation and The Brodsky Family Foundation.