The New York Philharmonic is headed to Asia!
This summer, for the first time in four years, the Orchestra returns to the continent, displaying two different sides of the NY Phil, as both America’s touring orchestra and a partner committed to cultivating future orchestral musicians. As Executive Director Gary Ginstling says: “This visit is an opportunity to share the NY Phil’s magnificent performances with audiences across the Pacific. We are also extremely gratified to reunite with our friends in Shanghai to continue the impactful Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Partnership with the first in-person activities since 2019.”
Music Director Jaap van Zweden conducts the Tour to Taiwan & Hong Kong, June 28–July 5, marking the NY Phil’s second international trip following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (to remind you, the first was last year’s residency at the Usedom Music Festival, in Germany). The tour will include five concerts in three cities — Taipei and Kaohsiung, in Taiwan, and Hong Kong — with van Zweden leading symphonies by Beethoven, Dvořák, and Tchaikovsky, as well as Brahms’s Violin Concerto, in which the Orchestra will be joined by star violinist Hilary Hahn, who was recently named the Philharmonic’s Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence for next season.
The performances in Hong Kong are of special significance for van Zweden, in his penultimate season with the NY Phil, as he also serves as music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra — a position he’s held since 2012. “I look forward to sharing the work of my New York musical family with audiences in both Taiwan and Hong Kong,” remarked van Zweden.
Following the tour, a delegation of NY Phil musicians will travel to Shanghai for the resumption of in-person events as part of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Partnership, July 7–12. These include two chamber music concerts featuring our world-class musicians — one in which they’ll be performing alongside members of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and students from the Shanghai Orchestra Academy, the two-year, post-graduate program established through the partnership. The nine NY Phil musicians will also give master classes and instruction with the students, and attend the commencement ceremony of this year’s graduating class.
The partnership, a joint endeavor between the Philharmonic and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, was launched in 2014 and — until the onset of the pandemic — included annual trips by the NY Phil to Shanghai for concerts and instruction. During the lockdown years of 2020 through 2022, when travel was restricted, the partnership carried on with various virtual activities. Van Zweden and the full Orchestra will return to Shanghai in the summer of 2024.
Both sides of this international journey are made possible through the generosity of a foundation that is the Presenting Sponsor of both the tour and the partnership. Ginstling — who will become the Orchestra’s President & CEO on July 1, 2023 — said: “The Philharmonic is grateful to Starr International Foundation for making possible this next significant step toward resuming our role as cultural ambassador.”
From the opening of the renovated David Geffen Hall to the announcement of Gustavo Dudamel as the NY Phil’s next Music and Artistic Director, the 2022–23 season has been full of milestones. The return to Asia, after four years, caps off one of the most significant years in the Orchestra’s history.
