Curtis Symphony Orchestra: Yannick Leads Mahler 9

Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the Curtis Symphony Orchestra at Marian Anderson Hall on Sunday, November 8, 2026. The program pairs Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 9 with Valerie Coleman's Umoja, an orchestral song whose title means "unity" in Swahili. Conducting fellow Yiran Zhao also takes the podium.

Mahler's Ninth is a heavy lift for any orchestra, and it's one that carries a fair bit of history with it: Alban Berg once called it the greatest Mahler ever composed. It's a long, sprawling work, and hearing it played by the Curtis students gives it a different energy than a professional company. The Curtis Symphony Orchestra is the cornerstone of the Curtis Institute of Music, the tuition-free Philadelphia conservatory that admits around 160 students each fall and runs on a "learn-by-doing" philosophy. For this concert, about 100 young musicians come together to work with a guest conductor, and the result is a full orchestral sound coming from a room of students.

Nézet-Séguin is a natural fit for the role. A Montreal native and the school's head of conducting, he's served as mentor conductor here since 2013. His career reaches far beyond Philadelphia: he was music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic from 2008 to 2018, where he's still an honorary conductor, and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic from 2008 to 2014. He's also conducted at the Metropolitan Opera every year since 2009. At Curtis, he doesn't just lead the orchestra; he mentors the early-career conductors who hold the Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellowships, so this is part of the teaching that happens inside the school.

The concert is supported by the Jack Wolgin Curtis Orchestral Concerts Endowment Fund. It starts at 5 PM at Marian Anderson Hall, inside The Kimmel Center.