The Philadelphia Orchestra Returns To Carolina Performing Arts At The University Of North Carolina

​The Philadelphia Orchestra will embark on the first of three domestic tours throughout the 2025–26 season commemorating two major milestones: the Orchestra's 125th anniversary and the upcoming America 250 celebration. Under the baton of Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Orchestra will perform two concerts in partnership with Carolina Performing Arts in Memorial Hall at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, November 4–5, 2025. Concert tickets are available at . In addition, 10 musicians of the Orchestra will lead clinics with student musicians, Principal Librarian Nicole Jordan will join a discussion with UNC students in a “Great Musical Works” class, and former Assistant Conductor Austin Chanu will engage with the UNC Wind Ensemble.  

The Philadelphia Orchestra is commemorating its 125th anniversary and America's 250th anniversary by sharing works by American composers of the past and present, and masterpieces that were originally premiered in the United States by the Orchestra throughout its history. Chapel Hill audiences will have the opportunity to hear William Grant Still's Wood Notes on November 4, presented in a new edition that was prepared by Jordan and Chanu as part of the Orchestra's restoration of the music of the prolific Black American composer. The newly restored edition of Wood Notes, including a previously unpublished fifth movement, was given its world premiere by the Orchestra in 2024, thanks to generous support by the Pew Foundation for Arts and Culture. The piece is paired with Brahms's Symphony No. 3 and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 featuring Emanuel Ax, who is celebrating 50 years of collaboration with the Orchestra this year. On November 5, the Orchestra will perform Brahms's Symphony No. 4 and Jennifer Higdon's Concerto for Orchestra, which was commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra and given its premiere by the ensemble on June 12, 2002, and has been one of the most widely programmed contemporary works since then.