Michael Tilson Thomas Conducts Beethoven 9

Michael Tilson Thomas is Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Co-Founder and Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony. He is a twelve-time Grammy Award winner and has conducted the major orchestras of Europe and the United States.

Born in Los Angeles, he studied conducting and composition with Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California and, as a young musician, worked with artists including Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. In his mid-20s, he became Assistant Conductor—and later Principal Guest Conductor—of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He subsequently served as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

In 1987, he co-founded the New World Symphony, a postgraduate orchestral academy in Miami Beach dedicated to preparing young musicians of diverse backgrounds for leadership roles in classical music. He has worked with more than 1,200 NWS Fellows, many of whom have gone on to major musical careers.

He became Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony in 1995, ushering in a period of significant growth and heightened international recognition for the orchestra, championing contemporary and American composers alongside classical masters.

His discography includes more than 120 recordings, and his television work includes series for the BBC and PBS, the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts, and numerous televised performances. His profile Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is aired on PBS’s American Masters series in fall 2020.

Throughout his career, he has been an active composer, with major works including From the Diary of Anne Frank, premiered with narrator Audrey Hepburn, and Meditations on Rilke. Both appear on SFS Media’s recent Grammy Award-winning recording of his music. In 2023, Yuja Wang and Teddy Abrams released a recording on DG which included Michael Tilson Thomas’ You Come Here Often? which won a 2023 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. In celebration of his 80th birthday in 2024, Pentatone releases GRACE: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas, a four-disc box set of Tilson Thomas’ compositions.

He is an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France, member of the American Academies of Arts & Sciences and Arts & Letters, National Medal of Arts recipient, and a 2019 Kennedy Center Honoree.

American soprano Ellie Dehn has been praised by critics as “a revelation” (Chicago Sun-Times), acclaimed for her “great stage presence and a voice combining metallic clarity and sensual richness” (Wall Street Journal). In the 2024-2025 season, Ms. Dehn returns to Dallas Symphony for performances as Freia in Das Rheingold, and continues her longstanding relationship with the Metropolitan Opera, covering the title role in Salome, Antonia and Stella in The Tales of Hoffmann and Musetta in La bohème.

In the 2023-2024 season, Ellie Dehn returned to Opera Colorado as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, debuted the role of Freia in Das Rheingold with the Dallas Symphony and covered Me Musetta in La bohème, and Magda in La Rondine, at the Metropolitan Opera.

Ellie Dehn’s recent seasons have included Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Detroit Opera, Mimi in La bohème with Arizona Opera and Boston Youth Symphony, Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Colorado, Lady Billows in Albert Herring with Minnesota Opera. As a cover at the Metropolitan Opera, Ms. Dehn has covered Musetta in La bohème, Alice Ford in Falstaff, and the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro. A busy concert artist, highlights of recent seasons have included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the St. Louis Symphony and Stéphane Denève, Handel’s Messiah with the New Jersey and North Carolina Symphony’s, Mozart’s Requiem with the San Antonio Symphony, Britten’s Spring Symphony with the Grant Park Music Festival, Elijah with the Florida Orchestra and Mozart’s Davide Penitente with Mainly Mozart San Diego.

Career highlights include the title role in Strauss’ Arabella and Massenet’s Manon with San Francisco Opera, the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, and a return to Grand Théâtre de Genève as the Countess in Figaro Gets a Divorce; a modern addition to the Figaro trilogy composed by Elena Langer. She made her company debut at Royal Opera House Covent Garden as the Countess in Sir David McVicar’s production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, conducted by Ivor Bolton, which was broadcasted live to movie theaters around the world; her Metropolitan Opera  debut as Mrs. Naidoo in Philip Glass’ Satyagraha, followed by returns as Musetta in Franco Zerferelli’s iconic production of La bohème and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni; her Teatro alla Scala debut as Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann and return as Musetta; multiple appearances with San Francisco Opera including all three Mozart/Da Ponte heroines: the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, as well as Musetta in La bohème and Micaela in Calixto Bieito’s production of Carmen; her debut at Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera as Helena in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and return as Musetta; and her Houston Grand Opera debut Mozart’s Countess.

Other successes include her role debut in the title role of Dvořák’s Rusalka with Lyric Opera of Kansas City; Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff with San Diego Opera, Donna Anna with the Ravinia Festival, the Bayerische Staatsoper, Opera Colorado and San Diego Opera; Donna Elvira with the Spoleto Festival USA and at Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Fiordiligi with the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, and her debut in the title role of Weber’s Euryanthe at the Bard SummerScape Festival with the American Symphony Orchestra.

