Opposites Attract

Canadian conductor and pianist Naomi Woo is a widely sought-after symphonic and operatic conductor and educator and the 2022 winner of the Canada Council’s prestigious Virginia Parker Prize. After a successful three-year tenure as assistant conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra she will join the Orchestre Métropolitain Montréal as Artistic Partner from the 2023-2024 season and the Philadelphia Orchestra as assistant conductor for the 2024-2025 season.

Highlights of her auspicious 2023-2024 season include conducting engagements with the Orchestre Métropolitain, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Toronto Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, and National Arts Center Orchestra; two appearances with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, where she is a music director finalist; and, an extensive tour of England leading English Touring Opera’s Cinderella. As an assistant/cover conductor Naomi works with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, and Orchestre Métropolitain, and she conducts classical subscription concerts with the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières, Orchestre symphonique de la Côte-Nord, Symphony Nova Scotia, and the Thunder Bay Symphony.

Engagements in previous seasons include the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Ann Arbor Symphony, Orchestra NOW (New York), Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, and Regina Symphony, and her debut at LSO St. Luke’s in London, with the ensemble Tangram Sound. On the opera stage, she has conducted the Canadian premiere of Du Yun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Angel’s Bone in Vancouver and the world premiere of Ellis Ludwig-Leone’s The Night Falls in New York City. In fall 2022, she assisted the world premiere of Oliver Leith’s opera Last Days at Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

Naomi is a member of Tapestry Opera’s Women in Musical Leadership program and was chosen by her mentor Yannick Nézet-Séguin as a member of the Orchestre Métropolitain’s inaugural orchestral conducting academy. 

Naomi holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She has also studied mathematics, philosophy, and music at Yale College, the Yale School of Music and Université de Montréal.

Conducting your Illinois Symphony Orchestra!

Sizzling Strings

Opposites Attract

www.naomiwoo.com

Blessed with “poetic and sensitive pianism” (Washington Post) and a “wondrous sense of color” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Grammy-nominated pianist Joyce Yang captivates audiences with her virtuosity, lyricism, and interpretive sensitivity. 

She first came to international attention in 2005 when she won the silver medal at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The youngest contestant at 19 years old, she took home two additional awards: Best Performance of Chamber Music (with the Takàcs Quartet), and Best Performance of a New Work. She received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2010 and her first Grammy nomination in 2017 (Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance) for her recording of Franck, Kurtág, Previn & Schumann with violinist Augustin Hadelich.

In the last decade, Yang has blossomed into an “astonishing artist” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), showcasing her colorful musical personality in solo recitals and collaborations with the world’s top orchestras and chamber musicians through more than 1,000 debuts and re-engagements. She has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and BBC Philharmonic, among many others. She has appeared in recital at New York’s Lincoln Center and Metropolitan Museum, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, Chicago’s Symphony Hall, and Zurich’s Tonhalle.

She graduated from Juilliard with special honor as the recipient of the school’s 2010 Arthur Rubinstein Prize. She is a Steinway artist.

www.pianistjoyceyang.com