10 YEARS OF TEDDY

LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA ANNOUNCES 2023-24 SEASON

by Louisville Orchestra

Season Preview

2023 - 2024

The Louisville Orchestra (LO) is excited to announce details of its 2023-24 season, which marks Teddy Abrams’s 10th season as Music Director.

In true LO style, this landmark season with Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year will feature programming encompassing favorites of the orchestral repertoire and explore innovative new works, including a festival of original compositions by the 2023-24 members of the Creators Corps, the LO’s groundbreaking residency program.

CELEBRATING TEDDY’S 10TH

At 35, Abrams is the youngest Music Director of a major American orchestra, a position he assumed at the tender age of 26. Abrams’s concept of a modern orchestra and its conductor is fueled by talent, energy, vision, drive, and an extraordinary commitment to community engagement.

Since launching his tenure at LO, Abrams’s innovative, outsidethe-box initiatives have succeeded in reconnecting the orchestra with its remarkable history, integrating it into the fabric of Louisville life, and re-establishing it as the cornerstone of the city’s vibrant music scene.

“It is so hard to believe that this is my 10th season with the LO!” says Abrams. “It invites reflection and consideration for the history and the story we’ve been trying to tell for all of you these last 10 years. We’ve been asking, ‘What does it mean to be a public service – to serve you all and take the power of our music and the talents of our musicians to make life better for all of us here in Louisville?’ The power of music is so broad and always reinventing itself. There are always new ways for music to connect with people and new people for music to connect with.”

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2023-24 SEASON

Film Series subscription package added to the roster

New to the 2023-24 season, LO is offering a Film Series subscription package. Consistently a hit with audiences, the package will contain familiar Star Wars and Harry Potter selections and Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas

Classics Series and a superstar guest conductor

The 2023-24 Classic Series features classical music favorites performed as only the LO can, including Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 6, nicknamed “Tragic.” The annual collaboration with the Louisville Chamber Choir will be J.S. Bach’s masterful setting of the Canticle of Mary, the Magnificat. Also on the series’ programming are intriguing contemporary works by Caroline Shaw, Gabriel Kahane, and John Adams.

In addition, this coming season the LO will welcome one of the most celebrated conductors in the world, the Grammy Award-winning JoAnn Falletta. As Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Falletta became the first woman to lead a major American ensemble and has been credited with bringing the Philharmonic to an unprecedented level of national and international prominence. Recently named as one of the 50 great conductors of all time by Gramophone magazine, she is hailed for her work as a conductor, recording artist, audience builder, and champion of American composers. Falletta will lead the LO in an exciting program concluding with Ravel’s Bolero.

Pops Series highlights

In his 40-plus years as the Principal Pops Conductor of the Louisville Orchestra, Bob Bernhardt has consistently enchanted audiences with his unique combination of easy style, infectious enthusiasm, entertaining programming, and consummate musicianship.

In addition to Louisville’s beloved seasonal tradition Holiday Pops, Bernhardt will conduct a variety of audience-pleasing concerts ranging from “frightening” Halloween fare to sportsthemed musical favorites to an evening of hits by the Queens of Soul to a rousing season finale of the thrilling sounds of Mexican Mariachi.

Family Series

The inspiring evolution of the LO Family programming continues with more interactive fun for the whole family. Once again, Old Forester’s Paristown Hall will become the setting for exploring composition, storytelling through musical means, and the structure of the orchestra itself. And, of course, the LO will be celebrating the holidays with a family program featuring Santa himself!

Celebrating Kentucky

This season runs concurrently with the historic “In Harmony: the Commonwealth Tour of the Louisville Orchestra,” a two-year musical journey beginning in May 2023 that will bring orchestra musicians to dozens of communities across the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

The tour is made possible through a partnership with the Kentucky General Assembly in conjunction with the Tourism, Arts, and Heritage Cabinet. In the spirit of this musical outreach, the 2023-24 season will contain native Kentucky composers and performers in new and traditional works. Most notably, the opening concert in September at the Iroquois Park Amphitheater will feature Murray, Kentucky’s own mandolinist extraordinaire, Chris Thile. Thile, will give the Kentucky debut of his new piece for singing mandolinist and orchestra.

More information and the full schedule can be found at LouisvilleOrchestra.org