Q&A with Teddy Abrams

American conductor, pianist and composer Teddy Abrams returns to the Minnesota Orchestra—after his debut last season alongside pianist Yuja Wang—on December 31 and January 1 to conduct a festive all-American program celebrating the New Year. A native of California and protegee of former longtime San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, Abrams is currently in his 12th season as music director of the Louisville Orchestra. Since his arrival, Abrams and the ensemble have garnered national headlines (and a 2024 Grammy) for an all-in approach in engaging new audiences with innovative programming, collaborations with a diverse array artists and performances all across the state of Kentucky, including at Mammoth Cave National Park with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and bass-baritone Davóne Tines. He graciously took some time away from the conductor's podium and his composing desk to answer our questions as we prepare to welcome him back to Orchestra Hall.

What can you tell us about the program you’re conducting here for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day?

I love that it’s a New Year’s program, first of all, and it’s also a full program—not a Viennese-style waltz concert.

It’s a great way to bring in 2026, the 250th anniversary of the country. I think that this is a perfect example of multiple generations of American composers that all contemplated their relationship to the music people already know and love. So you’ll hear references to lots of different styles.

Agnegram by Michael Tilson Thomas was a gift for one of the great arts philanthropists in San Francisco, named Agnes Albert. It’s a play on the word anagram and her name, Agnes. She was one of the primary forces behind the youth orchestra in San Francisco—that’s where I got my start playing in orchestra. So, Michael wrote this as a present for her. If it hadn’t been for her, there would have been no San Francisco Youth Orchestra, which is where I basically learned everything about orchestral music as a kid.

Timo Andres’ piece is extraordinary. He’s one of my favorite living composers. I’ve known him for nearly 20 years…he’s just spectacular. His piano concerto Made of Tunes is a masterpiece. He’s using strands of core American populist music or hymns and other folk music that defines our country. This is a landmark piece of music. I have yet to hear a piece by him that I didn’t love. Aaron Diehl is one of the most compelling artists that crosses between jazz and classical music, and this was really written and tailored for him.

The Bernstein and Copland are classics. On the Town is what made Bernstein a household name, which he never would have achieved if he had stuck to the narrow lane of conducting. Copland’s Billy the Kid is one of the pieces that allowed Copland to translate American music directly into the concert hall. It was so funny that of all people, Aaron Copland was the one that made the music that sounds like the Wild West or the Appalachian Mountains. His life and background had nothing to do with that. You get this picture of the vastness of the American landscape, things he didn’t grow up with, and yet he was able to depict it when you experience the music. It’s a great way to ring in 2026.

What are some of the lessons you remember most from your time working with Michael Tilson Thomas?

Michael is one of the most inspiring and complete artists that I’ve ever met. I was very lucky that I got to work with him from a very early age. I first met him because I wrote him a letter and I asked if I could get conducting lessons after seeing him conduct the very first time I’d ever been to an orchestral concert. I was so fascinated with the idea of becoming a conductor that I wrote him this long letter, and I was only 9 years old and didn’t expect much of a response. But he wrote me back and gave me advice that I think about to this day, and it was from that act of initial generosity that I think my entire musical life kind of unfolded.

And that was a really rather striking example of that kind of generosity that’s emblematic of his work. Michael is not only an amazing conductor, of course, but he’s also a great composer. But also perhaps of equal importance, or maybe even greater importance in the end, he’s one of the most influential educators in American musical history. He has inspired so many people through his teaching through New World Symphony, which is the most important training orchestra in the world. He founded that, and that’s eventually where I ended up after I completed my studies.

What was it like composing the music for Ali, the Muhammad Ali musical set to debut on Broadway?

I’ve been working on Ali since 2016. I started writing the original piece then, and it first emerged as a kind of oratorio with staging and poetry—almost like a pageant about Ali’s life. It was not modern musical theater, but it also wasn’t a typical orchestral piece. It lives somewhere in between. I called it immersive music because it was something theatrical, but also musically centered. And then we went through a long and complicated winding road where we ended up turning that into a full musical. But in the process, basically starting from scratch because book musicals that made it to Broadway have certain distinguishing features, but also have to adhere to certain elements of form and format to make them successful. So we’ve been working on it for years and hopefully it comes to Broadway soon.

