NJSO announces 2017–18 season
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Xian Zhang announce the Orchestra’s classical, pops and family programs for the 2017–18 season, Zhang’s second as the Orchestra’s critically acclaimed artistic leader. The NJSO brings a diverse range of compelling programs to six venues across the Garden State, with highlights including classical masterworks, a Winter Festival celebrating foreign artists and composers who found creative inspiration on America’s welcoming shores, film-with-orchestra presentations of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and music- and comedy-filled performances with Tony Award-winning star Jason Alexander.
Fulfilling its mission as a statewide orchestra, the NJSO performs subscription concerts in Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, Morristown, Red Bank and Englewood, with 14 weeks of subscription classical programs, five pops weekends and two family programs, as well as special concerts.
Zhang’s programming for her second season as NJSO Music Director seeks to deepen her connection with the Orchestra—a relationship press have praised since the conductor’s first appearance on New Jersey stages. The artistic leader expands upon her vision for the Orchestra by incorporating a diverse range of voices, from Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concertos to works by contemporary Chinese and Finnish composers. She continues to shape the NJSO’s sonic identity through core repertoire, with multiple works by Beethoven and Russian masters.
Underscoring her belief in bringing new works to NJSO audiences, Zhang conducts not only a world premiere by American composer Richard Danielpour, but also standard works of the canon from Respighi and Prokofiev that the Orchestra has not previously performed.
The “America, Inspiring” Winter Festival—the season’s incarnation of the Orchestra’s signature artistic event—celebrates foreign artists and composers whose experiences connect them to the nation’s legacy as a source of inspiration and beacon of ideals for people from all over the world.
Zhang’s own experiences in the United States, first as a conducting student and now as a dual Chinese-American citizen, inspired the Festival. She says: “We will be celebrating composers who came to America and found their musical voices flourishing, just like I did when I came to study music in the United States. I look forward to conducting a piece from the very first program I performed with the NJSO in January 2010—Respighi’s Pines of Rome.”
Zhang conducts 10 programs in the 2017–18 season, including the Orchestra’s annual performances of Handel’s Messiah. The conductor has electrified in her first season as NJSO Music Director, bringing “not just skill but also heart” (The Star-Ledger) to her performances. The New York Times praises Zhang for both her skills at the podium and her chemistry with the Orchestra: “[Zhang] showed complete command of these scores and a deep feeling for them … [The performance] spoke to meticulous preparation by Ms. Zhang, but also to a certain freedom and risk-taking on the part of the players that suggested an enthusiastic and confident response to her direction.”