Teddy Abrams, a Grammy Award winner and Musical America‘s 2022 Conductor of the Year, has been the galvanizing force behind the Louisville Orchestra’s (LO) extraordinary artistic renewal and innovative social impact since his appointment as music director in September 2014. His work has been profiled by CBS Sunday Morning, the New Yorker, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and PBS NewsHour.

Among Abrams’ achievements in Kentucky are the Louisville Orchestra Creator’s Corps, which provides a fully funded residency for three composers who receive local housing, a salary, health benefits, and dedicated workspaces; and the “In Harmony” tour, a multi-season project funded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky and taking the orchestra to every corner of the state for concerts and special community events. Deemed by the New York Times as a “Maestro of the People,” Abrams has “embedded himself in his community, breaking the mold of modern conductors.”

An award-winning composer, in April 2023 Abrams premiered his own Mammoth with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bass-baritone Davóne Tines, and the LO in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave. Other recent compositions include a piano concerto for Yuja Wang, with which he and the Louisville Orchestra made their Deutsche Grammophon debuts on her Grammy-winning March 2023 release, The American Project; and Space Variations, composed for Universal Music Group’s 2022 World Sleep Day. This season, Abrams premiered ALI, a musical about Muhammad Ali; and—as part of the Emerson Collective Fellowship—an orchestral work that tells the story of the state of Kentucky.

Mariana is a conductor, vocalist, and composer from Mexico City. She grew up in both State College, Pennsylvania and Morelia, Michoacán, where her family currently resides.

Mariana is a Conducting Fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music studying with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Jim Ross and assisting various orchestras and Curtis Opera productions. Learn more

Acclaimed for its “otherworldly ensemble and professional level of sophistication” (New York Times), the Curtis Symphony Orchestra offers a dynamic showcase of tomorrow’s exceptional young talent. Each year the 100 extraordinary musicians of the orchestra work with internationally renowned conductors, including Osmo Vänskä, Vladimir Jurowski, Marin Alsop, Simon Rattle, Robert Spano, and Yannick Nézet Séguin, who also mentors the early-career conductors who hold Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellowships. This professional training has enabled Curtis alumni to assume prominent positions in America’s leading orchestras, as well as esteemed orchestral, opera, and chamber ensembles around the world.