The New World Symphony (NWS), America’s Orchestral Academy, announces its 2024-25 season, unveiling a series of programs that build upon the success of Artistic Director Stéphane Denève’s inaugural 2023-24 season. Rooted in the visionary foundation laid by Co-Founder and Artistic Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and his enduring dream to foster the growth and development of emerging talent in classical music, NWS’s 2024-25 season redefines the orchestral experience while enriching the educational journey and propelling the careers of its fellows.
The New World Symphony is a renowned laboratory for orchestral and artistic training and performance, offering three-year fellowships to pre-professional musicians. With a curriculum focused on musical, entrepreneurial, and community engagement skills, fellows receive mentorship from over 250 visiting faculty members and guest artists. Comprising 87 fellows each season, NWS boasts a network of over 1,200 alumni leaders making impactful contributions in orchestras and ensembles in over 30 countries around the globe.
In the upcoming 2024-25 season, NWS will perform at its home, the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center; as well as the Adrienne Arsht Center, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, and communities across South Florida and online. The season’s repertoire serves as a narrative that transcends generations, inspiring hope and fostering a deeper understanding of shared human experiences.
"Making music with the exceptional New World Symphony fellows brings me immense joy," says Stéphane Denève. "Throughout our exciting second season, we will continue to deepen our connection with each other and our audiences, both at the New World Center and throughout communities in Miami. An essential part of our creative endeavor is to explore the intersection of technology, social relevance, new repertoire, classical music, and other art forms. Therefore I am thrilled to share my love for opera and ballet in a special double bill of Viktor Ullmann's The Kaiser of Atlantis and Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins, as well as Britten's profound War Requiem. I am also particularly proud that we will delve into the lived experiences of artists who inspire hope, commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, and reflect on and express the message of peace inherent to the music we love.”
“NWS is a unique gathering of forces; talented young musicians pursuing excellence in a fellowship program rooted in the traditions of classical music but stretching boundaries,” says Howard Herring. “New World and its fellows are taking advantage of digital freedoms, engaging beyond traditional audiences and education systems, crafting a new relationship between music, musicians, and communities–local and global. Our 2024-25 season is another expression of these aspirations and a direct reflection on the vision of our Co-Founder Michael Tilson Thomas, who will be with us for two weeks and whose From the Diary of Anne Frank will be a centerpiece of the year.”
Subscriptions for the 2024-25 season are now available for current subscribers, who can renew beginning February 21, 2024, and online at nws.edu/renew; new subscriptions, including NWS’s compose-your-own series, will be available in early April; single tickets go on sale in mid-July. Subscription packages include an orchestral series, three concerts at the Arsht Center, chamber music at the New World Center, and a series of Concerts for Kids tailored for children aged 4-9.
Season Highlights
Stéphane Denève, Artistic Director
Denève will lead the fellows in 5 programs including the 2024-25 season opening concerts, on October 5 & 6, 2024, featuring Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Michael Tilson Thomas’ Grammy Award-winning From the Diary of Anne Frank at New World Center.
Denève continues on October 19 & 20, 2024, with a staged opera double bill of Victor Ullmann’s The Kaiser of Atlantis with a libretto by Peter Kien, and Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins, a ballet chanté (sung ballet) composed to a German libretto by Bertolt Brech. Joining Denève and the NWS Fellows for these special productions is groundbreaking director Yuval Sharon, who last partnered with NWS for “Making the Right Choices: A John Cage Celebration” in 2013, soprano Danielle De Niese, making her NWS debut, a special guest choreographer and dancers, among others.
Ullmann and Kien collaborated on The Kaiser of Atlantis while interned in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt (Terezín) during World War II. The work survived, though both Ullmann and Kien perished in Auschwitz. Kurt Weill composed The Seven Deadly Sins in 1933, when both he and Brecht had realized the implications of the Nazi seizure of power in Germany and fled the country. Ullmann's composition reflects on the consequences of unchecked power and the human spirit's resilience in the face of oppression. Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins explores sins personified by a single character, blending social commentary with cabaret-style melodies. This juxtaposition creates a program reflecting on the human experience, from the shadows of war to the follies of our nature.