Her debuts with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna as Anne Truelove in new productions of The Rake’s Progress were both under the baton of Daniele Gatti. Her numerous company debuts include San Diego Opera and Minnesota Opera as Mimì, Santa Fe Opera as Rosaura in the world premiere of Lewis Spratlan’s Life is a Dream, Le Grand Théâtre de Genève as Agathe in Der Freischütz, Bilbao Opera as Madame Cortese in Il viaggio a Reims, and LA Opera as Freia in Das Rheingold. Ms. Dehn received critical acclaim for her performances as Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with Minnesota Opera.

Highlights of recent orchestral engagements include performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Dallas Symphony conducted by Jaap Van Zweden to conclude the Music Director’s farewell season with the company. At Carnegie Hall, she has performed Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Bach’s Magnificat, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Haydn’s Harmoniemesse. At Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, she joined the acclaimed International Contemporary Ensemble for the New York premiere of Messiaen’s Chants de terre et de ciel at the Mostly Mozart Festival, joined Eve Queler and the Opera Orchestra of New York as Inez in Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine. Ms. Dehn has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra on several occasions, most recently as the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah and Nielsen’s Symphony No. 3. She has been a featured soloist with the Cincinnati May Festival, performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Haydn’s The Seasons, Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. She sang Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with both the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional of Mexico and the Milwaukee Symphony. She has performed Haydn’s Creation and Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at St. Thomas Church in New York. She has sung Handel’s Messiah with New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, and performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic.

Ellie Dehn’s discography includes Ravel: Intimate Masterpieces, released on the Oberlin Music label and distributed by Naxos America, live recordings of Saint-Saëns’ Henry VIII and Weber’s Euryanthe at the Bard SummerScape Festival. She resides in Minneapolis with her daughter, Arabella.

American mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford has gained a reputation as an exciting and in-demand singer appearing with many of the finest orchestras and opera houses in the United States and Europe. This season, she returns to The Metropolitan Opera for Die Zauberflöte and the new production of Salome, the Dallas Symphony for continued performances of Erda in The Ring Cycle, and to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She also makes appearances with the Houston Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic.

 A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Tamara has appeared in more than 200 performances with the company, including productions of Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin, Anna Bolena, Rigoletto, Cavalleria Rusticana, Nixon in China, Die Zauberflöte, and The Magic Flute. Other recent opera engagements have included the premiere of The Thirteenth Child at the Santa Fe Opera; Tancredi with Teatro Nuovo; Aureliano in Palmira and Lucrezia Borgia at the Caramoor Festival; Henze’s Phaedra, The Rape of Lucretia, and the world premiere of Daniel Schnyder’s Yardbird at Opera Philadelphia; and L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival and the BBC Proms.

Also an active concert performer and recitalist, Tamara appeared with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in multiple US and European tours. Other concert engagements have included appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Netherland Radio Philharmonic, and at the Hollywood Bowl and the Ravinia and Tanglewood festivals. Her recordings include Handel’s Messiah with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (Momon Tabernacle Choir), Beethoven’s Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony (Avie), and both Mahler Symphony No. 8 and John Adams’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon).

Philadelphia-born tenor Stephen Costello quickly established a reputation as a “first-class talent” (Opera News) after coming to national attention in 2007, when at age 26, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut on the company’s season-opener. Two years later, he won the prestigious Richard Tucker Award, and he has since appeared at many of the world’s most important opera houses and music festivals. As Opera News noted in a recent Spotlight spread, “the all-American tenor” is now “at the top of his game.”

In the 2024-25 Season, Stephen returns to the Metropolitan Opera for Duca di Mantua in Rigoletto and Greenhorn in Moby Dick, as well as singing Romeo at Opernhaus Zürich and the title role of Don Carlo at Bayerische Staatsoper. In concert, he performs Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the Houston Symphony, performs a gala concert with Kristine Opolais in Mexico, and sings a series of recitals alongside pianist Anthony Manoli with Arizona Opera.

Last season, Stephen sang Don José in Carmen at Bayerische Staatsoper, Rodolfo in La bohème at The Metropolitan Opera (including his 100^th performance at the Met), Verdi’s Requiem at Opernhaus Zürich, Rodolfo in La bohème with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra in Philadelphia and at the Vail Festival, and debuts in the role of Cavaradossi in Tosca, first in concert with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and then on the stage at National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts in Taiwan.

In March 2018, Stephen opened a memorial concert at the Royal Opera House in honor of Dmitri Hvorostovsky, singing alongside, among others, Anna Netrebko, Elīna Garanča, and Angela Gheorghiu.

