NY Philharmonic Announces Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership

The New York Philharmonic travels to Shanghai for its third annual performance residency as part of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership, July 2-8, 2017. The residency will feature four performances at Shanghai Symphony Hall, including a Young People's Concert in which select students from the Shanghai Orchestra Academy (SOA) will perform Dvo?ák's Symphony No. 9, From the New World, alongside the Orchestra; master classes, lessons, coachings, and a side-by-side Philharmonic rehearsal with SOA students of Dvo?ák's New World Symphony and Brahms's Symphony No. 3; and a Very Young Composers workshop and performance. The performances are presented as part of Shanghai's Music in the Summer Air (MISA) festival. The Philharmonic's Shanghai partnership is a cornerstone and founding component of the New York Philharmonic Global Academy. Starr International Foundation is the Presenting Sponsor of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct Dvo?ák's Symphony No. 9, From the New World, and Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2, with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, on July 2, 2017, and Mahler's Symphony No. 7 on July 3, 2017. He will also lead the Philharmonic and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in the Asian Premiere of Marsalis's The Jungle (Symphony No. 4), commissioned and premiered by the Philharmonic in December 2016 as the first of The New York Commissions, part of the Philharmonic's 175th anniversary season, July 7, 2017. The concert will also include Copland's Quiet City, featuring Principal Trumpet Christopher Martin and English horn player Grace Shryock.

Assistant Conductor Joshua Gersen will conduct a Young People's Concert on July 4, 2017, at Shanghai Symphony Hall, hosted in Mandarin by media personality Dashan, featuring selections from Dvo?ák's Symphony No. 9, From the New World, as well as works by Very Young Composers of New York City and Shanghai inspired by Dvo?ák's New World Symphony and its theme of home: Aye Ni Ilu (Life Is a Rhythm) by 12-year-old Isai Rabiu of New York - a second-generation immigrant of Nigerian, African American, and Native American descent - and Memories of Mani Stone by 14-year-old Feng Shuya of Shanghai.

The New York Philharmonic will also present a Very Young Composers workshop led by Artistic Director, Very Young Composers, Jon Deak and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Teaching Artists, as well as 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 8, 2017, at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's Chamber Hall.

The Shanghai performances of Dvo?ák's New World Symphony and the Very Young Composers works inspired by it are part of The New World Initiative, the Philharmonic's season-long, citywide project revolving around Dvo?ák's New World Symphony and its theme of home on the occasion of the Philharmonic's 175th anniversary season. Through performances, community outreach, and education projects, The New World Initiative honors the Orchestra's hometown and its role as an adopted home to many. Dvo?ák wrote the New World Symphony while he was living here in New York City, and the Philharmonic gave the World Premiere of the work in December 1893, marking the Orchestra's first World Premiere of a work written in New York City that would become part of the standard repertoire.

Before the Orchestra's residency begins, New York Philharmonic Concertmaster Frank Huang, in conjunction with the concertmasters of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, will lead the Shanghai Orchestra Academy String Festival. The festival will include a performance of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, led by Mr. Huang, and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, featuring Mr. Huang, members of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Orchestra Academy students, and other students from around China on June 28, 2017, at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's Chamber Hall. Also during the String Festival, Mr. Huang will lead master classes and co-present a lecture on the role of the concertmaster alongside Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concertmasters Pei Li and Guillaume Molko.

A joint endeavor of the New York Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra launched in September 2014, the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership includes the establishment of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy (SOA) - a two-year program designed to address the need for advanced, post-graduate orchestral training in China - in partnership with the Shanghai Conservatory and under the leadership of founding president Long Yu, as well as annual performance residencies by the New York Philharmonic in Shanghai. The 2017 residency marks Alan Gilbert's final appearances as Philharmonic Music Director in Shanghai.

The Shanghai Orchestra Academy will hold its second-ever graduation ceremony this summer.

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