LOS ANGELES (December 19, 2024) - The LA Phil today announced that on February 1, renowned pianist Yuja Wang will join the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas for a program titled “Celebrating MTT with Yuja Wang.” 

Michael Tilson Thomas has been part of the LA Phil family for more than five decades and in honor of his 80th birthday, the orchestra celebrates its former Principal Guest Conductor with selections of his music and other classic gems alongside the world-renowned pianist. 

Kicking off the evening with what Tilson Thomas calls “alternately elegant and goofball percussion entrances,” he conducts his jubilant Agnegram, followed by an impression of Spain in Debussy’s Ibéria. 

Yuja Wang joins Tilson Thomas at the piano for Poulenc’s devilishly witty Sonata for Four Hands. The duo will then channel the energy of the swing era with the original jazz band version of Gershwin’s ever-popular Rhapsody in Blue and Tilson Thomas’ “boogie-woogie-esque” pickup-line piece You Come Here Often? that is “tailor-made for the sharp, percussive playing of Yuja.” (San Francisco Classical Voice). The program closes with Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. 

Tickets are available for purchase online at laphil.com or by phone at 323-850-2000. Programs, artists, dates, prices and availability are subject to change. 

https://www.laphil.com/events/performances/3065/2025-02-01/celebrating-mtt 

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PROGRAM

Celebrating MTT with Yuja Wang 

Saturday, February 1, 2025 at 8PM 

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor 

Yuja Wang, piano 

Michael TILSON THOMAS Agnegram 

DEBUSSY Ibéria 

Intermission 

POULENC Sonata for Four Hands 

GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue (Original Jazz Band Version) 

Michael TILSON THOMAS You Come Here Often? 

BRITTEN The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra 

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ABOUT THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC 

Under the leadership of Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil offers live performances, media initiatives and learning programs that inspire and strengthen communities in Los Angeles and beyond. The Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra is the foundation of the LA Phil’s offerings, which also include a multi-genre, multidisciplinary presenting program and such youth development programs as YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles). Performances are offered on three historic stages—Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and The Ford—as well as through a variety of media platforms. In all its endeavors, the LA Phil seeks to enrich the lives of individuals and communities through musical, artistic and learning experiences that resonate in our world today. 

ABOUT YUJA WANG 

Pianist Yuja Wang is celebrated for her charismatic artistry, emotional honesty and captivating stage presence. She has performed with the world’s most venerated conductors, musicians and ensembles, and is renowned not only for her virtuosity, but her spontaneous and lively performances, famously telling the New York Times, “I firmly believe every program should have its own life and be a representation of how I feel at the moment.” 

Her skill and charisma were recently demonstrated in a marathon Rachmaninoff performance at Carnegie Hall alongside conductor Yannick Nézet-SéguinYo and Philadelphia Orchestra. This historic event celebrating 150 years since the birth of Rachmaninoff, included performances of all four of his concertos plus the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in one afternoon and saw queues around the block for tickets on the day. The 2022/23 season also saw Yuja perform the world premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, with further performances of the work throughout North America and Europe across the season. 

Yuja was born into a musical family in Beijing. After childhood piano studies in China, she received advanced training in Canada and at the Curtis Institute of Music under Gary Graffman. Her international breakthrough came in 2007, when she replaced Martha Argerich as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Two years later, she signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon and has since established her place among the world’s leading artists, with a succession of critically acclaimed performances and recordings. She was named Musical America’s Artist of the Year in 2017, and in 2021 received an Opus Klassik Award for her world-premiere recording of John Adams’ “Must the Devil Have all the Good Tunes?” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. 

This season, Yuja embarks on a highly anticipated international recital tour, performing in world-class venues across North America, Europe and Asia, astounding audiences once more with her flair, technical ability and exceptional artistry in a wide-ranging program to include works by Beethoven and Scriabin. 

ABOUT MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS 

Conductor, composer, and educator Michael Tilson Thomas is Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony and Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra. In June 2020, he completed a remarkable 25-year tenure as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, becoming the Orchestra’s first Music Director Laureate. Beginning with his debut in 1974, Tilson Thomas and the Symphony developed what is widely considered one of the most dynamic and productive partnerships in the orchestral world, notable for innovative programming, enhancing the orchestral concert experience with multimedia and creative staging, showcasing the works of American composers and attracting new audiences to orchestral music, both at home at Davies Symphony Hall and through the Orchestra’s extensive media projects. 

A Los Angeles native, Tilson Thomas studied with John Crown and Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California, becoming Music Director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra at nineteen. He worked with Stravinsky, Boulez, Stockhausen and Copland at the famed Monday Evening Concerts and was pianist and conductor for the Piatigorsky and Heifetz master classes. In 1969, Tilson Thomas was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ten days later he came to international recognition, replacing Music Director William Steinberg in mid-concert at Lincoln Center, going on to become the BSO’s Principal Guest Conductor. He has also served as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic; Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and as Principal Conductor, Principal Guest Conductor and now Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra. Tilson Thomas is also Artistic Director of the New World Symphony, which he co-founded as an orchestral academy dedicated to preparing gifted graduates of distinguished music programs for leadership roles in classical music. Since its inception in 1987, the New World Symphony has helped launch the careers of more than 1,200 alumni worldwide, including more than 15 members of the San Francisco Symphony. 

Tilson Thomas’s recordings have won numerous international awards, including 12 Grammys, 11 for San Francisco Symphony recordings. In 2014, he inaugurated SoundBox, the SF Symphony’s alternative performance space and eclectic live music series. His television credits include the New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts and Keeping Score on PBS-TV, which he and the San Francisco Symphony launched in 2004. His compositions include From the Diary of Anne Frank and Meditations on Rilke, both recorded with the SF Symphony and released on SFS Media in June 2020; Shówa/Shoáh; settings of poems by Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman; Island Music; Notturno; and Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind. Tilson Thomas is a 2019 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, was Musical America’s Musician and Conductor of the Year and was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, was inducted in the California Hall of Fame and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama. Tilson Thomas was named an Officier in the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in June 2020, recognizing his continued contributions to global culture and the vast impact of his 25 years as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony.