Philadelphia Orchestra returns to touring for first time since the start of the pandemic

The Philadelphia Orchestra will dip a toe back into touring this March with its first tour since the start of the pandemic.

It will be a short sojourn, with the ensemble playing a total of four concerts in Iowa City, Iowa; Stillwater, Okla.; and Ann Arbor, Mich., the orchestra announced Wednesday. Podium duties will be shared by principal guest conductor Nathalie Stutzmann and music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The orchestra has toured the U.S. often, and had a particularly devoted fan base in Ann Arbor through nearly 50 years of appearances at the University Musical Society’s May Festival, up until 1984. Recently, it began rekindling its presence in Ann Arbor through the development of a new residency program at the University of Michigan.

Stutzmann will take three of the March 9 to 12 tour concerts with concertmaster David Kim as soloist. Nézet-Séguin will lead the orchestra March 11 at the University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium in a program that includes Wynton Marsalis’s Tuba Concerto. The piece will feature a University of Michigan alumna as soloist: Philadelphia Orchestra principal tubist Carol Jantsch.