On March 8 & 9, 2025, Denève will lead the world premiere performance and NWS commission of a new orchestrated version of Davóne Tines Recital No. 1 MASS, the latest in a series of Tines’s works which speak to the African American experience while highlighting what we as humans have in common. Originally composed for bass-baritone and pianist, NWS presents the world premiere of an orchestrated version developed in partnership with Tines. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 and Michael Abels’ Delights and Dances complete the program.
The following week, on March 15, 2025, Denève and NWS return to the Adrienne Arsht Center for a performance of Britten’s powerful choral masterpiece, War Requiem, with the Florida Singing Sons, Girl Choir of South Florida and Master Chorale of South Florida.
On April 19, 2025, Denève welcomes cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason in his New World Symphony debut, performing Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1. The program begins with John Williams' Suite from The Book Thief and concludes with Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique.
Denève's final concert of the 2024-25 season at New World Center on April 26, 2025 is NWS’s annual Side-by-Side Concert, a beloved community tradition where extraordinary young musicians (grades 7-12) join NWS fellows for a week of musical mentorship and a shared performance.
Michael Tilson Thomas, Co-Founder & Artistic Director Laureate
MTT returns to Miami on March 29 & 30, 2025 with pianist Yefim Bronfman and soprano Susanna Phillips, in a program of Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, Schumann’s Piano Concerto, Beethoven’s Ah! Perfido, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. The following month, on April 5 & 6, 2025, MTT and Phillips return for a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in a program that also includes Haydn’s Symphony No. 98 and Alban Berg’s Lulu Suite.
Denève will honor NWS’s Co-Founder and Artistic Director Laureate by leading MTT’s own From the Diary of Anne Frank at the New World Center on October 5 & 6, 2024. MTT shares in his program notes, “The work is a melodrama in the form of symphonic variations. It was written for Audrey Hepburn… as a vehicle for Audrey in her role as an ambassador for UNICEF. It takes its shape primarily from the diary passages that Audrey and I selected and read together. While some of the words concern tragic events, so many of them reflect the youthful, optimistic, inquisitive, and compassionate spirit of their author.” NWS gave the world premiere of the work alongside MTT and Hepburn in 1990 and its 2024-25 performance marks 30 years since it was last performed in Miami Beach.
Digital Explorations
With the extraordinary flexibility afforded by its home at the New World Center, the New World Symphony has become a laboratory for generating new ideas about the way music is taught, presented, and experienced. NWS partners with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to reimagine the future of classical music in a digital world and push the boundaries of artistic expression. Within its Knight New Media Center, the New World Symphony will continue its pursuit of digital content development, educational dialogue and distribution.
Denève envisions the pairing of music and video as an essential aspect of the future of the symphonic art form. The 2024-25 season will feature concert experiences integrating live orchestral performances with immersive projections, including Denève’s season-opening concert performance of MTT’s From the Diary of Anne Frank, the opera double bill, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, and Davóne Tines’ Recital No. 1 MASS.
In “Music in (Techni)Color” on March 1 & 2, 2025, NWS and Denève will present the East Coast premiere of composer Anna Clyne’s PALETTE, the latest in her and sound designer Jody Elff’s revolutionary interactive sonic experiences for Augmented Orchestra (AO). A new creative exploration that combines the sounds of a live orchestra with computer-controlled processes, AO explores a new kind of orchestral listening experience, fusing the traditional orchestra with the sonic potential offered by modern technologies. Rather than having an orchestra simply perform a modern composition, the AO modernizes the sonic potential of the orchestra itself, allowing traditional orchestral instruments to take advantage of contemporary sonic processes. Also on the program is Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, as well as Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
As part of “Symphonic Dances and the Silver Screen” led by James Gaffigan on January 18 & 19, 2025, video projections will accompany Julián Orbón’s Tres Versiones Sinfónicas in a program that also includes selections from Erich Korngold’s The Sea Hawk, Bernard Herrmann’s Nocturne from White Witch Doctor and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.
