Fourth Annual Shanghai Orchestra Academy And Residency Partnership Announced

The Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership continues this summer with activities on two continents. The New York Philharmonic travels to Shanghai for its fourth annual residency, July 1-7, 2018, with concerts conducted by Music Director Designate Jaap van Zweden and Bramwell Tovey. This follows students from the Shanghai Orchestra Academy traveling to New York City for a week-long immersion in the life of an orchestral musician, June 9-16, 2018, as part of the New York Philharmonic Global Academy Fellowship Program. Starr International Foundation is the Presenting Sponsor of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership.

Residency in Shanghai, July 1-7, 2018
The New York Philharmonic's fourth annual residency in Shanghai will take place July 1-7, 2018, with four performances; activities associated with the Shanghai Orchestra Academy (SOA), including master classes, lessons, coachings, and a side-by-side rehearsal with the New York Philharmonic joined by SOA students, led by Assistant Conductor Joshua Gersen; and a Very Young Composers workshop and performance. The performances are presented as part of Shanghai's Music in the Summer Air (MISA) festival.

Music Director Designate Jaap van Zweden will open the residency by leading three programs at Shanghai Symphony Hall: Bernstein's Serenade (after Plato's Symposium) with violinist Renaud Capuçon as soloist and Mahler's Symphony No. 5 (July 1, 2018); J. Wagenaar's Cyrano de Bergerac Overture, Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme with cellist Alisa Weilerstein as soloist, and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (July 2, 2018); and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 (July 3, 2018).

Bramwell Tovey will lead a program celebrating Philharmonic Laureate Conductor Leonard Bernstein in the final concert of the residency, July 6, 2018, at Shanghai Symphony Hall. The program will feature Bernstein's Candide Overture, Three Dance Variations from Fancy Free, Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, and Three Dance Episodes from On the Town, as well as Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, with Mr. Tovey leading from the piano. Bernstein championed Rhapsody in Blue, leading the Philharmonic in the work from the piano 37 times. This program complements Bernstein's Philharmonic: A Centennial Festival, October-November 2017, which celebrated the former Philharmonic Music Director and Laureate Conductor on the centennial of his birth.

The New York Philharmonic will also present a Very Young Composers workshop led by Artistic Director, Very Young Composers, Jon Deak; Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Teaching Artists; and musicians from the New York Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. The workshop will culminate in a performance of the Very Young Composers' works on July 7, 2018, at Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's Chamber Hall.

Before the Orchestra's residency begins, New York Philharmonic Principal Flute Robert Langevin will lead the Shanghai Orchestra Academy Flute Festival, in conjunction with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Principal Flute Hu Zhe. Mr. Langevin will lead master classes, present a Q & A with Mr. Hu, and perform a chamber concert with Mr. Hu, Shanghai Orchestra Academy students, and flutists and flute professors from around China on June 29, 2018, at Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's Chamber Hall.

The Shanghai Orchestra Academy will graduate its third class with a graduation ceremony on July 5, 2018, at Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's Chamber Hall featuring Philharmonic President and CEO Deborah Borda and Long Yu as speakers.

New York Philharmonic Global Academy Fellowship Program, June 9-16, 2018
Five students from the Shanghai Orchestra Academy (SOA) have been selected to participate in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy Fellowship Program, a week-long immersion in the life of an orchestral musician, June 9-16, 2018. The students, who are known as Zarin Mehta Fellows, will take lessons with Philharmonic musicians and train and play alongside the Orchestra, led by James Gaffigan, at the Concerts in the Parks, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer. The students are Renchao Yu, violin; Kuan Liu, viola; Fangyu Huang, flute; Yanru Chiu, clarinet; and Sihong Zhao, bassoon. Auditions were held at the Shanghai Orchestra Academy in March 2018 by a panel of New York Philharmonic musicians. Read more about the SOA 2018 Zarin Mehta Fellows here.

About the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership
Launched in September 2014, the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership is a joint endeavor of the New York Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Starr International Foundation is the Presenting Sponsor. The partnership includes annual New York Philharmonic performance residencies in Shanghai, as well as the establishment of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy (SOA), a two-year post-graduate program designed to address the need for advanced orchestral training in China. The SOA is a joint effort of the New York Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in partnership with the Shanghai Conservatory and under the leadership of founding president Long Yu.

