Government Praise for Abrams and the LO

Teddy Abrams and the Louisville Orchestra (LO) have received a wave of recent praise from local and national government organizations for the success of their “In Harmony” statewide tour and GRAMMY win for work on Yuja Wang’s album The American Project. A letter from Senator Mitch McConnell (R) congratulated them on their GRAMMY win, writing “This distinction serves as a fitting recognition of your talent, perseverance, and dedication to artistic collaboration and further establishes Louisville as a vibrant creative community. I'm confident that the Commonwealth will continue to benefit from your artistic excellence, and I wish you the best in your future projects.” Also in recognition of their GRAMMY, the Kentucky Senate passed a resolution “in honor, celebration, and with the utmost pride in Teddy Abrams and the Louisville Orchestra,.” 

In addition to being awarded a key to the city from Mayor Craig Greenberg (D), Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) made a proclamation in honor of Abrams and the LO at the orchestra’s Frankfort show on February 28th . Earlier in the month, Abrams received a certificate of special congressional recognition from Representative Morgan McGarvey (D).

Louisville Orchestra Announces 2024-25 Season

The Louisville Orchestra (LO) and Music Director Teddy Abrams are thrilled to announce the lineup for their 2024–25 season. Season highlights include Abrams leading Barber’s Violin Concerto with soloist Ray Chen, along with the world premiere of Valerie Coleman’s Concerto for Orchestra and works from the Creators Corps (Nov 15 & 16); Sibelius’s Violin Concerto with soloist Midori along with Strauss’s monumental An Alpine Symphony (Jan 17 & 18); Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Louisville Chamber Choir (Oct 19); and a staged production of Viktor Ullmann’s one-act chamber opera Der Kaiser Von Atlantis (Jan 25). 

In the spring, the second annual Creators Fest returns with Abrams leading world premieres from each of the three participants in the newest incarnation of the Louisville Orchestra’s groundbreaking Creators Corps initiative – Baldwin Giang, Brittany J. Green and Oswald Huỳnh (May 9 & 10). The season is rounded out by a series of classic films with orchestral accompaniment including Nosferatu, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 & 2 and The Nightmare Before Christmas; Coffee Series concerts on Fridays at 11am; performances at Indiana University Southeast’s Ogle Center in New Albany, Indiana; a Pops Series led by Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt; and much more.  

Abrams, who is ready to embark on his eleventh season with the orchestra, elaborates:

 “Our 2024-2025 season is a demonstration of the Louisville Orchestra’s values and unique capabilities. Our programming will showcase the extraordinary musicianship and virtuosity of our musicians in the widest range of repertoire. This breadth of music-making is a core part of our mission: we want to bring the world’s greatest music to Louisville while demonstrating that Louisville has the world’s greatest musical talent at home, too. From Alpine Symphony to Michael Tilson Thomas’ Meditations on Rilke, from Midori and Ray Chen to world premieres by our very own Creators Corps, we are offering a season of music that will both reflect and strengthen our community. While each program in our season explores powerful and profound narratives and subtexts, every concert will be a celebration of our orchestra, of Louisville, and of the universality of music itself." 

Visit louisvilleorchestra.org for more information.

Abrams and Louisville Orchestra Awarded Key to the City

The city of Louisville awarded Abrams and the Louisville Orchestra a key to the city on February 23, recognizing their recent GRAMMY win for work on Yuja Wang’s album The American Project. Abrams accepted the key from Mayor Craig Greenberg, who praised Abrams and the orchestra for “their incredible work and impact in our community and beyond. From creative programming to more accessible performances, youth experiences and more, the Louisville Orchestra shows their commitment to our city and our people every day, and I can think of no one more deserving than this team to receive the first key to the city of Louisville."

