Robert Moody’s Landmark 2025: Debuts with Philadelphia, Cincinnati, San Francisco & Hong Kong Philharmonic
Dear Friends,
This is a year unlike any other in my career.
In the span of just a few months, I will make my debut with four major orchestras — the Cincinnati Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. These invitations are deeply humbling, yes — but more than that, they represent a moment of artistic convergence.
Thirty-five years of conducting…decades of programming, dreaming, grieving, and growing…all leading to this.
Let me share what each of these engagements means to me — not just professionally, but personally.
MAY FESTIVAL
MAY FESTIVAL CHORUS
CINCINNATI SYMPHONY
May 24, 2025
This debut feels like destiny. I studied choral conducting at Eastman. I’ve never lost my reverence for the human voice — it’s the instrument that shaped me. I first sat in the audience at Cincinnati’s May Festival in the early 1990s to watch the great Robert Shaw conduct the Berlioz Requiem. That night changed my life.
Now, to stand on that podium myself, conducting the May Festival Chorus and collaborating once again with the luminous Renée Fleming — it's a kind of spiritual full circle. We’re presenting Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, the song cycle she created with National Geographic, a work that speaks urgently to our planet and our place within it. The second half, filled with grand choral works, is an offering — from the deepest part of who I am as a musician.
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
July 23, 2025
I’ve long admired this orchestra for its fearless artistry. In a sense, it feels like a homecoming — I first watched Michael Tilson Thomas rehearse here years ago, wide-eyed and hungry to learn. Now, I return as a peer, bringing a program that stretches the boundaries of American symphonic music.
We’ll perform Silicon Hymnal, a piece I recently premiered, written by my dear friend Mason Bates and performed by the phenomenal trio Time for Three. This is music that fuses orchestral grandeur with the pulse of electronica — trance, hip hop, ethereal texture. It is now. The program then travels through Christopher Theofanidis’ transcendent Rainbow Body, and culminates with Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story — a composer who, frankly, made this kind of innovation possible.
This isn’t just a concert. It’s a living thread — connecting legacy to invention, tradition to imagination.
PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
August 15, 2025
When I got the call, I grinned like a kid. This orchestra — with its unmistakable, burnished sound and its legendary legacy — is one of the crown jewels of American music. And now I get to be part of that story.
Here, again, I’ll conduct Renée Fleming in Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene, and we’ll also share “A Letter from Sullivan Ballou,” a heart-rending setting of a Civil War soldier’s final words to his wife. I never tire of programming it — it breaks your heart open and heals it in the same breath.
But beyond the program, what moves me most is the music-making itself. I no longer use a baton — I conduct with my breath, my eyes, my hands. With orchestras like Philadelphia, it’s like dancing with a partner who knows your every move. The result? Pure poetry.
HONG KONG PHILHARMONIC
October 24-25, 2025
This debut carries profound personal and professional meaning.
When I last conducted in Shenzhen, I remember gazing across the harbor toward Hong Kong and thinking, Someday. That someday is now. And it’s not just about geography — it’s about the message I’m bringing with me.
This program marks the Asian premiere of Voice of Nature with Renée Fleming, a work that has followed us from Philadelphia to Cincinnati to the other side of the world. To present it in a city that so uniquely bridges Eastern and Western traditions feels more than appropriate — it feels vital. It’s a musical reflection on climate, legacy, and the fragile beauty of our shared planet.
In the second half, I’ll collaborate with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Chorus in a celebration of choral music — a part of my musical DNA that always reawakens my spirit.
A PERSONAL NOTE…
Many of you know that I lost my husband Jimmy just over a year ago. It shattered me. And it transformed me.
Since then, I’ve approached music not as an exercise in control or achievement, but as a ritual of authenticity — of vulnerability. Every time I step onto the podium now, I carry him with me. Every gesture, every breath, every phrase is rooted in a deeper well of feeling than I ever thought possible.
And so these four debuts — they’re not just milestones. They’re memorials. They’re declarations of joy. They are, I hope, moments of healing — for me, and maybe, for the audiences who join me.
Thank you for being part of this journey. I hope to see you along the way — in the hall, or in the quiet moments between.
Warmly,
Robert
JOIN ME
These aren’t just concerts. They are invitations to share in something sacred, something live and unrepeatable. I’d love for you to be part of it.