The New York Philharmonic will return to the National Center for the Performing Arts after a decade

In February 2008, the New York Philharmonic, the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States, made its first visit to the National Center for the Performing Arts, led by then-music director Lorraine Maazel. Exactly ten years after it parted with Beijing fans and audiences, on March 8 and 9, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra will take the stage again at the National Center for the Performing Arts under Music director-in-waiting Van Zetten, who will begin his first Asian tour with the New York Philharmonic.

In the two concerts at the National Center for the Performing Arts, Van Ziden and the New York Philharmonic will play Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor and Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, together with violinist Ryu Gojima and pianist Yujia Wang. Van Zidten will also lead the orchestra in Mahler's Fifth Symphony and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

In January 2016, the New York Philharmonic announced Van Zidten as its next music director, beginning with the 2018/19 season. Van Zidten will be the 26th director of the orchestra, following Alan Gilbert, Maazel, Mazur, Zubin Mehta, Boulez, Bernstein, Toscanini and Mahler. "I met the New York Philharmonic six years ago and have enjoyed playing with this extraordinary band and am excited and looking forward to the upcoming tour with them," Van Ziden said. The excellent artists of the New York Philharmonic have a profound understanding of the music works, interpreting the essence of Mahler's works and the beauty of Brahms, and highlighting the rigor, exquisite technique and rich sensibility of the music treatment. I'm looking forward to working with Yujia Wang and Ryu Oshima again and performing in Asian cities again."

In addition, Van Zidon has strong ties to China. He has been music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic since 2012 and has said in previous interviews that he is "one-eighth Chinese" and "likes to eat Chinese food for dinner".

This is the orchestra's fourth visit to Beijing. The group debuted in Beijing in 1998 under the leadership of then music director Kurt Mazur.

Brief introduction to Van Zideng

Over the past decade, Van Zidon has become an international face active on three continents. The 2017-2018 season marked a milestone in his career, with Van Zidten ending a 10-year stint as music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and being named music director-designate of the New York Philharmonic. He will begin his first season in the post during the 2018-2019 season. He has been music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra since 2012 and will continue in that role. During the 2017-2018 season, in addition to performing in New York and touring with the New York Philharmonic, he will return to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and the European Chamber Orchestra.

He has performed as a guest conductor with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra; Boston, London and Shanghai Symphony orchestras; The Los Angeles, Vienna, Berlin and Munich Philharmonic orchestras; The National Symphony Orchestra of France and the Paris Symphony Orchestra, among others. In 2015, Van Ziden partnered with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to launch the annual SOLUNA International Music and Arts Festival, and began a four-year project with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra to lead the Hong Kong premiere of Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelungen," to be recorded and released by Nassos Records. He also served as principal conductor of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra and the Gstaad Conducting Academy from Summer 2017 to summer 2019.

Van Ziden recorded critically acclaimed recordings, including Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Petrushka, Britten's War Requiem, and the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, and Bruckner. He recorded Mahler's Fifth Symphony with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Mozart's piano concerto with the British Philharmonic Orchestra and pianist David Frey. Van Ziden's performances of Wagner's Lohengrin, The Famous Singers of Nuremberg and Parsifal (which won the prestigious Edison Award for best opera recording in 2012) have been praised and are now available on CD and DVD. He has recorded symphonies by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mahler and Dvorak for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's own label, as well as the world premiere of Stephen Starkey's "August 4, 1964". In February 2018, Van Ziden's collaboration with the New York Philharmonic on Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh Symphonies was released on record, live streaming and digital download formats. This marks the official launch of the orchestra's collaboration with Decca Gold, Universal Music Group's new American classical label.

Born in Amsterdam, Van Ziden was appointed concertmaster by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam at the age of 19, becoming the youngest concertmaster in the orchestra's history. Twenty years later, in 1995, Van Zidon began his conducting career. He was principal conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra from 2005 to 2013, and is currently honorary Principal conductor of the Orchestra and emeritus conductor of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra. He also served as principal conductor of the Royal Flemish Orchestra of Europe from 2008 to 2011. In 2012, Master Van Zidan was named Conductor of the Year by American Music magazine.

In 1997, Van Zthein and his wife Atye founded the Babakino Foundation, which helps families with autistic children by providing training, among other things, to music therapists and musicians. In August 2015, Her Majesty Queen Maxima of the Netherlands attended the inauguration of the Babakino Home for autistic youth and children in Laren, the Netherlands.

About the New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic is a cultural leader in New York, in the United States, and in the world. Each season, the orchestra reaches nearly 50 million music fans through live concerts in New York, world Tours and residency, as well as digital recording series, international radio programs and educational programs.

In the 2017-2018 season, under the leadership of Music Director-designate Van Zhiteng, the Orchestra has not only played to its strengths and made important contributions, but also looks to the future as an innovative global orchestra that values its musicians and partners, is committed to developing new music, and continues to broaden the reach of its own performances and educational programmes. Make music more accessible to more people.

Since its founding in 1842, the orchestra has commissioned works by eminent composers of various eras, and has also performed premieres of works by many great composers, including: Dvorak's "New World Symphony," Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F Major, John Adams's Pulitzer Prize-winning "About the Rebirth of the Soul," dedicated to the victims of 9/11, Esa-Pekka Salonen's piano Concerto, and Wynton Marsalis's "Jungle," Symphony No. 4.

The orchestra's commitment to developing new music led to the development of CONTACT! The New Music series, now in its ninth season. The orchestra's annual free concerts in New York are a major asset to the city's residents and the world, including Concerts in the Park by Didi and Oscar Schaeffer, free Friday performances by the Philharmonic, and the prestigious long-running Youth Concert. In order to train a new generation of outstanding orchestral musicians, the orchestra established the New York Philharmonic Global Academy. Current programs and collaborations include the Shanghai Band Academy and Residency, and the Santa Barbara Conservatory of Western Music.

The orchestra still maintains a community partnership with the University of Michigan College Music Society. The orchestra enjoys a global reputation and is now represented in 432 cities in 63 countries. Notable performances include the first European tour in 1930, the unprecedented 1959 tour of the Soviet Union, the historic 2008 performance in Pyongyang, North Korea (the first American orchestra to perform in North Korea), and the orchestra's 2009 debut in Hanoi, Vietnam.

A pioneer in the media industry, the orchestra has recorded more than 2,000 albums since 1917 and was the first major American orchestra to offer live concert recordings as a download service. In February 2018, the orchestra entered into a partnership with Decca Gold, the newly established classical music label of Universal Music Group, to release recordings, live streaming and digital downloads of Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh Symphonies performed by Van Ziden and the New York Philharmonic. In 2016, the orchestra made its first attempt to broadcast a live concert on Facebook, attracting a total of 1 million online views for three livestreaming sessions that season. The long history of the orchestra is available online for free, and a visit to the New York Philharmonic's Leon Levy digital Archive provides access to all printed programs dating back to 1842, as well as marked scores and sections by musicians and music directors such as Mahler and Bernstein. By the end of 2018, more than 3 million pages of documents will be accessible.

In 1842, American-born Jurelli Corelli Hill led American musicians to establish the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, which is the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States and one of the oldest symphony orchestras in the world. Composers and conductors who have worked with the orchestra include Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Copland and Mitropoulos. For the 2018-19 season, Van Ziden will join Alan Gilbert, Maazel, Mazur, Zubin Mehta, Boulez, Bernstein, Toscanini and Mahler as the orchestra's music director.