Abrams Named Emerson Collective Fellow

Teddy Abrams has been named a fellow of the Emerson Collective. One of twelve individuals selected for the Community Champions Cohort, Abrams is recognized for his contributions to building local community through music. Each member of the cohort “is undertaking a hyperlocal project focused on bridging divides and knitting their community together,” says Emerson Collective. “Driven by a deep understanding of the hopes and aspirations of their neighbors, and building on decades spent developing relationships and expertise that are firmly rooted in place, their work strengthens the civic fabric that bonds us together.”  

The Emerson Collective Fellowship aims to encourage people of exceptional talent to advance bold new projects in Emerson Collective’s priority areas: education, immigration, social justice, the environment, media, and health. The fellowship gives individuals autonomy to advance their current work, pursue exciting new chapters with unknown destinations, and make lasting breakthroughs.

GRAMMY Win for “The American Project”

Teddy Abrams was awarded his first GRAMMY at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles on February 4. The Deutsche Grammophon album The American Project, featuring Pianist Yuja Wang and the Louisville Orchestra conducted by Abrams, took home a GRAMMY for "Best Classical Instrumental Solo.” 


The Piano Concerto at the center of the album was written by Abrams for Wang, his close friend and collaborator since the two were classmates at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. Initially intended as a companion piece to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, the work evolved in scope during the composition process to become a 35-minute standalone showpiece for the pianist, about whom Abrams declares: “I think Yuja’s one of the greatest pianists alive, and of all time. I always intended for her to be the one to take this piece and make it her own.” 


The first-ever GRAMMY for Yuja Wang and the orchestra as well, this landmark achievement marks a significant milestone in the orchestra's illustrious history, paving the way for future artistic endeavors and collaborations. 


Listen to the album here.

SFCV: Yuja Wang Dazzles With Teddy Abrams’s Boisterous Piano Concerto

By Richard S. Ginell
San Francisco Classical Voice
April 2023

The Teddy Abrams Express continues to roll through the byways and superhighways of American music with The American Project, although superstar pianist Yuja Wang gets top billing and the label is Germany’s Deutsche Grammophon. The album is also a continuation of the Louisville Orchestra’s resurrection on recordings after a nearly 30-year drought…

Read the full article from San Francisco Classical Voice

Classical Voice North America: A Visionary Orchestra Breaks Cultural Mold

By Nancy Malitz
April 7, 2023

LOUISVILLE — Yo-Yo Ma will be performing here? In Mammoth Cave? When attention-getting Louisville Orchestra music director Teddy Abrams announced a ticket raffle for an April 29 orchestra concert starring the cello superstar in his cavern debut, the event quickly sold out while raising awareness for the orchestra’s upcoming statewide tours. That off-the-cave-wall concert is emblematic of Abrams’ out-of-the box approach to enhancing his orchestra’s image and building audiences in Louisville as well as statewide in Kentucky.

Read more from Classical Voice North America.

Musical America Names Teddy CONDUCTOR OF THE YEAR

Musical America has named Teddy Abrams their Conductor of the Year for 2022. The announcement precedes a ceremony to present the award which will take place in December 2021. This prestigious honor has been previously awarded to legendary conductors like Michael Tilson Thomas, Valery Gergiev, and Christoph von Dohnányi. Mayor of Louisville Greg Fischer congratulated Teddy at a press conference at the Kentucky Center of Arts on October 12. Here is Teddy’s statement on receiving this honor:

I’m incredibly grateful and overwhelmed to receive this award from Musical America; the honor, however, should be shared by my extraordinary colleagues here in Louisville, both on- and offstage, who have become family to me these past seven seasons. We have worked tirelessly together to live by our values: to interconnect the unending pursuit of the creative spirit with the call to service and communion on behalf of our city. I am very proud of the work we’ve accomplished so far in Louisville, and I believe that we are beginning an era of further transformation and growth in a city that deserves it and in an industry that needs bold redefinition. After a particularly challenging period in Louisville’s history I am thrilled that Musical America has offered this recognition for our orchestra and this spotlight for our beautiful city and state.

