New Jersey Symphony opens season with Beethoven’s “Emperor” & Schubert’s “Great”
NEWARK, NJ—The New Jersey Symphony opens its 2026–27 season October 23–25 with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor,” and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, “The Great.”
Music Director Xian Zhang conducts the Opening Weekend performances, which launches her 11th season with the orchestra. Pianist George Li, silver medalist at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, returns as soloist.
Beethoven breaks with convention from the first bars, giving the soloist a cadenza at the outset instead of near the end. The slow movement, which Hector Berlioz called “the very image of grace,” flows without pause into a jubilant finale. The “Emperor” nickname wasn’t Beethoven’s; it came later, inspired by the music’s grandeur.
Schubert modeled the “Great” on the vast scale of Beethoven’s Ninth, which had premiered in Vienna the year before he began it. Bold choices, including trombones in all four movements and a scherzo expanded well beyond the usual compact dance, give Schubert’s “Great” an unmistakable voice.
On Saturday, October 24, Symphony musicians will host an Instrument Discovery Zone in the lobby of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) at 6:30 pm. Concertgoers can try playing instruments themselves before the performance.
Opening Weekend: Beethoven’s “Emperor” & Schubert’s “Great”
Friday, October 23, 7:30 pm | Richardson Auditorium in Princeton
Saturday, October 24, 7:30 pm | New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark
Sunday, October 25, 2 pm | State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick
Xian Zhang conductor
George Li piano
New Jersey Symphony
Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”
Franz Schubert Symphony No. 9 in C Major, “The Great”
Tickets are available at njsymphony.org.
These performances are sponsored by Greenberg Traurig, LLC and PNC.
Xian Zhang
2026/7 sees GRAMMY® and Emmy Award-winning conductor Xian Zhang embark on her second season as Music Director of the Seattle Symphony and her eleventh season as Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony. She was also recently appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the China NCPA Orchestra in Beijing, and serves as Conductor Emeritus of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, having been their Music Director from 2009-2016.
Her Deutsche Grammophon recording of works by Jennifer Higdon and Kevin Puts with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Time For Three won GRAMMY® awards in 2022 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Classical Instrumental Solo, and her two mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards were for the New Jersey Symphony’s concert films made during the pandemic. Her first recording for Seattle Symphony Media, an album of orchestral works by the Chinese-French composer Qigang Chen, was released in August 2026.
2026/27 guest-conducting highlights include the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony and Sao Paulo Symphony. In Europe, Zhang will be appearing with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, RSB Berlin and the Orchestre national de Belgique.
Other recent highlights have included return visits to The Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Montreal Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra Ottawa, and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic which included a performance at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Zhang’s recent opera credits include Madama Butterfly and Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Tosca for the Finnish National Opera.
Zhang previously served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the first female conductor to hold a titled role with a BBC orchestra. She was also the first woman to hold a Music Director position with a major Italian orchestra, and the first woman to serve as Music Director of a major symphony orchestra on the US west coast.
Zhang originally won a place to study piano, and subsequently conducting, at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She won first prize in the Maazel-Vilar Conducting Competition in 2002 and was appointed the New York Philharmonic’s Assistant Conductor, subsequently becoming their Associate Conductor and the first holder of the Arturo Toscanini Chair. In 2023, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by The Juilliard School and in 2026 was elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
George Li
Praised by the Washington Post for combining “staggering technical prowess, a sense of command and depth of expression,” pianist George Li has earned international acclaim for performances that unite virtuosity with intellectual curiosity, poetic imagination, and expressive depth. At the center of his artistry is a search for the dramatic and emotional architecture within every work, informed by a belief that musical interpretation begins with a close reading of the score. Since winning the Silver Medal at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, Li has rapidly established a major international reputation and performs regularly with some of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, such as Dudamel, Gaffigan, Gergiev, Gimeno, Honeck, Orozco-Estrada, Petrenko, Robertson, Pintscher, Slatkin, Temirkanov, Tilson Thomas, Long Yu, and Xian Zhang.
Highlights of the 2026–27 season include return engagements with the Kansas City, Rogue Valley, New Jersey, Utah, and Seattle Symphonies and the Boston Philharmonic, as well as debuts with Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música in Portugal and Solistes Européens Luxembourg. His recital schedule includes appearances in Cupertino and Aliso Viejo, California, and in fall 2026 he joins the Houston Ballet for Sons de L'âme in Costa Mesa.
Since his success at the Tchaikovsky Competition, Li has appeared with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the New York, Los Angeles, London, Rotterdam, Oslo, and St. Petersburg Philharmonics; the Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas, Cincinnati, Minnesota, Montreal, Houston, Nashville, Sydney, and Tokyo symphony orchestras; and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National de Lyon, and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège. International tours have included performances with the Mariinsky Orchestra throughout Europe, the United States, and Russia, the Moscow Philharmonic in Germany, and the Asian Youth Orchestra across China, Japan, and Hong Kong.
As a recitalist, Li approaches each program as a carefully considered artistic journey rather than a succession of individual works. Influenced by his background in English literature, he is drawn to uncovering the relationships, dramatic tensions, and expressive threads that connect works across composers, styles, and eras. His programs seek to reveal fresh perspectives on familiar repertoire while inviting audiences into a broader musical narrative. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie, the Mariinsky Theatre, the Louvre, Davies Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Seoul Arts Center, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Shanghai Poly Theatre, and other major venues throughout Europe and Asia. Festival appearances include the Edinburgh International Festival, Verbier Festival, Ravinia Festival, Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence, and the Montreux Festival. An active chamber musician, he has collaborated with Benjamin Beilman, Noah Bendix-Balgley, James Ehnes, Daniel Hope, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Kian Soltani, and the Dover and Brentano Quartets.
Li records for Warner Classics. His debut recital album, recorded live at the Mariinsky Theatre, was released in 2017, winning the Opus Klassik award for Soloist Recording of the Year. His second recording paired Liszt's solo works with Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, recorded live with Vasily Petrenko and the London Philharmonic, and was released in 2019. His third album with the label, “Movements” was released in the summer of 2024 to critical acclaim and includes solo dance suites by Schumann, Ravel and Stravinsky.
Li gave his first public performance at Boston's Steinway Hall at the age of ten and, in 2011, performed for President Barack Obama at the White House during an evening honoring Chancellor Angela Merkel. His honors include the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gilmore Young Artist Award, and First Prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. A graduate of Harvard University and the New England Conservatory, Li studied English literature alongside music while pursuing a longstanding mentorship with Wha Kyung Byun, whose influence shaped his thoughtful and deeply considered approach to musical interpretation. Outside of music, Li enjoys reading, photography, and following sports.
New Jersey Symphony
The New Jersey Symphony is a GRAMMY and Emmy Award-winning orchestra. Under the direction of Music Director Xian Zhang, the Symphony performs more than 55 concerts each season at mainstage venues, as well as in schools and public spaces. Programming at the Symphony reflects an unwavering commitment to diverse communities of New Jersey, while providing students with unparalleled opportunities to achieve musical excellence through its Youth Orchestra and other education programs. The Symphony is embarking on an expansion into Jersey City, with a new, permanent office, rehearsal, and concert space called the Symphony Center.
For more information about the New Jersey Symphony, visit njsymphony.org or our newsroom for photos and press releases.
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ganderson@njsymphony.org
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