Seattle no longer sleepless for lack of music director
OrchestrasThe Seattle Symphony, whose last music director stormed out two years ago in a flurry of emails, has found someone to take over next year.
The new music director will be Xian Zhang, 51, music director of the inconspicuous New Jersey Symphony for the past nine seasons. She gets a five-year contract in Seattle, where the potential is greater than New Jersey.
From the PR guff:
“Today we are witnessing history being made with the appointment of Xian Zhang as the Music Director of the Seattle Symphony,” said Seattle Symphony President & CEO Krishna Thiagarajan. “Her passionate musicianship is inspiring, her technique is clear and precise and the resulting performances captivate our audiences in heart and soul. Xian was among the first conductors to return to the stage with our orchestra during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, she has forged strong bonds here in Seattle. In fact, her concerts rank among the highest-attended performances since audiences have returned to Benaroya Hall. As Seattle has grown into an important world city and gateway to the Pacific, Xian’s diverse expertise across Asian, Oceanian, European and American orchestras and music schools — from Beijing to New York, Melbourne to Milan — makes her the perfect choice to lead the orchestra in this new era. I am excited by the possibilities and personally could not be happier to gain such a wonderful colleague for our organization. I want to thank the Seattle Symphony search committee, musicians, staff and audiences, who all played a crucial role in this process, a we welcome Xian and her family to the Pacific Northwest. What seemed like a dream a few months ago has now become a reality. Welcome, Xian Zhang!”
Wonderful news! I’ve known Xian since we were in school together 25 years ago and have been completely unsurprised by her success. A kind, warm, and direct person, with total technique, energy, and magnetism from the stage.
Now all the Seattle Symphony needs to do is hire Daniel Bernard Roumain to be Artistic Catalyst for the orchestra and its audience.
I see no basis for getting sniffy about the New Jersey Symphony — there are very respected musicians in that orchestra. As there are in Seattle.
+1 David. Why not announce an appointment like this with positivity. Not sure who the snark helps.
From what I’ve heard and seen of her in Philadelphia, this is an excellent appointment. A really solid musician with whom the players seem to really enjoy working. Enters the stage each time bursting with smiles and positive energy, which connects well with the audience.
For decades, Seattle Opera (the Seattle Symphony is its pit band) forged an excellent reputation for its Wagner performances. One hopes that status can be recovered. Hiring a conductor with no Wagner experience (at least that I find with a cursory internet search) doesn’t bode well. Of course, there are guest conductors, too.
Mr. Barte, Seattle Opera hires its conductors independently of Seattle Symphony.
Gee, that does seem a bit narrow-minded and negative of you, though I share your love of Wagner and enjoy the exalted position our home town Company holds in this regard. My optimism is buoyed by her brilliance and talent, not to mention access to very experienced mentor conductors, at least one very local.
She is an excellent conductor and did a lot for the NJ Symphony. I have been to several of her concerts, and I have always enjoyed her unpretentious way of making music.
I worked with Ms Xian in the past. She is a musical lightweight, a good person seems like, she mostly flails on the podium, with her motions resembling her mentor, Lorin Maazel and his idiosyncratic technique but without his magnetism. In other words, she lacks full control of what’s going on, while exhibiting a great deal of exuberance. She is probably one of the best female conductors out there, but that’s like being one of the best female Formula 1 drivers out there. Honorable, though not always inspiring, lacking confidence at times and with some technical flaws. In other words, she’s no Dausgaard. Nor Lewis Hamilton.
I agree to an extent with your opinion that Xian Zhang is a good conductor, but perhaps not an outstanding one. At least not yet, at this point in time.
Then again, one could say that about the vast majority of the conductors on the scene today, at least for the orchestras in the world with the larger annual budgets — like the Seattle Symphony.
I saw Xian Zhang conduct two concerts (in one program) with the Utah Symphony in January 2019.
Xian collaborated with concertmaster Madeline Adkins in a compelling rendition of Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto.
In that same program, Xian led the two performances of the suite from Richard Strauss’s opera Der Rosenkavalier in an idiomatic and even thrilling fashion.
Since Xian has been given a initial contract of five years with the Seattle Symphony, as its next music director, hopefully we can expect at least five commercial recordings on the orchestras own in-house record label, Seattle Symphony Media (SSM).
Conducting is not comparable to driving Formula 1. It’s not even comparable to playing the piano. Have you ever seen a 80-year-old Formula 1 driver on the circuit?
The analogy meant that as there are few outstanding practitioners in Ms Xian’s identity group, by virtue of being one of the rare good ones, she’s already ahead. Of course every comparison is imperfect, and you chose to focus on the differences which in this particular case are irrelevant.
It is important for US empire audiences that she smiles alot when conducting. That means she’s happy because she smiles.
Come on now, why deride another orchestra?