Matthias Pintscher Conducts the Juilliard Orchestra in an all-Ravel Program for Juilliard's Commencement Concert on Thursday, May 23, 2019, at 6pm in Alice Tully Hall

NEW YORK –– Faculty member, conductor and composer Matthias Pintscher leads the Juilliard Orchestra in an all-Ravel program in the school’s annual commencement concert on Thursday, May 23, 2019, at 6pm in Alice Tully Hall. The all-Ravel program features La Valse; Piano Concerto in G Major with Juilliard pianist Hang Zhong; and Daphnis et Chloé: Suite No. 2.

The orchestra includes Juilliard’s graduating class of instrumentalists, and the concert is attended by family members and friends, many of whom are in New York City for Juilliard’s 114th commencement ceremony the following morning, Friday, May 24, 2019, at 11am in Alice Tully Hall.

Limited tickets at $20 ($10 for full-time students with a valid ID) are available at juilliard.edu/calendar.

About Matthias Pintscher

Matthias Pintscher, who has been on the composition faculty of Juilliard since 2014, is also music director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the world’s leading contemporary music ensemble founded by Pierre Boulez. In addition to a robust concert season in Paris, he tours extensively with the ensemble throughout Europe, Asia, and the U.S. Known equally as one of today’s foremost composers, Pintscher has two new works premiering this season: Nur, a concerto for piano and ensemble, was performed by Daniel Barenboim and the Boulez Ensemble conducted by the composer in January; and a work for baritone, chorus, and orchestra performed by Dietrich Henschel and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich conducted by Kent Nagano in June. Pintscher is the 2018-19 season creative chair for the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and artist in residence at the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and finishes a nine-year term as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s artist in association.

This season, he makes his debuts with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, where he conducts the world premiere of Violetter Schnee, a new opera by Beat Furrer. Return guest engagements include the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee, New York Philharmonic, and New World Symphony in Miami. In Europe, having begun the season conducting the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival, Pintscher also returns to the Orchestre de Paris, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and Helsinki Philharmonic. He began his musical training as a conductor, studying with Peter Eötvös while in his early 20s, during which time composing took a more prominent role in his life. He rapidly gained acclaim in both areas and continues to compose. Pintscher's own music—championed by some of today's finest performing artists, orchestras, and conductors—has been performed by the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris, among others. Bärenreiter is his exclusive publisher and his compositions have been recorded by Kairos, EMI, Teldec, Wergo, and Winter & Winter.

About Hang Zhong

Pianist Hang Zhong is pursuing his bachelor of music at Juilliard, studying with Yoheved Kaplinsky. He has performed three solo recitals in China and participated in student group concerts at Sichuan Conservatory. While in high school, he won awards at several competitions including a finalist award in the IIYM Competition at KU School of Music (2016), fourth place in the Golden Bell National Piano Competition for Young Pianists in China and first place in Cooper Festival Piano Competition in Oberlin (2015), and fourth place in the CCTV National Piano Competition in China (2014). He received a scholarship from Yamaha Music and Electronics China for his performance in its selection competition. He began studying the piano at age 4 with his mother Litao Fu. When he was in third grade, he started studying privately with  Ji Luo, a piano teacher at Neijiang Normal University. From 2008 until high school graduation, he studied with Yan Wang, associate dean of the piano department at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. For several months before auditioning at Juilliard in 2017, Zhong was coached by Quming Zhang in Shanghai and Yun-Chin Zhou in New York. He holds the William Petschek Scholarship, the Joan Elizabeth Brown Scholarship, and is supported by the Thoba Corporation Scholarship Fund.

About the Juilliard Orchestra

Juilliard’s largest and most visible student performing ensemble, the Juilliard Orchestra, is known for delivering polished and passionate performances of works spanning the repertoire. Comprising more than 350 students in the bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, the orchestra appears throughout the season in concerts on the stages of Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Alice Tully Hall, David Geffen Hall, and Carnegie Hall.

The orchestra is a strong partner to Juilliard’s other divisions, appearing in opera and dance productions as well as presenting an annual concert of world premieres by Juilliard student composers. The Juilliard Orchestra welcomes an impressive roster of world-renowned guest conductors this season including John Adams, Marin Alsop, Joseph Colaneri, Mark Elder, Barbara Hannigan, Steve Osgood, and Gil Rose as well as faculty members Jeffrey Milarsky, Itzhak Perlman, and David Robertson.

The Juilliard Orchestra has toured across the U.S. and throughout Europe, South America, and Asia, where it was the first Western conservatory ensemble allowed to visit and perform following the opening of the People’s Republic of China in 1987, and also returning two decades later, in 2008.

Other ensembles under the Juilliard Orchestra umbrella include the conductorless Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, the Juilliard Wind Orchestra, and the new-music groups AXIOM and New Juilliard Ensemble.

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Program Listing:

Thursday, May 23, 2019, 6pm, Alice Tully Hall

Juilliard Orchestra

Matthias Pintscher, Conductor

Hang Zhong, Piano

 

All-Ravel Program

La Valse

Piano Concerto in G Major

Daphnis et Chloé: Suite No. 2

 

Limited tickets at $20 ($10 for full-time students with a valid ID) are available at juilliard.edu/calendar.