You’re also known for working in a variety of non-classical genres—who are some of your non-classical musical idols?

This is such a hard question…it’s impossible because I don’t really discriminate with genre. Around the time I went to Curtis, I had very influential teachers who encouraged me to explore improvisation, which led to a lot of realizations and uncoverings of my own musical tastes and interests. I never really allowed myself to play nonclassical music until I got to Curtis, which is ironic, because Curtis is maybe the most typically traditional kind of music conservatory.

 And that’s when I started learning jazz, which led to playing everything from bluegrass to rock and rap and I loved it. But really,  I have been so excited to learn from the best and have access to the best performers in any genre. Some of the people I really admire who are working today, people like Chris Thile is a really good friend of mine and we’ve worked together. Cory Henry, who I think is one of the great keyboard players. Also, Rhiannon Giddens, who straddles a lot of different genres.

Living in Kentucky, we’ve done a lot of work with people in bluegrass and Americana styles and that’s an amazing experience. Some of the people that we’ve worked with are not necessarily famous. I’ve gotten to know a lot of musicians in eastern Kentucky in particular. They aren’t on the major circuit, but you will not hear more authentic music than you will by going to find them and just listen to what they have to offer with their longstanding traditions, and that’s a beautiful thing.

You took home a 2024 Grammy (alongside Yuja Wang and the Louisville Orchestra) for your work on “The American Project.” What was that like for you and the musicians of the Orchestra?

First of all, we were very, very lucky in so many ways. But primarily to get to collaborate with Yuja and for her to want to play this piece that I wrote for her under challenging circumstances. We recorded back during COVID in 2022 so it was tough and musicians were [getting sick] left and right. The musicians were somewhat distanced and spread all over the place in ways that are not terribly amenable for great recordings. So we had a lot of challenging circumstances, some uphill battles, but it was a labor of love. It was, I think, Yuja’s first concerts back with a major orchestra. She’d kind of taken some time off during COVID and this was her grand return to the stage. There were a lot of elements at play and I was just happy that we were able to get through the performances.

When we ended up making a recording and releasing it on DG and getting a Grammy, that was all just really lovely extras, but I was just happy that the piece was born at all. Louisville is a much smaller town than Minneapolis and so we don’t have any professional sports teams, we have college sports. But the orchestra has this place right now in the city where people are cheering it on, they take it really seriously. They’re very proud of the orchestra because of their accomplishments, especially in these last couple of years, there have been a lot of things that have grabbed national attention that we’ve been doing. And so when we got a Grammy, it almost felt like we won a Super Bowl or something like that. Everybody felt ownership over the success of the orchestra.

What excites you about the future of orchestras in this country?

Well, we’re used to people generally complaining about the state of orchestras. We’ve gotten so conditioned that we’re going to just start renumerating all the issues and listing all the challenges. And I think what excites me is that I’m seeing a lot of really smart and creative work going on at orchestras that I think could unlock possibilities for the future. But we have to get into a winning and confident mindset in order for those to work long term.

We’ve gotten really good in the arts, but especially at orchestras, to feel like we’re just one bad month away from a total disaster, one musicians contract away from a strike. This is a terrible way to think! It makes everything miserable, as a genre, and it doesn’t empower the community. It certainly doesn't empower the orchestra itself. I think there are opportunities here for orchestras to consider how members of the orchestra itself can think about the longevity of their careers. We’ve often thought about their employment starting the day they win the job and then they’re on their own.

We don’t really take care of them or think about them as creative agents. What I think can be the real game-changer for American orchestras is if they can start thinking of the orchestra as a collective of people that offer different talents and capacities and different ways of relating to the community, and then offering them a chance to explore those paths as individuals in addition to a collective. This next era is going to depend on musicians all finding their value within the community and expressing the things they have to offer as people, not just as a body of musicians. I’m really interested in what that might look like.

This is cutting-edge because it does bring into question a lot of assumptions about what orchestras are…but a lot of times those are just assumptions nobody’s ever talked about in public. The time has come because orchestras can really matter.