New Jersey Symphony Season Finale Concerts: Xian Zhang conducts Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique
NEWARK, NJ—The New Jersey Symphony will present its Season Finale concerts with Music Director Xian Zhang conducting Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Emanuel Ax performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22.
The program opens with the world premiere of Doublespeak from Resident Artistic Partner Allison Loggins-Hull, which will be conducted by Colton Conducting Fellow Gregory D. McDaniel. From the composer: “Doublespeak is a symphonic tone poem in three continuous movements that explores the tension between truth, perception, and language in modern life. The title refers to the manipulation of meaning: language that disguises reality while appearing to state it plainly.”
In February 2025, the Symphony performed the East Coast premiere of Hull’s Can You See?, originally commissioned for the New Jersey Symphony Chamber Players, and later expanded for full orchestra. Now in her second season as Resident Artistic Partner, Allison collaborates with the Symphony’s artistic leadership adding her unique perspective and experiences to the artistic planning process for programming and community events.
The season finale performances take place on Thursday, June 4, at 7 pm at State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick; Friday, June 5, at 7:30 pm at Richardson Auditorium in Princeton; Saturday, June 6, at 7:30 pm at Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank; and Sunday, June 7, at 2 pm at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.
Season Finale: Symphonie fantastique
Thursday, June 4, 7 pm | State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick
Friday, June 5, 7:30 pm | Richardson Auditorium in Princeton
Saturday, June 6, 7:30 pm | Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank
Sunday, June 7, 2 pm | New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark
Xian Zhang conductor
Gregory D. McDaniel conductor (for Allison Loggins-Hull’s Doublespeak)
Emanuel Ax piano
New Jersey Symphony
Tickets are available at njsymphony.org.
Gregory D. McDaniel is the 2025–26 Colton Conducting Fellow, made possible by the generous support of Judy and Stewart Colton.
Xian Zhang
2025–26 marks the GRAMMY and Emmy Award-winning conductor Xian Zhang’s 10th season as Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony, and her inaugural season as the Music Director of the Seattle Symphony with whom she has been a long-term collaborator since her debut in 2008. Zhang has also been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the NCPA Orchestra in Beijing, beginning this season. Following her tenure as Music Director of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano between 2009–16, she continues as their Conductor Emeritus.
With the New Jersey Symphony, Zhang has commissioned composers such as Wynton Marsalis, Jessie Montgomery, Qigang Chen, Chen Yi, Steven Mackey, Thomas Adès, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Christopher Rouse, Vivian Li, Gary Morgan, Christian McBride, Paquito D’Rivera, and Allison Loggins-Hull. She is also responsible for introducing their annual Lunar New Year celebration. Under her artistic leadership, the New Jersey Symphony won two awards at the mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards in 2022 for their concert films, including EMERGE which was conducted by Xian Zhang, directed by Yuri Alves and co-produced with DreamPlay Films.
As a guest conductor, Zhang appears regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Her Deutsche Grammophon recording with the latter (Letters for the Future with Time For Three, released 2022) won GRAMMY awards for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (Kevin Puts’ Contact) and Best Classical Instrumental Solo.
2025–26 highlights include returns to The Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, and National Arts Centre Ottawa. In Europe, she returns to Netherlands Radio Philharmonic with a performance at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and makes her debut at the Finnish National Opera conducting Tosca. This follows her huge success at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she recently conducted Madama Butterfly and Tosca to great acclaim:
“The success of Kurzak’s performance was due in no small part to Xian Zhang’s sensitivity as a conductor. Zhang has an exceptional ear for balance, as well as the ability to draw the softest, most transparent tones imaginable from the orchestra. […] With such skills and obvious audience appeal, Zhang should prove a valuable addition to the Met’s conducting staff.” – New York Classical Review
Other recent highlights include subscription programs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Houston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s (including Brahms Requiem at Carnegie Hall), and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.
