New York Philharmonic
founded in 1842 is the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States and one of the oldest in the world, having performed its 15,000th concert in May 2010. Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, began his tenure in September 2009, succeeding a distinguished line of 20th-century musical giants that goes back to Gustav Mahler and Arturo Toscanini. Long a leader in American musical life, commissioning and premiering works by each era’s leading composers, the Orchestra is renowned around the globe, having appeared in 430 cities in 63 countries — including the February 2008 historic visit to Pyongyang, DPRK, for which the Philharmonic earned the 2008 Common Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy. The Philharmonic, which appears annually on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center, is the only American orchestra to have a weekly, nationally syndicated radio series — The New York Philharmonic This Week — also streamed on nyphil.org. The Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000 recordings since 1917, with more than 500 currently available. The most recent initiative is Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2010–11 Season — 12 downloadable concerts, recorded live, available either as a subscription or individually. Famous for the longrunning Young People’s Concerts, the Orchestra has a wide range of education programs, including the School Partnership Program, enriching music education in New York City, and Learning Overtures, fostering international exchange among educators.

Erin Morley - Soprano
A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Erin Morley is a recent graduate of The Metropolitan Opera's prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She has performed in concert at New York's Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall as well as in China and Italy, and has been featured as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Utah Symphony, and Mormon Tabernacle Choir. She won first place in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Competition and third place in the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. Ms. Morley has been engaged by The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Bard Festival, and Wolf Trap Opera Festival. Her future projects include returns to The Metropolitan Opera in leading roles and debuts with the Paris Opéra and the Vienna and Bavarian Staatsopers. Ms. Morley earned her master of music degree from The Juilliard School, artist diploma at the Juilliard Opera Center, and bachelor of music degree from Eastman School of Music.

Joshua Hopkins - Baritone
Winner of the 2006 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and the Verbier Festival Academy's 2008 Prix d'Honneur, Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins has been hailed for his virile and vigorous yet velvety sound and an immediately evident dramatic authority. He has performed a wide range of operatic repertoire for The Metropolitan Opera as well as Dallas Opera, Glyndebourne, Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, and Santa Fe Opera, and his symphonic collaborations have included The Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Les Violons du Roy. Mr. Hopkins is committed to the art of song, giving solo recitals at New York's Carnegie Hall and under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, Gilmore Festival, Toronto's Aldeburgh Connection, and Vancouver Recital Society. He gave the world premiere of Michael Tilson Thomas's Rilke Songs at Carnegie Hall and released Let Beauty Awake - featuring songs by Barber, Bowles, Glick, and Vaughan Williams - on the ATMA Classique label.

Alan Gilbert - Conductor
Music Director Alan Gilbert,The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, began his tenure at the New York Philharmonic in September 2009, launching what New York magazine called "a fresh future for the Philharmonic." The first native New Yorker in the post, he has introduced the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, an annual three-week festival, and CONTACT!, the new-music series, and has sought to make the Orchestra a point of civic pride for the city as well as for the country.

Mr. Gilbert has brought to the Philharmonic a fresh approach to programming that embraces works spanning world premieres and pillars of the repertoire, combined to reveal fresh perspectives on both the new and the established. He regularly joins the musicians in chamber music as violinist or violist, and made his Philharmonic soloist debut in October 2011. He has led the Orchestra on tours to Asia, Europe, and California; in appearances at Carnegie Hall and at the Park Avenue Armory, in a program featuring Stockhausen's Gruppen; and in acclaimed productions of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre and Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen.

Alan Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies and holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School. Conductor Laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra, he regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams's Doctor Atomic i n 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award. His recordings have also received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. In May 2010 Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music, and in December 2011, Columbia University's Ditson Conductor's Award for his "exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music."