New York Philharmonic Set for Residencies in Shanghai, Santa Barbara This Summer

In the summer of 2015 the New York Philharmonic will undertake its first performance residencies in Shanghai, as part of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership, and at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. Both collaborations are part of the New York Philharmonic Global Academy, customized collaborations with partners worldwide that offer intensive training of pre-professional musicians by New York Philharmonic members, often, as in these instances, alongside regular performance residencies by the full Orchestra.

Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership

The New York Philharmonic's first of four annual performance residencies in Shanghai will take place July 4-10, 2015, with five concerts, including a Young People's Concert, and activities associated with the Shanghai Orchestra Academy (SOA), including master classes, lessons, and coachings.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct three concerts at the Shanghai Symphony Hall during the Orchestra's residency: an all-American program featuring works by Barber, Copland, Bernstein, Gershwin, and Sousa on July 4, 2015; a Young People's Concert on July 9, 2015, titled Journey to New York and celebrating music composed in and about New York; and a concert featuring Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 14, with Emanuel Ax as soloist, and Mahler's Symphony No. 5 on July 10, 2015. Mr. Gilbert will repeat the all-American program on July 6, 2015, at the Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre. In addition, Charles Dutoit will conduct a concert on July 5, 2015, featuring Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2, with Emanuel Ax as soloist; Stravinsky's Petrushka; and Ravel's La Valse at the Shanghai Symphony Hall. Also during the residency, New York Philharmonic musicians will take part in educational activities and training as part of the SOA.

The four-year Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership, a joint endeavor of the New York Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, was launched in September 2014. In addition to establishing the Shanghai Orchestra Academy (SOA) -- in partnership with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and under the leadership of founding president Long Yu -- the New York Philharmonic will give annual performance residencies in Shanghai through the 2017-18 season. The SOA's inaugural class of 22 students began in the 2014-15 season with two weeks of coaching and master classes, culminating with an opening concert at Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's Chamber Hall featuring musicians from the New York Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Shanghai Orchestra Academy, led by Long Yu. Also in the inaugural season, Philharmonic musicians returned to teach at the SOA in November 2014 and March 2015.

In the 2015-16 season, the partnership's second year, groups of Philharmonic musicians will again travel to Shanghai to train students as part of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy several times over the course of the season. Additionally, for the first time select SOA students will travel to New York City to train and play with New York Philharmonic musicians as Zarin Mehta Fellows, and the full Orchestra will return to Shanghai in the summer of 2016 for the second of its four consecutive summer performance residencies.

Music Academy of the West Partnership

The New York Philharmonic's first performance residency at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara will take place August 1-8, 2015, as part of a four-year partnership that began in the summer of 2014. The Philharmonic will also participate in side-by-side orchestra readings with the Music Academy's Academy Festival Orchestra, and New York Philharmonic musicians will serve as visiting artists and engage in educational activities with Music Academy students.

Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in its debut at the Santa Barbara Bowl on August 3, 2015, featuring an all-American program of works by Barber, Copland, Gershwin, and Sousa, as well as Bernstein's West Side Story Concert Suite No. 1 featuring soprano Julia Bullock and tenor Ben Bliss; the latter is a 2012 alumnus of the Music Academy of the West. In addition, Philharmonic Acting Concertmaster Sheryl Staples, Principal Cello Carter Brey, Principal Clarinet Anthony McGill, Principal Tuba Alan Baer, and Associate Principal Percussion Daniel Druckman will join Music Academy faculty members -- including Philharmonic Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps -- in a chamber music concert that includes the West Coast Premiere of Steve Reich's Quartet for vibraphones and pianos, and works by Ponchielli, Joseph Turrin, and Dohna?nyi, August 4, 2015, at the Lobero Theatre as part of the Music Academy Festival Artists Series.

These five Philharmonic musicians will also serve as visiting artists for one week, August 1-8, 2015, training Music Academy fellows in collaboration with Academy faculty, including through master classes, chamber music coaching sessions, private lessons, and lectures.