Extensive video projections will also accompany NWS’s “Veterans Day Concert: A WWII Journey” on November 9 & 10, 2024.
Celebrating Today’s Composers and Artists
NWS fellows will explore and perform music by today’s emerging and established composers, including Michael Abels, Viet Cuong, Anna Clyne, Melody Eötvös, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Michael Kamen, Thea Musgrave, the late Julian Orbón, Tōru Takemitsu, Davóne Tines, John Williams, Chen Yi, and more. Returning to NWS to join the fellows in performances throughout the season are renowned artists Yefim Bronfman, Michelle Cann, Stephanie Childress, Amanda Crider, James Gaffigan, Christine Goerke, Demarre McGill, Gil Shaham, Davóne Tines, and Xian Zhang, among others.
NWS is also proud to welcome may acclaimed artists making their NWS debut including Noah Bendix-Balgley, Paolo Bortolameolli, Ian Bostridge, Stella Chen, Danielle De Niese, Edward Gardner, Amihai Grosz, Jeri Lynne Johnson, Leonidas Kavakos, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Emily Magee, Alexander Malofeev, Susanna Phillips, Shunske Sato, Dalia Stasevska, Titus Underwood, Roderick Williams, and Lidiya Yankovskya.
Many of these composers and artists will connect with Fellows for rehearsal mentorship and to share insight into their craft and compositions.
Journey Concerts: Exploring WWII and Sibelius
NWS will produce two Journey Concerts in the 2024-25 season. As deep explorations into a singular composer or topic, Journey Concerts use the spatial and technological capabilities of the New World Center to create an intimate and immersive experience. The Nov. 9 & 10 Veterans Day Concert: A WWII Journey is a poignant tribute to history presented in partnership with historian James Holland. Through music by Aaron Copland, Dmitri Shostakovich, Pavel Haas, William Grant Still, John Williams and Richard Strauss’ “Four Last Songs” sung by soprano Emily Magee, the program commemorates the end of World War II and stands as a testament to the enduring power of music.
A Sibelius Journey on April 11 & 12 features one of the fastest rising stars in the classical world, acclaimed Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska. With NWS Fellows, Stasevska will recreate the original all-Sibelius program that marked the premiere performance of the composer’s Fourth Symphony on April 3, 1911 in Helsinki, including rarely performed works In memoriam, Canzonetta, The Dryad and Night Ride and Sunrise, concluding with Symphony No. 4.
Return of “I Dream a World” Festival
New World Symphony’s 2024-25 season marks the fourth year of its “I Dream a World” festival, centering on the transition between the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement, with a particular emphasis on the contributions of Black artists during the Second World War. This “Transitions and Trailblazers” exploration welcomes conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson, Founder and Artistic Director of the Philadelphia-based Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra in her NWS debut, at New World Center, February 8 & 9, 2025. A special cabaret evening featuring the keyboard music of Hazel Scott will highlight internationally renowned pianist Michelle Cann and NWS’s own piano fellows.
Collaborations
Throughout the 2024-25 season, NWS fellows will perform alongside NWS alumni, who return to Miami Beach for visiting faculty residencies that culminate in a side-by-side concert experience. NWS will also partner with South Florida choruses Florida Singing Sons, Girl Choir of South Florida, and Master Chorale of South Florida in presenting one-night-only performances of Gustav Holst’s The Planets and Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem at The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts’ Knight Concert Hall. NWS’s 2024-25 Arsht Center series includes “Tango Meets Symphony”—a fusion of Argentinian music and dance led by conductor Paolo Bortolameolli.
On January 31 and February 1, NWS fellows once again share the stage with Stéphane Denève and members of The Cleveland Orchestra (TCO) for a joint performance at the Adrienne Arsht Center. This marks the third year of the side-by-side partnership between NWS and TCO. The inaugural side-by-side performance was led by NWS Co-Founder and Artistic Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas in 2022. The collaborative relationship stems from the many TCO musicians–many of whom are NWS alumni–who annually serve on New World Symphony’s visiting faculty roster, mentoring fellows on and off the stage.
