An orchestra is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments:
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. Colloquially referred to as the LA Phil, the orchestra has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September. Gustavo Dudamel is the current music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen is conductor laureate, Zubin Mehta is conductor emeritus, and Susanna Mälkki is principal guest conductor. John Adams is the orchestra's current composer-in-residence.
John Paul Corigliano Jr. is an American composer of contemporary classical music. With over 100 compositions, he has won accolades including a Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and an Academy Award.
Joseph Norman Alessi is an American classical trombonist with the New York Philharmonic.
Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish conductor and composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2024, he announced his resignation from the San Francisco Symphony upon the expiration of his contract in 2025.
David Zinman is an American conductor and violinist.
Aaron Jay Kernis is a Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning American composer serving as a member of the Yale School of Music faculty. Kernis spent 15 years as the music advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra and as director of the Minnesota Orchestra's Composers' Institute, and is currently the workshop director of the Nashville Symphony Composer Lab. He has received numerous awards and honors throughout his thirty-five-year career. He lives in New York City with his wife, pianist Evelyne Luest, and their two children.
Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras (CYSO) is an orchestral music education organization in Chicago, Illinois that was founded in 1946 to provide music education and instrumental training of the highest quality to Chicago area youth.
Mark Kaplan is an American violinist who studied at the Juilliard School under Dorothy DeLay. He is currently a professor at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. Before teaching at Indiana, Kaplan taught at UCLA in California.
Lynnette Seah Mei Tsing is a Singaporean violinist serving as co-leader of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO). She received the Cultural Medallion for Music in 2006.
The New York Chamber Symphony (NYCS) was an American chamber orchestra based in New York City. It was active from 1977 to 2002.
There have been several organisations referred to as the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The most recent one was the now-defunct Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, an American orchestra based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, in existence from the 1950s until 2012. In its heyday it was called "groundbreaking" and "one of the most innovative and respected symphony orchestras of modern times".
Sirena Huang is an American concert violinist. She has received numerous awards, including First Prize at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, First Prize at the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, First Place at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, and Third Place at the Singapore International Violin Competition and the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition. She has performed with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Huang was appointed as the first Artist-in-Residence of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in 2011.
James Tocco is an American concert pianist. He is the youngest of thirteen children born to Vincenzo and Rose Tocco, both Sicilian immigrants.
David Bernard is an American orchestral conductor and music director of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony in New York City, which he founded in 1999. He is also music director of Massapequa Philaharmonic and the Eglevsky Ballet, and has conducted in the United States and in over 20 countries. In 2016, he introduced "Classical Music from the Inside Out", a new format that puts the audience are seated on stage with the orchestra during concerts.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, CC is a Canadian conductor and pianist. He is currently music director of the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal), the Metropolitan Opera, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was the principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2018.
Miloš Karadaglić, sometimes known just by his mononym MILOŠ, is a classical guitarist and Sony Classical recording artist. He was born in Montenegro. He is often credited for leading the way in the classical guitar revival of the past decade.
Kenji Bunch is an American composer and violist. Bunch currently serves as the artistic director of Fear No Music and teaches at Portland State University, Reed College, and for the Portland Youth Philharmonic. He is also the director of MYSfits, the most advanced string ensemble of the Metropolitan Youth Symphony.
David Chan is an American violinist, conductor, and a concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He is one of the most sought-after violinists of his generation. He is a prizewinner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, among many others. As a conductor, Chan is praised for his deep understanding of the music and interpretive depth.
Ivan Yanakov is a Bulgarian-born pianist and conductor. He has performed on four continents, with a repertoire ranging from the Baroque era to contemporary.