Additional press about the awarding of this honor can be found here:

Louisville Courier-Journal

WAVE 3 News

Louisville Orchestra 2021-22 Season is LIVE

The Louisville Orchestra’s 2021-22 Season has been announced: https://louisvilleorchestra.org/new-begininigs/

This is the boldest season we’ve produced since I arrived in Louisville. Our community deserves it.

My statement about the programs next season:

Throughout the past year the Louisville Orchestra has reaffirmed its aspirations to function as a core civic service in Louisville, to help lead our community into a new era of growth and creativity. The 2021-22 season is a reflection and amplification of these values. Despite the challenges our city and nation have faced, we felt strongly that a significant and ambitious investment in creative programming was the best thing we could offer Louisville. Our commitments to equity and commissioning new work (derived from the Orchestra’s long history of leading in these fields) are intertwined: world premieres from seven local musicians to memorialize the pandemic era are juxtaposed with commissions from composers such as Dafnis Prieto, Angélica Negrón, Adam Schoenberg, and KiMani Bridges. Our annual Festival of American Music focuses on Latin America this season. Dafnis Prieto’s new work is a highlight of the Festival: it will be a danceable concerto grosso for a 10-member Cuban timba band and orchestra. We also begin a four-year exploration of the relationship between Jewish and Black composers, revealing interconnected narratives and mutual inspiration as we rediscover pieces that were suppressed or forgotten from composers of both backgrounds. I’m also very excited about the premiere of my own new work – a monstrously virtuosic piano concerto I’ve written for my friend Yuja Wang.

"Building a Bridge" - a film featuring Teddy's score - Premiering at Tribeca Film Festival

Teddy and his collaborator Nathan Farrington composed the music for a new documentary called Building a Bridge. The documentary, directed by Evan Mascagni and Shannon Posted and produced by Martin Scorsese, will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 15, 2021. The subject of the doc is Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest who has devoted his life to helping the Catholic Church be more tolerant and open to LGBTQ followers. Father Martin’s books, Building a Bridge and Learning to Pray, are international best-sellers, and have earned him a loyal following and an audience with Pope Francis. More info on the movie premiere here: https://tribecafilm.com/films/building-a-bridge-2021

Teddy and Jecorey Arthur Featured on NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED

Teddy and longtime collaborator Jecorey Arthur (rapper, classical percussionist, educator, and Louisville Metro Councilman for District 4) talked to Ari Shapiro on NPR’s All Things Considered in advance of the Louisville Orchestra’s March 27 performance featuring Jecorey in a program exploring the story of Black Music in America. Here’s the interview and article: https://www.npr.org/2021/03/26/981694099/music-is-music-a-rapper-and-a-conductor-cross-centuries-in-louisville

Teddy Releases "FOURTH MODE" - a Track for World Sleep Day

Happy #WorldSleepDay! I just released a new track called FOURTH MODE to celebrate... I definitely didn't have the best sleep habits growing up and didn't factor healthy sleep into my routine (and I didn't have much of a healthy routine anyway). As my roommates from my San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Curtis Institute of Music days can attest, sleep mostly meant the moment when you literally couldn't practice or work another minute. There are still face marks on my Brahms symphonies scores from where I would just kind of expire each night in front of the heater in my Sunset neighborhood apartment in SF.. So to recognize World Sleep Day I took one of my favorite pieces - and a work that I used to practice late at night - Bach's Goldberg Variations - and "launched" the famous melody of the Aria up into the sky. Bach wrote this work to placate the insomnia of a wealthy Count, giving it the odd position of simultaneously entertaining and soothing its commissioner. His Variations ended up reflecting the ideals of "cosmic music" - contrapuntal perfection that never loses its humanity and expressivity. Playing the Goldberg Variations once served my own insomnia, so I offer my little FOURTH MODE as a gift back to Bach and as a spaced-out, relaxing moment for you all to enjoy as you consider the importance of a healthy sleep cycle!

Listen here: https://fanlink.to/e3yf

Cart (0)