In addition to winning the 2009 Richard Tucker Award and receiving further grants from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, Stephen won first prize in the 2006 George London Foundation Awards Competition, first prize and audience prize in the Giargiari Bel Canto Competition, and first prize in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Competition. He is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts.

During the 2024-25 season, bass Stefan Egerstrom makes debuts with Boston Lyric Opera as Il Re in Aida under the baton of David Angus; Maine Opera singing Colline in La bohème with Eckart Preu taking on conducting duties; and the Houston Symphony as the bass soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony #9 led by Michael Tilson Thomas. He will return to the Minnesota Opera to sing Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia working with director Chuck Hudson and conductor Christopher Franklin. Mr. Egerstrom once again joins the roster at the Lyric Opera of Chicago under the baton of Music Director Enrique Mazzola to cover the roles of Sparafucile in Rigoletto with director Mary Birnbaum and Rocco in Fideliowith Matthew Ozawa.

Last season, Mr. Egerstrom covered Daland in Der fliegende Holländer with director Christopher Alden and Ramfis in Aida with director Francesca Zambello at the Lyric Opera of Chicago with Enrique Mazzola at the helm for both opera. He returned to Carnegie Hall to join the American Symphony Orchestra and Leon Botstein for Dvořák’s Requiem. Mr. Egerstrom made his San Diego Opera debut singing Masetto in Don Giovanni with Yves Abel on the podium and traveled to Tourtour to take part in The Fondation des Treilles Voice Academy which culminated in a final concert of French arias of Berlioz, Marais, Meyerbeer, and Verdi. Mr. Egerstrom returned to California in the spring to cover Hunding with San Diego Symphony and Music Director Rafael Payare when they presented Act 1 of Die Walküre in concert. Mr. Egerstrom reunited with Leon Botstein at the Fisher Center to sing the role of Brander in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust for Bard SummerScape. During the 2022-23 season, Mr. Egerstrom made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Fourth Noble in the new François Girard production of Lohengrin conducted by Yannick Neìzet-Seìguin; performed the role of Peneios in Daphne with the American Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leon Botstein at Carnegie Hall; and returned to the San Francisco Opera to sing Geisterbote in the David Hockney production of Die Frau ohne Schatten with Sir Donald Runnicles on the podium.

As a former San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, he appeared in Eugene Onegin (singing the roles of Captain and Zaretsky while covering Gremin) with Vassilis Christopoulos on the podium; worked on three productions conducted by Music Director Eun Sun Kim including La Traviata (covering Dottore Grenvil), Tosca (Jailer), and Fidelio (Second Prisoner); and was a participant of the 2019 Merola Opera Program, subsequently performing in the Schwabacher Summer Concert and the Merola Grand Finale.

Previous appearances include Hunding in Die Walküre and King René in Iolanta with Cincinnati’s Queen City Opera. As part of the “Opera Fusion: New Works initiative between Cincinnati Opera and University of Cincinnati-Conservatory of Music,” he performed in workshops of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Morning Star and Gregory Spears’s Fellow Travelers. Additional roles Mr. Egerstrom has performed include Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), Siroco (L’Étoile), Carlino (Don Pasquale), Don Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Dulcamara (L’Elisir d’Amore), Dr. Grenvil (La Traviata), and Kecal (The Bartered Bride). In concert, he has also been the bass soloist in Bach’s Johannes-Passion. Mr. Egerstrom has performed with the Minnesota Opera in the world premieres of Kevin Puts’s Silent Night and Paul Moravec’s The Shining. He has also been a Young Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera, covering the roles of Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin and Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni.

In 2022, he was awarded The Richard F. Gold Career Grant from The Shoshana Foundation and a Sara Tucker Study Grant from The Richard Tucker Music Foundation. A native of Minnesota, Mr. Egerstrom received his bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Lawrence University and his master’s degree in voice from University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

The Houston Symphony Chorus is the official choral unit of the Houston Symphony and consists of highly skilled and talented volunteer singers. Over the years, members of this historic ensemble have learned and performed the world’s great choral orchestral masterworks under the batons of Juraj Valčuha, Andrés Orozco Estrada, Hans Graf, Christoph Eschenbach, Robert Shaw, and Helmuth Rilling, among many others.

In addition, the Chorus enjoys participating in the Houston Symphony’s popular programming under the batons of conductors such as Steven Reineke and Michael Krajewski. Recently, the ensemble sang the closing subscription concerts with the Prague Symphony Orchestra in the Czech Republic. Singers are selected for specific programs for which they have indicated interest. A singer might choose to perform in all 45 concerts, as was the case in a recent season, or might elect to participate in a single series. The Houston Symphony Chorus holds auditions by appointment and welcomes inquiries from interested singers.