Philharmonic Assistant Conductor Courtney Lewis will serve as a guest conductor at the Music Academy, leading an Academy Festival Orchestra concert, on July 18, 2015, at the Granada Theater, spotlighting the winners of the Concerto Competition as well as Barto?k's Concerto for Orchestra.

Alan Gilbert will serve as one of three inaugural Luria Foundation Artists in Residence, part of a program designed to bring noted industry innovators to the Music Academy each summer to teach and perform in multiple areas and disciplines, inspiring creativity and fresh thinking among fellows. Mr. Gilbert will teach a solo piano masterclass at the Academy on August 3, 2015.

The Music Academy of the West is the first American partner in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy. This collaboration combines training of Music Academy fellows by Philharmonic musicians; biennial performances by the Philharmonic at the Music Academy Summer Festival; and Academy Festival Orchestra performances at Music Academy Summer Festivals led by Mr. Gilbert. The partnership began with Alan Gilbert and Philharmonic musicians teaching in Santa Barbara in July 2014; the partnership inaugurated the Global Academy Fellowship Program, through which ten instrumentalists from the Music Academy of the West, selected as Zarin Mehta Fellows through auditions, traveled to New York to train and play with the Philharmonic, January 3-13, 2015. The 2015-16 season activities will include the second visit of Music Academy students traveling to New York as Zarin Mehta Fellows; Philharmonic musicians again serving as visiting artists in collaboration with Academy faculty in Santa Barbara through master classes, chamber music coaching sessions, private lessons, and lectures; and Alan Gilbert returning to conduct the Academy Festival Orchestra. In 2017, in Santa Barbara, the Philharmonic and the Academy Festival Orchestra will perform together, led by Alan Gilbert, to commemorate the Music Academy of the West's 70th anniversary. Twelve New York Philharmonic musicians are alumni of the Music Academy.

Artists:

Music Director Alan Gilbert began his New York Philharmonic tenure in September 2009, the first native New Yorker in the post. He and the Philharmonic have introduced the positions of The Marie-Jose?e Kravis Composer-in-Residence, The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in- Residence, and the Artist-in-Association; CONTACT!, the new-music series; and the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an exploration of today's music by a wide range of contemporary and modern composers inaugurated in spring 2014. As New York magazine wrote, "The Philharmonic and its music director Alan Gilbert have turned themselves into a force of permanent revolution."

In the 2014-15 season Alan Gilbert conducts the U.S. Premiere of Unsuk Chin's Clarinet Concerto, a Philharmonic co-commission, alongside Mahler's First Symphony; La Dolce Vita: The Music of Italian Cinema; Verdi's Requiem; a staging of Honegger's Joan of Arc at the Stake, featuring Oscar winner Marion Cotillard; World Premieres; a CONTACT! program; and Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. He concludes The Nielsen Project -- the multi-year initiative to perform and record the Danish composer's symphonies and concertos, the first release of which was named by The New York Times as among the Best Classical Music Recordings of 2012 -- and presides over the EUROPE / SPRING 2015 tour. His Philharmonic- tenure highlights include acclaimed productions of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, Jana?c?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen, Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson, and Philharmonic 360 at Park Avenue Armory; World Premieres by Magnus Lindberg, John Corigliano, Christopher Rouse, and others; Bach's B-minor Mass and Ives's Fourth Symphony; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey alongside the film; Mahler's Second Symphony, Resurrection, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11; and eight international tours.

Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and principal guest conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra, Alan Gilbert regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. His 2014-15 appearances include the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera, and The Philadelphia Orchestra. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams's Doctor Atomic in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award. Rene?e Fleming's recent Decca recording Poe?mes, on which he conducted, received a 2013 Grammy Award. His recordings have received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. In May 2010 Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and in December 2011, Columbia University's Ditson Conductor's Award for his "exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music." In 2014 he was elected to The American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Captivating audiences throughout the world, Charles Dutoit is one of today's most sought-after conductors, having performed with all the world's major orchestras. Currently artistic director and principal conductor of London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, he recently celebrated his 30-year artistic collaboration with The Philadelphia Orchestra, which named him conductor laureate. He collaborates every season with the orchestras of Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles, and is also a regular guest on stages in London, Berlin, Paris, Munich, Moscow, Sydney, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, among others. His more than 200 recordings for the Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Philips, and Erato labels have garnered multiple awards and distinctions, including two Grammys. For 25 years Mr. Dutoit was artistic director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and from 1991 to 2001 he was music director of the Orchestre National de France. In 1996 he was appointed principal conductor and, soon thereafter, music director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo). For ten years he was music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra's season at the Mann Music Center, and for 21 years he was music director at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Charles Dutoit's interest in the younger generation has always held an important place in his career. He has been music director of the Sapporo Pacific and Miyazaki International music festivals in Japan, as well as at the Canton International Summer Music Academy in Guangzhou. In 2009 he became music director of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. In his early twenties, Mr. Dutoit was invited by Herbert von Karajan to conduct the Vienna Staatsoper. He has since conducted at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as well as at The Metropolitan Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Rome Opera, and Teatro Colo?n in Buenos Aires.

Charles Dutoit was made Honorary Citizen of the City of Philadelphia (in 1991), Grand Officier de l'Ordre national du Que?bec (1995), and Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France (1996), and he was invested as Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada (1998). In 2007 he received the Gold Medal of the city of Lausanne, his birthplace, and in 2014 he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Classical Music Awards. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of McGill, Montreal, Laval, and the Curtis School of Music. A globetrotter motivated by his passion for history and archaeology, political science, art, and architecture, he has traveled to all 196 nations of the world.

Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated violinists of his era. His restless curiosity, passion, and multifaceted musical interests have earned him the rare title of "classical music superstar." Recently named the Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, he is the first person to hold this post since Sir Neville Marriner formed the orchestra in 1958. The ensemble's recording under Mr. Bell's leadership, comprising Beethoven's Fourth and Seventh Symphonies on Sony Classical, made its Billboard Classical chart debut at No. 1. His recording of the Bach violin concertos with the orchestra was released September 29, 2014, to coincide with the airing of the HBO documentary special Joshua Bell: A YoungArts MasterClass. He has recorded more than 40 CDs, garnering Mercury, Grammy, Gramophone, and Echo Klassik awards. Recent releases include Musical Gifts From Joshua Bell and Friends, French Impressions with pianist Jeremy Denk, the eclectic At Home With Friends, the Defiance sound track, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, The Red Violin Concerto, Voice of the Violin, and Romance of the Violin, which Billboard named the 2004 Classical CD of the Year and Bell, Classical Artist of the Year. His discography encompasses critically- acclaimed performances of the major violin repertoire in addition to John Corigliano's Oscar- winning sound track, The Red Violin. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Joshua Bell received his first violin at age four and at twelve he began studying with Josef Gingold at Indiana University. Two years later he came to national attention in his debut with Riccardo Muti and The Philadelphia Orchestra and, at 17, made his Carnegie Hall debut. Mr. Bell's career has now spanned over 30 years as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and conductor, and he is an outspoken advocate for classical music and keeping music education in schools. He performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius.

Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition; he went on to win the Young Concert Artists Michaels Award (1975) and the Avery Fisher Prize (1979). In the 2014-15 season he participates in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's "Celebrate the Piano" festival; a European tour with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Ne?zet-Se?guin; and, throughout the season, returns to the orchestras of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Washington, Nashville, Atlanta, St. Louis, Montreal, and Ottawa. Recitals will take him to Vancouver, San Francisco, and Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, where he also appears in duo with baritone Simon Keenlyside. In Europe he returns to the Berlin Philharmonic; tours to Vienna, Salzburg, Graz, and London performing Schubert's Winterreise with Mr. Keenlyside; and presents both Brahms piano concertos in Amsterdam and Paris with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Bernard Haitink. Other orchestras with which Mr. Ax is also appearing include the London Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, and Zurich Tonhalle orchestras and the Toulouse and Lyon national orchestras. A Grammy-winning artist exclusive to Sony Classical since 1987, Emanuel Ax's most recent release is a recital disc exploring variations by composers including Haydn, Schumann, and Copland. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates from Yale and Columbia Universities. He was named an Honorary Member of the New York Philharmonic on the occasion of his 100th performance with the Orchestra, which he also served for a season as The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in- Residence.

