Cellist Jan Vogler and Poet Amanda Gorman Perform at Carnegie Hall

The two acclaimed artists will present J.S. Bach’s solo cello suites with poetry on February 17, 2024

Presented by Dorn Music, the Presidential inaugural poet and bestselling author Amanda Gorman and internationally acclaimed cellist Jan Vogler will perform together for the first time at Carnegie Hall on February 17, 2024.

Offering a message of hope and humanity, Gorman will be reading her work as Vogler performs the first, third, and fifth of J.S. Bach’s solo cello suites. 

A graduate of Harvard University and the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, Gorman is an advocate for the environment, racial equality, and gender justice. 

Her activism and poetry have been featured on the Today Show, PBS Kids, and CBS This Morning, and in The New York Times, Vogue, and Essence. In 2017, she was appointed the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate by Urban Word.

Vogler has performed with the New York Philharmonic, plus the Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Montréal Symphony Orchestras, among others. He has collaborated with conductors including Andris Nelsons, Fabio Luisi, Sir Antonio Pappano, Valery Gergiev, Omer Meir Wellber, Manfred Honeck, and Kent Nagano.

An exclusive Sony Classical artist since 2003, his recording of Bach’s solo cello suites won an Echo Klassik award in 2013. Vogler is also director of the Dresden Music Festival and artistic director of the Moritzburg Festival.

“I grew up reading poetry, and have played the music of Bach for nearly my entire life, reveling for many years in the universal appeal of his captivating Cello Suites,” Vogler said in a press release. “To collaborate with Amanda and to see how her wonderful poems change my interpretation of Bach’s music is a great joy. I can’t wait to share the results of this extraordinary inspiration.” 

“Like many people, Bach’s music captures my heart and my imagination,” Gorman expressed. “To be in dialogue with it, and with Jan and his cello — a Stradivarius that was made around the time that Bach wrote this music — is to touch something timeless.”

“I am elated that Dorn Music will be bringing together these two incredible artists around the eternal music of Bach and Ms. Gorman’s contemporary poetry in this very special evening,” added Tanja Dorn, president and CEO of presenter Dorn Music. “We are so honored to be presenting Ms. Gorman in her Carnegie Hall debut and to be helping to bring this collaboration to life.”