U.S. 1 interviews Music Director Xian Zhang about NJ arrival
On the eve of Xian Zhang’s debut concerts as NJSO Music Director, U. S. 1 shares an extensive interview with the Orchestra’s new artistic leader:
Both of Zhang’s parents are pianists. Her father also plays the clarinet and violin and used to be a violin maker. Since neither of them learned to play a Chinese instrument, their musical activity was stymied during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in China during the 1970s, when urban sophisticates were sent to the countryside. While Zhang says she was exposed to Chinese music history and folk music in school, her musical training began with piano studies with her mother on an instrument built by her father.
In the weeks after moving to the U.S., Zhang tucked in a stint in the United Kingdom, where she begins a three-year appointment as principal guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales (NOW). She makes her first official appearance at the NJSO in a batch of [all-Tchaikovsky] concerts running from Thursday to Sunday, October 27 to 30 ... Her second appearance occurs a week later [and features works by Beethoven, Haydn and Strauss]. ...
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Zhang’s balance [of repertoire] considers the needs of listeners, the use of the orchestra, and the range of the repertoire ... “I want each program to have a high impact on listeners. I want them to feel that they loved the pieces programmed, and to say ‘I have to come back and hear more.’ I like to choose pieces that were not done recently.”
...In rehearsal Zhang models her tactics after Lorin Maazel, conductor of the New York Philharmonic, where she held a succession of positions for half a dozen years beginning in 2002. “My mind constantly processes, even while I’m conducting,” she says. “You have to stay sharp and really focus. Then you have to communicate very clearly. I’m sure this applies to any sort of leadership. Maazel planned rehearsal time by seconds because he had such a clear conception of how to improve a performance. It was not just a matter of repeating.”
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With her active roles in three orchestras on two continents, Zhang has scarce unscheduled time. Yet on a recent Sunday in New Jersey, when she had no scheduled duties with the NJSO, Zhang attended a New Brunswick concert in order to experience the sound at the State Theater. “It was a case study,” she says. “The musicians love the State Theater and Richardson Auditorium in Princeton because they can hear each other well while performing. I find it very useful to listen when I’m not conducting ...”
Asked earlier what she does with her spare time, Zhang had said that she likes to spend it with her family. “I like to do anything very simple because I work so much and travel so much. I’m happy just to take a child to school.”
» Read the full story at www.princetoninfo.com
Music Director Xian Zhang in the news
» U.S. 1 interviews Xian Zhang about NJ arrival
» The Times of Trenton previews Xian Zhang’s Music Director debut
» The Star-Ledger interviews Zhang ahead of music director debut
» Listen: WWFM interviews Music Director Xian Zhang
» The New York Times anticipates debut of ‘charismatic’ Xian Zhang
» U.S. 1 previews arrival of ‘vibrant’ Xian Zhang
» The Star-Ledger features NJSO in fall arts preview
» Princeton Magazine features Xian Zhang on September cover
» Newark Happening: Xian Zhang to debut as NJSO Music Director
» #TBT: ‘Xian Zhang burst onto the stage like a firecracker’
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Watch a behind-the-scenes “State of the Arts” feature on Zhang and her NJSO arrival, filmed during her week with the Orchestra in April:
» Read press and see highlights from Zhang’s April week with the Orchestra
Xian Zhang’s debut concerts as NJSO Music Director
Zhang conducts a trio of Tchaikovsky scores—Symphony No. 5, Piano Concerto No. 1 and Polonaise from Eugene Onegin—October 27–30 in Newark, Princeton, New Brunswick and Morristown. Pianist Simon Trpčeski joins the Orchestra for Tchaikovsky’s concerto.
She leads a program featuring Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, Haydn’s Symphony No. 102 and Adagio from Piano Trio No. 40 and Strauss’ Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, November 3–6 in Englewood and Newark. The Beethoven concerto features NJSO Concertmaster Eric Wyrick, Principal Cello Jonathan Spitz and pianist Pedja Muzijevic.
» View concert details and purchase tickets