Michelle Cann, photo by Titilayo Ayangade
(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Two-time GRAMMY® Award winner Michelle Cann, lauded champion of Florence Price's music, displays her versatility performing repertoire of the mid-Romantic period at Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) concerts February 7-8, 2026. She will perform Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16 on a program with 2024 GRAMMY® recipient Jessie Montgomery's Records from a Vanishing City and Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36. Kenneth T. Bean conducts both performances at Richardson Auditorium.
Bean says, "Michelle Cann and I first worked together years ago as teaching artists, and it's been inspiring to watch her artistic journey unfold. To now share the stage with her at this moment in her career is deeply meaningful, and I'm thrilled to collaborate with such an extraordinary musician."
Michelle Cann is one of the most sought-after artists of her generation. Recent engagements include appearances with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, among others. She is a recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence and the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, and she served as the inaugural Christel DeHaan Artistic Partner of the American Piano Awards. Cann's 2025-26 season includes appearances with the Colorado Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, and Ireland's National Symphony Orchestra. She also performs the world premiere of a new piano concerto by Valerie Coleman with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. Her acclaimed debut solo album Revival was released in 2023. Her recording of Florence Price's Piano Concerto in One Movement with the New York Youth Symphony won a GRAMMY® Award in 2023 for Best Orchestral Performance. She won a GRAMMY® Award in 2025 for Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price.
Kenneth T. Bean (shown above) has built a reputation for inspiring musicians and audiences alike through dynamic performances and a deep commitment to artistic excellence. Currently, Kenneth serves as the Georg and Joyce Albers-Schonberg Assistant Conductor of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, where his responsibilities include leading the Symphonic Orchestra of the Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey. He also currently serves as assistant conductor of Symphony in C where he co-directed the Symphony in C Summer Music Camp and served as the founding music director of the Symphony in C Youth Orchestra, leading the ensemble from its inception in 2014 through the 2023–24 season. Kenneth has collaborated with some of the country's most esteemed musicians, including violinist Jennifer Koh, cellist Thomas Mesa, Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim, and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Principal Trumpet Billy Hunter. His guest conducting engagements have included appearances with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Symphony in C, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Oberlin Sinfonietta and the American Repertory Ballet, where he conducted the world premiere of Ethan Stiefel's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Jessie Montgomery's Records from a Vanishing City is a tone poem based on the composer's recollections of the music that surrounded her as she grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side in the 1980s and 1990s. Edvard Grieg's romantic Piano Concerto is the only concerto Grieg completed, and is among his most popular works. Ludwig van Beethoven omitted the then conventional minuet from his Second Symphony, revealing a lighter side with humorous motifs in the scherzo and final movement.
Michelle Cann will join Kenneth Bean in conversation at the February 8 pre-concert talk at 3:00pm, free to Sunday ticket holders, with general seating in Richardson Auditorium's orchestra section.
Single tickets start at $40; youths 5-17 receive a 50% discount with an adult purchase. There are also cost-saving ticket packages and discount programs in place. For more information, visit the Princeton Symphony Orchestra website at princetonsymphony.org or call 609-497-0020.
Accessibility: The Princeton Symphony Orchestra is committed to ensuring all programming is accessible for everyone, working with venues such as Richardson Auditorium to provide needed services. Contact Mika Godbole for questions about available services at [email protected] or (609) 905-0931. Note: some services require at least two weeks' notice to arrange.
Programs, artists, dates, and times are subject to change.
The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is a cultural centerpiece of the Princeton community and one of New Jersey's finest music organizations, a position established through performances of beloved masterworks, innovative music by living composers, and an extensive network of educational programs offered to area students free of charge. Led by Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov, the PSO presents orchestral, pops, and chamber music programs of the highest artistic quality, supported by lectures and related events that supplement the concert experience. Its flagship summer program the Princeton Festival brings an array of performing arts and artists to Princeton during multiple weeks in June. Through PSO BRAVO!, the orchestra produces wide-reaching and impactful education programs in partnership with local schools and arts organizations that culminate in students attending a live orchestral performance. The PSO receives considerable support from the Princeton community and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, regularly garnering NJSCA's highest honor. Recognition of engaging residencies and concerts has come from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the PSO's commitment to new music has been acknowledged with an ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and a Copland Fund Award. The only independent, professional orchestra to make its home in Princeton, the PSO performs at historic Richardson Auditorium on the campus of Princeton University.
