Fabio Luisi Conducts the Juilliard Orchestra in Works by Brahms, Mozart, and Beethoven

NEW YORK — Fabio Luisi, principal conductor of the Met Opera and newly appointed music director of Florence’s Opera di Firenze and its spring festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, will conduct the Juilliard Orchestra in works by Brahms, Mozart, and Beethoven on Thursday, March 24, 2016, at 7:30pm in Alice Tully Hall.

The program features Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90; Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Minor, K. 491 with Juilliard pianist Angie Zhang; and Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b. In an unusual bit of programming, Maestro Luisi opens the concert with Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 and ends the program with Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b.

Tickets for $30 are available at events.juilliard.edu or at Alice Tully Hall. Tickets are free for Juilliard students; non-Juilliard students with valid I.D. may purchase tickets for $15.

About Fabio Luisi

Fabio Luisi is general music director of the Zurich Opera and principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, and becomes principal conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in 2017. He was recently named the new music director designate of Florence’s Opera di Firenze and its annual spring festival, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. This season, Maestro Luisi conducts Manon Lescaut and the double-bill of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci at the Met, L’elisir d’amore at La Scala, Aribert Reimann’s Lear at the Paris Opera, and Wozzeck, I Puritani, Falstaff, Die Zauberflöte, and Tosca in Zurich. In addition to his concert with the Juilliard Orchestra, he also leads the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Turin’s Teatro Regio, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Recent engagements include Macbeth, The Merry Widow, Madama Butterfly, and La cenerentola at the Met, Martinu’s Julietta and Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Zurich. Don Carlo at La Scala, and concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Cleveland Orchestra. Luisi launched his tenure at the Zurich Opera in 2012 with Jenufa, before returning to the Met for Un ballo in maschera, Les Troyens, Aida, and Wagner’s Ring cycle, as well as Don Carlo at La Scala. Previous appointments include general music director of Dresden’s Staatskapelle and Sächsische Staatsoper (2007-10), artistic director of Leipzig Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (1999-2007), music director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (1997-2002), chief conductor of Vienna’s Tonkünstler-Orchester (1995-2000), and artistic director of the Graz Symphony (1990-96). A frequent guest at the Vienna Staatsoper, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper, and Staatsoper Berlin, the conductor made his debut in 2002 at the Salzburg Festival with Richard Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae and returned the following year for Die ägyptische Helena.

About Angie Zhang

American pianist Angie Zhang is a Secondary Piano Teaching Fellow at Juilliard where she is a junior studying with Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky. She is also a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship, chair of the Juilliard student council, a student ambassador, a Maxwell Gluck Community Service Fellow, and a student in the Barnard-Columbia-Juilliard exchange program. Since making her debut playing under Grammy-nominated conductor Niel DePonte at age 10, she has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras, most recently with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic, and the Missouri Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming this May will be her debut with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. She has also performed with the Juilliard Pre-College Symphony, Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, New York’s Ensemble 212, and at American Academy of Conducting in Aspen. This past year, she performed at the Kennedy Center, Washington’s Metropolitan Club, New York’s Harvard Club, and Alice Tully Hall. Last December, she worked with choreographer Aszure Barton and was the piano soloist for Ms. Barton’s piece on Juilliard’s New Dances: Edition 2015 program. A winner of numerous competitions, she was the recipient of the 2014 Aspen Music Festival and School’s piano concerto competition, winner of the Rosalyn Tureck International Bach Competition, Juilliard Pre-College concerto competition, Juilliard Pre-College Nordmann Scholarship Competition, New Orleans International Piano Competition for Young Artists, and the New York Ensemble 212 Young Artist Concerto Competition. She has also appeared as a guest and artist on National Public Radio’s From the Top program.

About the Juilliard Orchestra

The Juilliard Orchestra, Juilliard’s largest and most visible performing ensemble, is comprised of all orchestral instrumental majors in the bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. Under the musical leadership of alumnus Alan Gilbert, the director of conducting and orchestral studies, the Juilliard Orchestra is also led by numerous world-renowned guest conductors, some of which have included John Adams, alumna Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, alumnus James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, James Gaffigan, Fabio Luisi, Bernard Haitink, alumnus James Levine, David Robertson, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, alumnus Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, David Zinman, and many others. The Juilliard Orchestra performs regularly at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, as well as in opera and dance productions, special events and broadcasts, and national and international tours.

All undergraduates begin their orchestral studies with Orchestra Orientation, a three-week orchestra cycle comprised of seminars, workshops, and rehearsals designed to prepare students for the rigors of the Juilliard Orchestra. Led by Maestro Gilbert, the Orchestra Orientation also calls upon Juilliard faculty and members of the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera orchestras to lead discussions, coach sectionals, and play in side-by-side rehearsals.

In the 2015-16 season, the Juilliard Orchestra welcomes an impressive roster of world-renowned conductors: Pablo Heras-Casado, Fabio Luisi, Nicholas McGegan, Gianandrea Noseda, Case Scaglione, and faculty members Alan Gilbert, Jeffrey Milarsky, Itzhak Perlman, and Matthias Pintscher. Highlights of the orchestra’s 2014-15 season included debut appearances by guest conductors Fabio Luisi, Tadaaki Otaka, and alumnus Peter Oundjian; return appearances by Edward Gardner, Larry Rachleff, Emmanuel Villaume, David Zinman, and David Robertson; and concerts with Juilliard faculty members Alan Gilbert and Jeffrey Milarsky.

PROGRAM LISTING:

Juilliard Orchestra

Fabio Luisi, conductor

Angie Zhang, piano

BRAHMS Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90

MOZART Piano Concerto in C Minor, K. 491

BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b

Tickets for $30 are available at events.juilliard.edu or at Alice Tully Hall.

Tickets are free for Juilliard students; non-Juilliard students with valid I.D. may purchase tickets for $15.

 Juilliard pianist Angie Zhang