Equally at home with opera and concert repertoire, soprano Julia Bullock won first prizes in the 2012 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the 2014 Naumburg International Vocal Competition. This season, she gives recitals at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston; National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.; and San Francisco Performances; and she appears in the New York Festival of Song's Harlem Renaissance program, the Mondavi Center's Rising Stars of Opera, and as soloist with the New World Symphony. She sang the title role in Purcell's The Indian Queen, directed by Peter Sellars, at the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Perm Opera House in Russia, and reprises the role at English National Opera this season. Ms. Bullock has performed the title roles in the Juilliard Opera productions of Massenet's Cendrillon and Jana?c?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen. She toured South America as Pamina in Peter Brook's award-winning production of Mozart's A Magic Flute, as well as China, singing with the Bard Music Festival Orchestra. Other opera roles include Susanna in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Monica in Menotti's The Medium, and the title role in Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortile?ges. In 2013 she made her San Francisco Symphony debut in Bernstein's West Side Story, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; an album of the concert is available on the orchestra's label. Festival appearances include at the Ojai, Marlboro, and Caramoor festivals. Ms. Bullock earned her bachelor's degree from the Eastman School of Music, and her master's degree from Bard College's Graduate Vocal Arts Program. She is currently pursuing her artist diploma with Edith Bers at The Juilliard School. She will have made her New York Philharmonic debut performing Bernstein's West Side Story Concert Suite No. 1, led by Alan Gilbert in June 2015 during the Concerts in the Parks, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer; she will also perform the work with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic at Bravo! Vail in July 2015.

American tenor Ben Bliss is a recent graduate of The Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. He received the Mozart and Pla?cido Domingo awards at the 2015 Francisco Vin?as International Competition in Barcelona, as well as second place overall. Other honors include receiving First Prize in the 2014 Gerda Lissner and Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation competitions; a Sara Tucker and Sullivan Foundation grant; and being the 2013 Operalia Don Pla?cido Domingo Sr. Zarzuela prizewinner. In the 2015-16 season Mr. Bliss returns to The Metropolitan Opera as Belmonte in Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio, conducted by James Levine, and will make his European debut in the same role with Glyndebourne Festival on tour. He also returns as a principal artist to Los Angeles Opera, where he will appear as Tamino in Mozart's The Magic Flute and make his Santa Fe Opera debut as Flamand in Riachard Strauss's Capriccio. While in the Lindemann program, Ben Bliss made his Met stage debut as Vogelgesang in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nu?rnburg, conducted by Levine. In May 2014 he was tapped to fill in as Ferrando in the Los Angeles Philharmonic's production of Mozart's Cosi? fan tutte led by Gustavo Dudamel. Other recent engagements include Haydn's The Creation at the Cincinnati May Festival, conducted by James Conlon, and Belmonte in The Abduction from the Seraglio at Des Moines Metro Opera. As a member of Los Angeles Opera's Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program, Mr. Bliss appeared in Gounod's Rome?o et Juliette, Barbarigo in Verdi's I due Foscari, and the Male Chorus in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia with the Colburn Orchestra under James Conlon. He has been the tenor soloist for Bach's Magnificat with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion with the La Jolla Symphony; and, in his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut, Bach's Cantata No. 60 conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. He will also perform the work with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic at Bravo! Vail in July 2015.

Pictured: Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps giving a lesson in Shanghai as part of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy. Photo by Eunice Ho.