The Philadelphia Orchestra Yannick Nézet-Séguin Music Director

Composer, conductor, teacher, writer, thinker—John Adams is an American musical icon. His work—exciting and beautiful—unflinchingly confronts, defines, and embraces contemporary culture. He wrote Scheherazade.2 for the stellar violinist Leila Josefowicz, inspired by an art exhibit about The Tales of the Arabian Nights and Rimsky-Korsakov's original. Josefowicz's solo violin plays the role of a modern Scheherazade. Adams's musical exploration of the present-day struggle of women in a patriarchal society reverses the roles, putting the woman in a position of strength. These lyrical musical threads are further evoked in Ravel's Alborada del gracioso and Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale—signature works by superb composers, and each a showcase for The Philadelphia Orchestra.