Alan Gilbert

Alan Gilbert, former Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, launches a new appointment as chief conductor designate of Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra this fall, shortly after the opening of its already iconic new home. The Grammy Award–winning conductor previously served as principal guest conductor of the orchestra (then known as NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg) for more than a decade, and will assume the role of chief conductor in September 2019. This position follows his truly transformative eight-year tenure as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, during which, through such key initiatives as the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, he succeeded in making the Orchestra a leader on the cultural landscape. Alan Gilbert is also conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the founder and president of Musicians for Unity. With the endorsement and guidance of the United Nations, this new organization will bring together musicians from around the world to perform in support of peace, development, and human rights.

Alan Gilbert makes regular guest appearances with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He has led operatic productions for Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, The Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Zurich Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, and Santa Fe Opera, where he was the inaugural music director.

His discography includes The Nielsen Project, a box set recorded with the New York Philharmonic, and John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, captured on DVD at The Metropolitan Opera, for which he won a Grammy Award. He received Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Music Direction in PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center broadcasts of two star-studded New York Philharmonic productions: of Sweeney Todd and Sinatra: Voice for a Century.

Alan Gilbert has received Honorary Doctor of Music degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and Westminster Choir College, as well as Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award. He is a member of The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and was named an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. At The Juilliard School, he is the first holder of the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies and serves as Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies. After giving the annual Royal Philharmonic Society Lecture on Orchestras in the 21st Century: A New Paradigm during the New York Philharmonic’s EUROPE / SPRING 2015 tour, he received a 2015 Foreign Policy Association Medal for his commitment to cultural diplomacy.

Frank Peter Zimmermann

Frank Peter Zimmermann, widely regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his generation, performs with the world’s major orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic (with which he made his debut in 1985 conducted by Daniel Barenboim), the Vienna Philharmonic (debut in 1983, with Lorin Maazel, in Salzburg), Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, all of London’s orchestras, and all the preeminent American orchestras. He is also a regular guest at the music festivals of cities including Salzburg, Edinburgh, and Lucerne. Over the years, Mr. Zimmermann has built an impressive discography for the EMI Classics, Sony Classical, BIS, Ondine, Hänssler, Decca, Teldec, and ECM labels. He has recorded virtually all the major concerto repertoire, ranging from J.S. Bach to Ligeti, Brett Dean to Matthias Pintscher, as well as Ysaÿe’s six solo sonatas, Paganini’s 24 Caprices, and the complete Violin Sonatas of J.S. Bach and Mozart. He served as the New York Philharmonic’s Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence in the 2011–12 season. Born in 1965 in Duisburg, Germany, Frank Peter Zimmermann started learning to play the violin with his mother when he was five years old. He went on to study with Valery Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff, and Herman Krebbers. Mr. Zimmermann plays the 1711 Antonius Stradivari violin “Lady Inchiquin,” which is kindly provided by the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, “Kunst im Landesbesitz.”

Learn more about Frank Peter Zimmermann