Jaap van Zweden News

Winner of the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance, The Crossing, with conductor Donald Nally, today announces its 2018-19 season, titled Aniara. The season-which is centered around exploring mankind's place in the universe, the relationships between humans, navigating through space and life, and the passage of time - features The Crossing's New York Philharmonic and Peak Performances debuts, the world premiere of the choral-theater work Aniara: fragments of time and space; and world premieres by Gavin Bryars, Michael Gordon, Thomas Lloyd, and Toivo Tulev.

The imaginative and increasingly important Key Pianists concert series, founded by pianist Terry Eder in 2015, embarks on its fourth season with a recital by Norman Krieger, who 'owns a world of technique' (Los Angeles Times), on Wednesday evening, October 17, 2018 at 8 pm at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. His program will include Brahms' Sonata in C Major and Beethoven's Sonata in D minor, as well as works by Chopin, Lazaroff, and Fine. On Tuesday evening, February 26, 2019 at 8 pm, pianist Jason Hardink-dubbed 'a pianist of such extraordinary power-and memory-that he is difficult to forget' by ConcertoNet's Harry Rolnick (14 Dec 2015)-will give a recital of 19th- and 20th-century gems by Eckardt, Debussy, Liszt, Xenakis, and Messiaen. To close out the season, series founder Terry Eder, noted for her 'fascinating [performances] full of life and risk' (New York Concert Review, Summer 2006), performs Schubert's Impromptu in F Minor, Op. 142, No. 1 and Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 28, as well as works by Debussy, Dohnanyi, and Kodaly.

As Jaap van Zweden, the esteemed Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil), embarks on his new venture as Music Director of the world-renowned New York Philharmonic starting the 2018/19 season, the HK Phil honours him with this American-themed programme on 22 & 23 June in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall.

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.

Decca Gold is proud to announce the digital release of Sing Happy, the live performance of the New York Philharmonic's 2018 Spring Gala starring Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald, and conducted by Andy Einhorn. Recorded live on May 1 at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, the recording represents McDonald's first collaboration with Decca Gold - as well as her first solo recording with full orchestra.

This August, New York City will host the first ever Classical Bridge, an international music festival, academy and conference designed to build bridges through the music. Presented by New York Concert Artists & Associates (NYCA), the inaugural event runs August 4 - 11 at Merkin Concert Hall atKaufman Music Center (129 West 67th Street, between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave), Symphony Space (2537 Broadway, at 96th Street), and Steinway Hall (1133 Avenue of the Americas at 44th Street). For tickets. reservations and more information visit www.ClassicalBridge.org.

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil)'s Music Director Jaap van Zweden will be conducting the HK Phil for a series of stunning programmes over three weeks in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Featuring world-renowned violinist James Ehnes and organist Leo van Doeselaar, the first programme on 8 & 9 June will take the audience from America to France through music by American composers Charles Ives and Leonard Bernstein, and the beautiful Organ Symphony by Camille Saint-Saens.

Decca Gold is proud to announce the forthcoming release of Sing Happy, the live performance of the New York Philharmonic's 2018 Spring Gala starring Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald. Recorded live on May 1 at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, the recording represents McDonald's first collaboration with Decca Gold - as well as her first solo recording with full orchestra.

Composers Stacy Garrop, Robin Holcomb, and Andrea Reinkemeyer will each receive orchestral commissions of $15,000 as part of the League of American Orchestras' 2017 Women Composers Readings and Commissions program, which is administered by American Composers Orchestra (ACO) and supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

Dutch violinist Tosca Opdam will make her debut in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall presented by EBF Classics on June 4, 2018 at 8pm with a program exploring the theme of “home.” The centerpiece of the evening is the world premiere of Robin de Raaff's North Atlantic Light, commissioned by and dedicated to Opdam and inspired by Willem de Kooning's 1977 painting of the same name. Accompanied by pianist Victor Stanislavsky, she will also perform J.S. Bach's Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord in E major, BWV 1016; selections from Korngold's Much Ado About Nothing Suite; Debussy's Violin Sonata; and Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 94bis. Opdam plays a Matteo Goffriller violin from 1700, which is generously on loan to her by a private collector.

The Handel and Haydn Society will honor Deborah Borda, president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic, for her extraordinary contributions to the field of classical music at the 2018 Society Ball, “A Celebration of Heroes and Heroines.”

Concertmaster Frank Huang will lead the New York Philharmonic from his chair as Concertmaster in a program spotlighting the Orchestra's string section. The concerts will feature Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3, with Principal Associate Concertmaster Sheryl Staples as soloist; Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik; and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, and take place on Thursday, May 31, 2018, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, June 1 at 11:00 a.m.; Saturday, June 2 at 8:00 p.m.; Tuesday, June 5 at 7:30 p.m.; and Wednesday, June 6 at 7:30 p.m.

Guest conductor Karina Canellakis, winner of the 2016 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award, makes her second Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra appearance to lead the US premiere of Dai Fujikura's Secret Forest, Beethoven's energetic and uplifting Symphony No. 2 in D Major and Mozart's dramatic Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, performed by David Fray, a "gifted pianist" (Chicago Tribune), on Saturday, April 21, 8 pm, Glendale's Alex Theatre, and Sunday, April 22, 2018, 7 pm, Royce Hall.  Fujikura's work has been described as "a riot of imaginative bird and insect noise - well worth exploring" (The Guardian).

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Society Limited today announces that Michael MacLeod, since April 2011, will retire at the end of March 2019 after eight years in the position.

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra's "Composers Workshop - Beyond the Ring" Public Working Session and Showcase was held on 13 March 2018 at the Grand Hall, Lee Shau Kee Lecture Centre, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong. In our commitment to nurturing composing talents in Hong Kong, the HK Phil has organised a series of workshops and a public showcase for six young local composers - Chan Chi-long, Kwok Man-ho, Meilina Tsui Mei-ling, Wong Ching-yin, So Ho-chi, and Wong Chun-wai. Their new works were premiered by the HK Phil under the baton of conductor Sebastian Per?owski, with the honoured attendance of officiating guest Mrs. Angelina Cheung, Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs.

The New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL) will hold its annual Spring Gala at New York's Metropolitan Club (1 E 60th St, New York, NY 10022) on Thursday evening, April 5, 2018, starting at 6:00 pm. The organization will honor renowned opera singer and recitalist Stephanie Blythe with the NYCHORAL Music Excellence Award for her contributions to the musical profession, as well as Sylvia R. Hoisington who is celebrating her 50th season with the chorus. Produced in partnership with the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, the evening's showcase performance will feature soprano Amanda Majeski and tenor Ben Bliss, both of whom will be participating in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Cosi fan tutte from March 15 to April 9, 2018. Members of the NYCHORAL Chamber Ensemble will also perform. The evening will feature a silent auction of unique items and experiences. The program is as follows:

The New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL) will hold its annual Spring Gala at New York's Metropolitan Club (1 E 60th St, New York, NY 10022) on Thursday evening, April 5, 2018, starting at 6:00 pm.

On 13 & 14 April in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil), conductor Zhang Guoyong and violinist Baiba Skride will perform a programme of music composed at critical times in the lives of two Russian composers.

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil), together with renowned violinist Ning Feng under the baton of Principal Guest Conductor Yu Long, will bring a taste of Scotland to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. They will tantalise the audience with the sights and sounds of Scotland as revealed by three composers - Mendelssohn, Bruch and Maxwell Davies on 6 & 7 April.