Zhang previously served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales, the first female conductor to hold a titled role with a BBC orchestra. In 2002, she won first prize in the Maazel-Vilar Conductor's Competition. She was appointed New York Philharmonic’s Assistant Conductor in 2002, subsequently becoming their Associate Conductor and the first holder of the Arturo Toscanini Chair.
Gregory D. McDaniel
Gregory D. McDaniel is a passionate conductor who is active in many different musical surroundings.
Praised for his “impeccable musicality and technique” (La Presse – Montreal), McDaniel was recently featured in concert with the Orchestre Métropolitain in Québec, conducting Lili Boulanger’s D’un Matin de printemps. Last summer, as a member of the Orchestral Conducting Academy at the Académie du Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, he worked with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec under the tutelage of conductors Thomas Rosner and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
McDaniel led two projects for the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, including their annual African-American Music Gala, which featured a performance of Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater. He also worked with Opera in the Heights as cover conductor and chorus master for their production of La Bohéme, and cover conductor for their production of Hansel and Gretel.
In addition to receiving the Colton Conducting Fellowship with the New Jersey Symphony, McDaniel worked with Opera in the Heights as cover conductor and chorus master for their production of Lucia di Lammermoor. He also conducted the Houston premiere of Laura Kaminsky’s pivotal opera As One for HOPERA.
Past seasons have included leading performances of William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA and Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up for Opera Ithaca. He also had the opportunity to work with the Boise Baroque Orchestra in works by Mozart and Haydn, and he also worked with the Prizm Ensemble in a concert that featured Emmy and GRAMMY Award-winning baritone Reginald Smith, Jr. With the University of North Texas Chamber and Concert Orchestras, McDaniel conducted the works of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Puccini and more.
Some of McDaniel’s past conducting opportunities include working with the Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (TX), the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music Opera Conducting Initiative, and participating in a conducting fellowship with the Allentown Symphony. Past operatic opportunities include various works of Bizet (CCM) and a production of Poulenc’s Dialogue of the Carmelites (EADO in Houston). A native of Houston, TX, Gregory received degrees from the University of North Texas in Orchestral Conducting and the University of Houston in Music Education.
Emanuel Ax
Born to Polish parents in what is today Lviv, Ukraine, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. Mr. Ax made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series, and in 1974 won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975, he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed four years later by the Avery Fisher Prize. Emanuel Ax was recently named the 2026 Musical America Artist of the Year.
In recognition of the 50th anniversary of his first appearance with the orchestra, the 2025–26 season began with The Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on October 31. Fall also included an Asian tour to Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong. Following its world premiere at Tanglewood in summer 2025, the concerto written for him by John Williams had its Boston Symphony subscription debut in January with the New York premiere one month later with the New York Philharmonic. As a guest artist he will return to orchestras in Dallas, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Charleston, Madison, Naples, and New Jersey. In recital he can be heard in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Santa Barbara, Des Moines, Cedar Falls, Schenectady, and Princeton. An extensive European tour will include concerts in Munich, Prague, Berlin, Rome, and Torino.
Mr. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987 and following the success of the Brahms Trios with Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma, the trio launched an ambitious, multi-year project to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies arranged for trio of which the first three discs have been released. He has received GRAMMY Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas. He has also made a series of GRAMMY Award-winning recordings with Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. In the 2004–05 season, Mr. Ax contributed to an International Emmy Award-winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2013, Mr. Ax’s recording Variations received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year (19th Century Music/Piano).
Mr. Ax is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorate of music degrees from Skidmore College, New England Conservatory of Music, Yale University, and Columbia University.
Allison Loggins-Hull
Celebrated as a musical “powerhouse” (The Washington Post), Allison Loggins-Hull is a composer, flutist, and producer whose work defies genre, from symphonic music to film scores, chamber and electronic music. Her music is often resonant with social themes, encompassing reflections on motherhood, Blackness, and identity. In September 2024, Loggins-Hull was appointed Resident Artistic Partner to the New Jersey Symphony for a two-year term during which she will create new works for orchestra and contribute her unique perspective and experiences to the orchestra’s programming and community engagement.
