Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Announces 2022/23 Season | EarRelevant

The new season marks Nathalie Stutzmann’s first as Music Director and Sir Donald Runnicles’ final as Principal Guest Conductor

Mark Gresham | 23 MAR 2022

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will make history this fall when Nathalie Stutzmann becomes its fifth music director. Stutzmann and the ASO have planned a 2022/23 season combining audience favorites with rediscovered gems and works from 13 living composers.

Here’s EarRelevant’s compilation of the essential season info, from conductors to soloists, and a complete chronological schedule of the ASO’s 2022/23 classical concerts.

Jump to: The Conductors · The Soloists · A Critic’s Notes · 2022/23 Season Schedule

The Conductors

In her inaugural season as music director, Stutzmann will conduct eight programs.

Sir Donald Runnicles (donaldrunnicles.org)

Sir Donald Runnicles will conduct three programs in his final season as principal guest conductor of the ASO, a post which he first assumed in 2001.

Associate conductor Jerry Hou will conduct one of the classical subscriptions concerts. Concertmaster David Couchron will lead a single conductorless performance of music by Vivaldi and Bach. The ASO’s director of choruses, Norman Mackenzie, will direct two traditional holiday programs with the ASO Chorus.

Guest conductors will lead the remaining dozen concerts.

Returning to the ASO podium are Peter Oundjian (who opens the season), Stéphane Denève, Hannu Lintu, John Storgårds, and former ASO associate conductor Stephen Mulligan.

Seven more conductors will be making their ASO debuts in the new season: Kazem Abdullah, Ryan Bancroft, Nicholas Carter, Elim Chan, Han-Na Chang, Andrew Manze, and Petr Popelka.

The Soloists

Esteemed instrumental soloists returning to the Symphony Hall stage in 2022/23 are pianists Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnatan, Jonathan Biss, Conrad Tao, Awadagin Pratt, Lise de la Salle, and duo pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton; Violinists Augustin Hadelich, Hilary Hahn, Leila Josefowicz, Gil Shaham, and Sayaka Shoji; and cellist Johannes Moser.

Three instrumental soloists will be making their debuts: pianist Tom Borrow, violinist Daniel Lozakovich, and saxophonist Timothy McAllister.

Featured soloists from the members of the ASO are concertmaster David Coucheron and principal oboist Elizabeth Koch Tiscione.

The season’s 13 scheduled vocal soloists (*=ASO debut) are sopranos Nicole Cabell, Heidi Stober*, Camilla Tilling*, and Talise Trevigne; mezzo-sopranos Patricia Bardon*, Jennifer Johnson Cano, and Irene Roberts*; tenors Kenneth Tarver, and Robin Tritschler*; baritones Justin Austin*, Russell Braun, and Lucas Meachem*; and bass Leon Košavić*.

A Critic’s Notes

A few items caught my eye (which tends to veer off the beaten path) while looking over the ASO’s 2022/23 season offerings,

In a somewhat unorthodox move, the season opener will be led by a guest conductor, Peter Oundjian. The program’s headline attraction is a longtime ASO friend, pianist Emanuel Ax, who will perform Mozart’s Piano Concert No. 18. But the concert opener is To Awaken the Sleeper, composed by Atlanta native Joel Thompson. Based on the writings of James Baldwin, it will be receiving its second-ever performance – with some post-premiere revisions, according to his publisher’s website. Combined with Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, it will be interesting to hear how this program comes off as a season-opener. (Sept. 22 & 24, 2022).
In her first concert as music director, Stutzmann will conduct the only world premiere in the 2022/23 season: a new choral work by Hilary Purrington, Words for Departure by New England. It will share the program with George Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Lilacs and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Oct. 6, 8 & 9, 2022). The season will also include U.S. premieres of works by Tyshawn Sorey (Saxophone Concerto, March 16 & 18), Lera Auerbach (Icarus, April 27 & 29, 2023), and Helen Grime (Violin Concerto, June 8 & 10, 2023).
ASO audiences rarely (if ever?) get to hear music by that quintessential American composer Charles Ives, but conductor Kazem Abdullah and the ASO will treat us to his Symphony No. 2 (Jan. 12 & 14, 2023). Older audience members will remember that Robert Shaw championed the music of Ives and would get into trouble over it. But we are long overdue for a chance to revisit and celebrate the iconoclastic Ives.
The season’s most monumental project, in my personal opinion, is when Stutzmann will conduct Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (March 30, April 1 & 2, 2023). That will be a crowning achievement and another marker for the ASO Chorus and its relationship with the new musical landscape of the Stutzmann era.
Czech conductor Petr Popelka will lead an all-Czech program with duo pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton performing Bohuslav Martinů’s Concerto for Two Pianos, which I consider a significant attraction. If you don’t know the music of Martinů’s close colleague Vítezslava Kaprálová, here’s your opportunity to hear her Military Sinfonietta. They share the program with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 (May 18 & 20)

The complete list of 2022/23 Season programs follows.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: 2022/23 Season Schedule