Artists
Jaap van Zweden has become an international presence on three continents over the last decade. The 2017-18 season marks a major milestone as he completes his ten-year tenure as music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and simultaneously serves as Music Director Designate of the New York Philharmonic, anticipating his inaugural season, in 2018-19, when he becomes the Orchestra's 26th Music Director. He continues as Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, a post he has held since 2012. Highlights of his 2017-18 season include return engagements to the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Maestro van Zweden is a regular guest conductor with the world's most prestigious ensembles, among them the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In recent seasons, he made his debuts with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras. In the summers of 2017-19, he serves as principal conductor of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra and Gstaad Conducting Academy. His acclaimed recordings include Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal, Britten's War Requiem, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and Petrushka, and the complete Beethoven, Brahms, and Bruckner symphonies. Currently, with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, he has embarked on a four-year project to conduct and record the complete Wagner Ring Cycle for Naxos. A recording of Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic's performances of Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7 was released on CD and for streaming and download in February 2018; the release launched the Philharmonic's partnership with Decca Gold, Universal Music Group's newly established U.S. classical music label. Born in Amsterdam, Jaap van Zweden was the youngest-ever concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He began his conducting career in 1996 and in 2012 was named Musical America's Conductor of the Year. In 1997 he and his wife, Aaltje, established the Papageno Foundation. The Foundation supports families of children with autism.

Grammy and Juno award-winning conductor and composer Bramwell Tovey has been announced as the new principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, taking up his position in January 2018. Mr. Tovey was appointed music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 2000. His exceptional tenure concludes in the summer of 2018. Under his leadership the VSO has toured to China, Korea, across Canada, and the United States. His VSO innovations have included the establishment of the VSO School of Music, of which he is artistic advisor; the VSO's annual festival of contemporary music; and the VSO Orchestral Institute at Whistler, a comprehensive summer orchestral training program for young musicians held in the scenic mountain resort of Whistler in British Columbia. In 2018-19, the VSO's centenary season, he assumes the role of music director emeritus. During 2017-18 his guest appearances include the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Sydney, Melbourne, St. Louis, and Toronto symphony orchestras. He will also debut with the Houston Symphony and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He also led the New York Philharmonic's New Year's Eve 2017 program, Bernstein on Broadway, broadcast on PBS's Live From Lincoln Center. Mr. Tovey was the recipient of the Oskar Morawetz 2015 Prize for Excellence in Music Performance, and appointed an honorary Officer of the Order of Canada for services to music in 2013. He was previously music director of Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, with which he won the Prix d'or of the Academie Lyrique Française for his recording of Jean Cras's 1922 opera Polyphème. Since 2006 he has been artistic director of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. In 2017 he joined the faculty of Boston University, where he teaches conducting and oversees the extensive orchestra program.

French violinist Renaud Capuçon has performed concertos with the Berlin Philharmonic (led by Bernard Haitink and David Robertson), Boston Symphony Orchestra (Christoph von Dohnányi), Orchestre de Paris (Christoph Eschenbach and Paavo Järvi), Philharmonique de Radio France and Filarmonica della Scala (Myung-Whun Chung), Orchestre national de France (Daniele Gatti and Valery Gergiev), and Simon Bolivar Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic (Gustavo Dudamel). Upcoming engagements include the London Symphony Orchestra and Camerata Salzburg.?Mr. Capuçon tours as a solo recitalist and leads from the violin groups such as Camerata Salzburg, Festival Strings Lucerne, and Basel Chamber Orchestra. His chamber music collaborators include Daniel Barenboim, Yefim Bronfman, Yuja Wang, and his brother, cellist Gautier Capuçon, appearing at the Edinburgh, Berlin, Lucerne, Verbier, Aix-en-Provence, Tanglewood, and Salzburg festivals. He is artistic director of the Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence, which he founded in 2013, as well as of the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad. An exclusive Erato/Warner Classics artist, his discography includes his compilation, Le Violon Roi, which received the Disque d'Or, and contemporary concertos by Wolfgang Rihm, Pascal Dusapin, and Bruno Mantovani, which was nominated as best recording by French Victoires de la Musique 2017 and awarded the Echo Klassik Prize. Renaud Capuçon plays the Guarneri del Gesù "Panette" (1737) that belonged to Isaac Stern. He was appointed Chevalier dans l'Ordre National du Mérite and Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur by the French government.

As the MacArthur Foundation noted when awarding her a 2011 MacArthur "genius grant" Fellowship, American cellist Alisa Weilerstein "is a consummate performer, combining technical precision with impassioned musicianship." A familiar face in the world's leading concert halls and with its foremost orchestras, Ms. Weilerstein is one of today's most sought-after classical artists, whose career highlights include a performance at The White House for President and Mrs. Obama. An ardent champion of new music, she has undertaken multiple projects with Osvaldo Golijov and Matthias Pintscher and has premiered works by Lera Auerbach, Pascal Dusapin, and Joseph Hallman. Her extensive discography includes Elgar and Elliott Carter concertos with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin (BBC Music Recording of the Year 2013); Dvo?ák's Cello Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic, which topped the U.S. classical chart; and Solo, a 20th-century compilation featuring the Kodály sonata, which Ms. Weilerstein revisits on the soundtrack of If I Stay, a 2014 feature film in which she makes a cameo appearance as herself. Most recently, she recorded Chopin and Rachmaninov sonatas with pianist Inon Barnatan, her regular recital partner, and Shostakovich concertos with the Bavarian Radio Symphony under Pablo Heras-Casado. Alisa Weilerstein is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and Columbia University. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age nine, she is a celebrity advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.