ZHANG CONDUCTS TCHAIKOVSKY
Baltimore Symphony, NAC Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, and Milan Symphony Orchestra.
Zhang continues to enjoy good relationships with many leading orchestras worldwide, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Houston Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.
Zhang previously served as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales, the first female conductor to hold a titled role with a BBC orchestra. In 2002, she won first prize in the Maazel-Vilar Conductor ' s Competition. She was appointed New York Philharmonic’ s Assistant Conductor in 2002, subsequently becoming their Associate Conductor and the first holder of the Arturo Toscanini Chair.
Jonathan Carney
BSO Concertmaster Jonathan Carney is in his 23rd season with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, after 12 seasons in the same position with London’ s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Born in New Jersey, Mr. Carney hails from a musical family with all six members having graduated from The Juilliard School. After completing his studies with Ivan Galamian and Christine Dethier, he was awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship to continue his studies in London at the Royal College of Music.
After enjoying critically acclaimed international tours as both concertmaster and soloist with numerous ensembles, Mr. Carney was invited by Vladimir Ashkenazy to become concertmaster of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1991. He was also appointed concertmaster of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in 1994 and the Basque National Orchestra in 1996. Recent solo performances have included concertos by Bruch, Korngold, Khatchaturian, Sibelius, Nielsen, the
Jonathan Carney
Brahms Double Concerto and Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, which was featured as a live BBC broadcast from London’ s Barbican Hall. He has made a number of recordings, including concertos by Mozart, Vivaldi, and Nielsen; sonatas by Brahms, Beethoven, and Franck; and a disc of virtuoso works by Sarasate and Kreisler with his mother, Gloria Carney, as pianist. New releases include Beethoven’ s Archduke and Ghost trios, the cello quintet of Schubert, and a Dvorak disc with the Terzetto and four Romantic pieces for violin.
Mr. Carney is passionate about music education and currently serves as Artistic Director for the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras.
Jonathan is presently on the faculty of the Brevard Music Center, an intensive seven-week summer music festival in the mountains of western North Carolina. Jonathan is also a concertmaster with the Colorado Music Festival, which takes place in Boulder each summer with maestro Peter Oundjian.
As a sought after clinician he also gives master classes throughout the United States and abroad. Mr. Carney is currently a frequent guest concertmaster with The Seoul Philharmonic, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the NSO of Taiwan, and the Malaysian Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Carney performs on a 1687 Stradivarius, the Mercur-Avery, on which he uses“ Vision” strings by Thomastik- Infeld. Mr. Carney’ s string sponsor is Connolly & Co., exclusive U. S. importer of Thomastik-Infeld strings.
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
By James M. Keller.
Chen Yi
Born: April 4, 1953, in Guangzhou, China Residing: Kansas City, Missouri
LANDSCAPE IMPRESSION [ 2023 ]
Chen Yi, who began studying violin and piano at the age of three, spent the years of China’ s Cultural Revolution as an agricultural laborer and then as the concertmaster of a Guangzhou Beijing Opera troupe. When the Chinese educational system was restored, she entered the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, becoming the first woman in China to receive a master’ s degree in composition, in 1986. Among her classmates at the Central Conservatory was the noted composer Zhou Long, to whom she has been married since 1983. She proceeded to New York, where she earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Columbia University. She served on the composition faculty of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University from 1996 – 98, and since then has been Cravens / Millsap / Missouri Distinguished Professor in Composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory. She has been recognized by such distinctions as the Lili Boulanger Award, the Elise Stoeger Award of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, an Adventurous Programming Award from ASCAP( for her work with the Music from China series), and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2024, she was made an honorary member of the International Society of Contemporary Music, one of only four women among the 74 musicians so honored since the organization was established in 1922.
Chen Yi says of Landscape Impression:“ The music is inspired by the two ancient Chinese poems by Su Dong-Po( another name Su Shi, 1036 – 1101), written in 1072 and 1073. The two sister
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