* ASO debut
† World premiere
± US premiere
‡ ASO premiere

Fall 2022

Sept. 22 & 24, 2022
Peter Oundjian, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano
Joel THOMPSON: To Awaken the Sleeper ‡
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 18
RACHMANINOV: Symphonic Dances
Oct. 6, 8 & 9
Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor
Talise Trevigne, soprano
Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano
Robin Tritschler, tenor *
Leon Košavić, bass *
ASO Chorus
Hilary PURRINGTON: Words for Departure †
WALKER: Lilacs
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9
Oct. 14 & 15
Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 3
FRANCK: Le chasseur maudit
SCHOENBERG: Verklärte Nacht
Nov. 10 & 12
Hannu Lintu, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin
SIBELIUS: The Oceanides ‡
KORNGOLD: Violin Concerto
Jennifer HIGDON: Concerto for Orchestra
Nov. 17 & 19
John Storgårds, conductor
Inon Barnatan, piano
Outi TARKIAINEN: Midnight Sun Variations ‡
RACHMANINOV: Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
CHOPIN/Stravinsky: Nocturne and Grand Waltz
SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 5
Dec. 1 & 3
Elim Chan, conductor *
Hilary Hahn, violin
TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10
Dec. 8, 10 & 11
Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor
BIZET: Carmen Prelude
BIZET: Symphony in C Major
TCHAIKOVSKY: Selections from The Nutcracker

December Holiday Classics

Dec. 15, 16 & 18
Norman Mackenzie, conductor
ASO Chorus
Christmas with the ASO
Dec. 22
Norman Mackenzie, conductor
ASO Chamber Chorus
HANDEL: Messiah, Pt I

Winter-Spring 2023

Jan. 4, 2023
David Coucheron, violin
VIVALDI: The Four Seasons
BACH: Select Brandenburg Concertos
Jan. 12 & 14
Kazem Abdullah, conductor *
Tom Borrow, piano *
IVES: Symphony No. 2
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4
Jan. 19 & 21
Sir Donald Runnicles, conductor
Jonathan Biss, piano
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 20
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 8
Jan. 26 & 28
Sir Donald Runnicles, conductor
Heidi Stober, soprano *
Russell Braun, baritone
ASO Chorus
Adolphus HAILSTORK: Epitaph for a Man Who Dreamed
BRAHMS: A German Requiem
Feb. 2 & 3
Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor
Johannes Moser, cello
PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia concertante
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5
Feb. 9 & 11
Han-Na Chang, conductor *
Sayaka Shoji, violin
ANNA CLYNE: This Midnight Hour ‡
PROKOFIEV: Violin Concerto No. 1
MUSSORGSKY/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition
Feb. 23 & 24
Ryan Bancroft, conductor *
Conrad Tao, piano
KODÁLY: Háry János Suite
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G
DAWSON: Negro Folk Symphony
March 2 & 4
Jerry Hou, conductor
Awadagin Pratt, piano
Joan TOWER: 1920/2019 ‡
Jessie MONTGOMERY: Rounds ‡
BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra
March 16 & 18
Stephen Mulligan, conductor
Timothy McAllister, saxophone *
WEBER: Der Freischütz Overture
Tyshawn SOREY: Saxophone Concerto ±
SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 2
March 23 & 25
Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor
David Coucheron, violin
Elizabeth Koch Tiscione, oboe
HANDEL/VIVALDI: Selections
BACH: Concerto for Oboe & Violin
March 30, April 1 & 2
Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor
Camilla Tilling, soprano *
Patricia Bardon, mezzo-soprano *
Kenneth Tarver, tenor
Leon Košavić, bass
Justin Austin, Jesus *
Robin Tritschler, Evangelist
ASO Chamber Chorus
BACH: St. Matthew Passion
April 13 & 15
Stéphane Denève, conductor
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Carlos SIMON: Fate Now Conquers ‡
BRITTEN: Violin Concerto
BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique
April 20 & 21
Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor
Daniel Lozakovich, violin *
MOZART: The Magic Flute Overture
MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto
SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 9 in C Major
April 27 & 29
Nicholas Carter, conductor *
Nicole Cabell, soprano
Lucas Meachem, baritone *
ASO Chorus
Lera AUERBACH: Icarus ±
WAGNER: “Dawn” and “Siegfried’s Rhine Journey” from Götterdämmerung
Vaughan WILLIAMS: A Sea Symphony
May 4 & 6
Sir Donald Runnicles, conductor
Irene Roberts, mezzo-soprano *
BERG: Three Excerpts from Wozzeck
MAHLER: Symphony No. 5
May 18 & 20
Petr Popelka, conductor *
Christina Naughton, piano
Michelle Naughton, piano
KAPRÁLOVÁ: Military Sinfonietta ‡
MARTINŮ: Concerto for Two Pianos
DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 8
June 8 & 10
Andrew Manze, conductor *
Leila Josefowicz, violin
MUSSORGSKY: Night on Bald Mountain
Helen GRIME: Violin Concerto ±
RACHMANINOV: Symphony No. 3
June 15, 17 & 18
Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor
Lise de la Salle, piano
WAGNER: Tannhäuser Overture
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 3
RAVEL: Le tombeau de Couperin
RAVEL: Boléro

* ASO debut
† World premiere
± US premiere
‡ ASO premiere

Mark Gresham is publisher and principal writer of EarRelevant. he began writing as a music journalist over 30 years ago, but has been a composer of music much longer than that. He was the winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music journalism in 2003.

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