The hiring of Chinese conductor Xian Zhang might be the orchestra's boldest move in decades.
NEWARK -- Xian Zhang, a Chinese conductor with an international stature and well-known to local audiences, will become the 14th Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the symphony's board of trustees announced Monday.
The 42-year-old native of Dandong, China succeeds Jacques Lacombe, who has led the orchestra since 2010. Zhang will be the first woman and the first Chinese national to lead the orchestra.
Her contract is for four years and she will conduct the orchestras in seven subscription programs in her first season as music director. Her last performances with the orchestra in May drew raves, including from our own critic, who wrote that Zhang "infuses scores with vitality and detail."
She will appear again with the orchestra in April, conducing a program of Tchaikovsky and Barber, before her term officially begins in September 2016.
Lacombe announced that he would be stepping aside last year, partly to focus on the international engagements that have increasingly occupied his time. In August, he was appointed principal conductor of the Bonn Opera in Germany.
The maestra's appointment is the boldest move by the 93-year old institution since it hired Henry Lewis, the first African-American to lead a major American orchestra back in 1968. But while it represents a coup, as Zhang regularly plays with the best orchestras in the world, the move is still somewhat conservative. Her programming thus far at NJSO and elsewhere has consisted mainly of traditional classical fare (Brahms, Mozart, Strauss) and her track record shows little indication of shaking up the band's tradition of romantic staples with pops on the side.
In a telephone interview last week from the United Kingdom, where Zhang is conducting a run of "La Boheme" at English National Opera, she said her first priority was not to shake up the music that the orchestra plays, but rather get a sense of place.
"We play in many venues and that presents certain challenges," she says. "The halls are different and the audiences are different. I need to find out a lot more (about how) the audience in Newark is different than in Morristown."
She adds, "The orchestra is like a messenger to the state -- and if you have only four concerts in Englewood, it cannot be something you forget. Each concert has to be so high impact that you grab people to come."
Zhang began her professional career in China, conducting a performance of "The Marriage of Figaro" at age 20. Yet her career really took off in New York when she shared first prize in the Maazel-Vilar Conductor's Competition in 2002. Former New York Philharmonic Music Director Lorin Maazel then tapped her to be an assistant conductor and later associate conductor with the Phil.
"It's like a homecoming to me," she said about returning to the area.
Zhang was a guest conductor for the NJSO in May. She'll appear again with the orchestra in April 2016 before her tenure as music director commences in fall 2016. In 2005, Zhang became a Music Director for the first time, taking over the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra. In 2008, she started breaking barriers in Europe when she became the first woman to conduct the prestigious Staatskappelle Dresden in its main hall. In 2009, she became the first woman to lead an Italian symphony orchestra when she took over the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Guiseppe Verdi.
Ruth Lipper, co-chair of NJSO's board of trustees, says, "The focus of the committee was to find the best person for the job. The happy effect of the choice of Zhang is that we're breaking new ground in having a maestra."
Zhang's appointment means two female prominent podium presences at NJSO next season, as current associate conductor, Gemma New, will continue to work with the orchestra as well.
Zhang, who grew up in a small town during China's cultural revolution where women were expected to work equally alongside men, dismisses attaching too much import to her gender.
"Everywhere should be more female conductors, and I wish there would be more," she says, "Yes, it is good that on the east coast, you have already have Marin (Alsop, of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) and JoAnn (Falletta, of the Buffalo Philharmonic) leading orchestras, but in ten years time hopefully no one will think this is unusual."
Zhang, who stands just over five feet tall, has already made a considerable impression on the orchestra. Eric Wyrick, concertmaster of the orchestra since 1998, says, "We've had a relation with Xian for five years now -- she has been a favorite of the orchestra every time."
He adds, "She's a small person, yet when she's on the podium she just grows in stature."
James C. Taylor can be reached at writejamesctaylor@gmail.com. Find NJ.com/Entertainment on Facebook.
