Star-Ledger interviews Xian Zhang about NJSO concerts
The Star-Ledger writes:
The Zhang Dynasty begins this week.
Or at least we'll be offered a sneak preview.
Technically, Xian Zhang's tenure as the first female Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra doesn't begin until later this year. But this week's concerts mark the Chinese-born conductor's first appearance with the orchestra since the announcement of her appointment last year.
She'll be conducting in Newark at New Jersey Performing Art Center on Thursday and Friday; in Red Bank at the Count Basie Theatre on Saturday; and in Morristown at Mayo Performing Arts Center on Sunday.
In fact, the concerts mark Zhang's first re-appearance on New Jersey soil since November, when she flew across the Atlantic for the unveiling of her appointment.
"I look forward very much to seeing the musicians again," she said last week, in a telephone interview from Milan, where she has been music director of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi since 2009. (She's the first woman to hold such a position in Italy.
"I fly back on Monday and we start rehearsals on Tuesday."
Zhang and the orchestra will be playing a mix of Russian and American music this weekend — a program that will obviously getting a bit more scrutiny than was originally intended.
"We programmed this two years ago — we just thought it was beautiful music. No one thought it would have this much attention at all," she said.
The lineup mixes two Tchaikovsky works (both his "Marche Slave" and dramatic 4th symphony) with Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto.
Zhang says, "I like very much the combination of Tchaikovsky and Barber — they are very lyrical, musically speaking. They each have beautiful melodies — its what those composers are known for — their lovely lines. It will be very romantic in nature."