Loggins-Hull's signature compositional style is distinguished by its unique sonic effects that echo contemporary music production techniques. Her works are profoundly influenced by Black American music, creating a vibrant and kaleidoscopic sonic palette. Thematically, her compositions are deeply rooted in the experiences of community, culture, and life, offering a rich and evocative musical narrative. Her artistic reflections on Black stories, music, and experience have led to works aligned with Afrofuturism, a movement that imagines alternate realities and a liberated future viewed through the lens of Black cultures.
Upcoming highlights include performances of her work by the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and at London’s Southbank Centre, and a world premiere commissioned by the New Jersey Symphony as part of her role as the orchestra’s Resident Artistic Partner.
The 2024-2025 season marked Loggins-Hull’s last of three years as the Lewis Composer Fellow with the Cleveland Orchestra. Through programming, commissions, and community engagement, her work with the orchestra focused the narratives and history of Cleveland through the prism of one of the world’s great orchestras, culminating in three world premieres: Can You See? (2023) and Grit. Grace. Glory. (2025), both for full orchestra, and Legacy (2024) for string sextet. In a first for the Lewis Fellow’s quarter century history, Loggins-Hull performed alongside TCO musicians throughout her tenure. Following its world premiere, Grit. Grace. Glory. received its Canadian premiere by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Recent season highlights also include the West Coast Premiere of Loggins-Hull’s flute concerto Rhapsody on a Theme by Joni by the Seattle Symphony with soloist Demarre McGill and performing her own works with members of the orchestra at Raisbeck Music Center’s Octave 9, as well as premieres for The Knights, Third Coast Percussion, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Apollo Chamber Players, and the National Orchestral Institute.
In recent years, Loggins-Hull performed with Lizzo at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards Show® and at the 2023 Met Gala, where she led an ensemble of flutists. As a performer on film scores, Loggins-Hull was co-principal flutist on the soundtracks for Creed III and Disney’s 2019 remake of The Lion King, working closely with Hans Zimmer. Continuing her work in film, Loggins-Hull composed the score for Bring Them Back, a 2019 award-winning documentary about the legendary dancer Maurice Hines directed by Jon Carluccio and executive produced by Debbie Allen.
Born in Chicago, Loggins-Hull lives with her family in Montclair, New Jersey. She is represented by Pink Noise Agency, a BIG Arts Group Company. Allison Loggins-Hull received a 2025 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Learn more at www.allisonloggins.com.
New Jersey Symphony
The New Jersey Symphony is a GRAMMY and Emmy Award-winning orchestra. Under the direction of the Music Director Xian Zhang, the Symphony performs more than 55 concerts at mainstage venues across the state, including Newark, Princeton, New Brunswick, Red Bank and Morristown as well as schools and public spaces statewide. Programming at the Symphony reflects an unwavering commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion while providing students across the state unparalleled opportunities to achieve musical excellence through its Youth Orchestra and other outreach programs. In 2024, the Symphony announced it would continue to deliver its statewide activities from a new, permanent office, rehearsal and concert space in Jersey City, set to open in 2027.
For more information about the New Jersey Symphony, visit njsymphony.org or email information@njsymphony.org. Tickets are available for purchase by phone 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476) or on the Orchestra's website.
Press Contact
Geoffrey Anderson, New Jersey Symphony, Vice President of Marketing & External Affairs
973.735.1713 | ganderson@njsymphony.org
Press materials
Photos and information: njsymphony.org/newsroom
Press releases: njsymphony.org/pressreleases
Connect with us:
njsymphony.org
@NJSymphony on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter
@NewJerseySymphony on YouTube
Email: information@njsymphony.org
The New Jersey Symphony's programs are made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, along with many other foundations, corporations and individual donors.
NJ.com + JerseysBest.com: Proud 2025–26 season partner and media sponsor of the New Jersey Symphony.
###