The Philadelphia Orchestra Ushers in the Year of the Snake with Lunar New Year Celebration January 10, 2025 

Led by Assistant Conductor Naomi Woo and featuring soloists Zhang Hongyan, pipa; Maureen Kelly, soprano; and Valdis Jansons, baritone

North American premiere of Mason Bates’s “Spring River Flowers by Moonlight”  

 

(Philadelphia, December 3, 2024)—In celebration of Lunar New Year, Assistant Conductor Naomi Woo will lead The Philadelphia Orchestra and an esteemed group of soloists in a special concert to usher in the Year of the Snake on Friday, January 10, 2025, in Marian Anderson Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.  

The concert will feature the North American premiere of Mason Bates’s “Spring River Flowers by Moonlight,” a new setting of the Tang dynasty poem of the same name. The Philadelphia Orchestra, soprano Maureen Kelly, and baritone Valdis Jansons gave the world premiere of the piece in Beijing during the Orchestra’s 2024 Tour of China. Seen and Heard International praised Bates’s ability to capture “... the poem’s sentiments in subtle and scintillating musical gestures,” while Maureen Kelly’s “lush soprano soared above the orchestra,” and “Valdis Jansons’s commanding baritone expressed longing and love ...”  

The evening’s “spring”-inspired program will also include Liu Dehai, Wang Yanqiao, and Wu Zuqiang’s The Young Heroic Sisters of the Mongolian Grassland with pipa player Zhang Hongyan in her Philadelphia Orchestra debut; Johann Strauss, Jr.’s Overture to Die Fledermaus and “Voices of Spring” Waltz; Lili Boulanger’s Of a Spring Morning; “Flower Drum Song from Fengyang” from Huang Ruo’s Folk Songs for Orchestra; and Li Huanzhi’s Spring Festival Overture.  

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s annual Lunar New Year celebration pays tribute to Philadelphia’s diverse Asian-American community and is part of the ensemble’s ongoing relationship with the people of China. In 1973, under the direction of Eugene Ormandy, The Philadelphia Orchestra became the first American orchestra to perform in China. Since that first visit, the full Orchestra has returned 12 times, most recently in October/November 2024. The Orchestra has developed deep, impactful connections throughout China as a result of concerts and residencies that serve as a cultural bridge for people-to-people exchange. This 51-year relationship continues today in concert halls, educational institutions, and civic settings with various long-term partners. 

The Lunar New Year concert is sponsored by the China National Tourist Office New York. 

Mason Bates’s “Spring River Flowers by Moonlight” was co-commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra and Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the China International Culture Association, with additional support from the US-China Cultural Institute, in memory of Shirley Young. 

                                                   

Lunar New Year  

January 10 at 8:00 PM—Friday evening—Marian Anderson Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts   

 

Naomi Woo Conductor 

Zhang Hongyan Pipa—PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA DEBUT

Maureen Kelly Soprano 

Valdis Jansons Baritone   

 

Strauss Overture to Die Fledermaus

Various The Young Heroic Sisters of the Mongolian Grassland, for pipa and orchestra—FIRST PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE

Boulanger Of a Spring Morning 

Huang “Flower Drum Song from Fengyang,” from Folks Songs for Orchestra—FIRST PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE

Bates “Spring River Flowers by Moonlight”—NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE—PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA CO-COMMISSION 

Strauss “Voices of Spring” Waltz 

Li Spring Festival Overture