Janine Jansen Performs with New York Philharmonic for “Project 19”

Thu, Feb 13 - Tue, Feb 18  2020

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Jaap van Zweden conducts World Premiere “Stride 19” by Tania León with Janine Jansen on Violin

Starting in February 2020, the New York Philharmonic will launch Project 19; 19 commissions by women to celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment. Starting February 13th, Jaap van Zweden will conduct the world premiere of Tania León’s “Stride 19” with Janine Jansen on the violin.

Jaap van Zweden will conduct more of the Project 19 concerts. For a full overview of his 2019/2020 season, check out this post.

February 13, 15, 18 | David Geffen Hall | Tickets

Thursday, February 13, 2020, 7:30 p.m.
Open Rehearsal — 9:45 a.m.
Saturday, February 15, 2020, 8:00 p.m.
Tuesday, February 18, 2020, 7:30 p.m.

About Tania León

Born in Havana, Cuba, Tania León is highly regarded as a composer and conductor, and recognized for her accomplishments as an educator and advisor to arts organizations. A longtime resident of New York, she has played important roles at its institutions, such as the Dance Theater of Harlem, Brooklyn Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra and its Sonidos de las Américas festivals, and the New York Philharmonic, which she served as New Music Advisor.

Ms. León is the founder and artistic director of Composers Now, a nonprofit in New York City that celebrates the diversity of composers in the city and honors their contributions to the cultural fabric of society. A professor at Brooklyn College since 1985 and at the Graduate Center of CUNY, she was named distinguished professor of the City University of New York in 2006.

Her recent commissions include works for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and Ursula Oppens with the Cassatt Quartet. Ms. León is at work on her second opera, The Little Rock Nine, to a libretto by Thulani Davis, with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., serving as historical consultant; the opera was commissioned by the University of Central Arkansas College of Fine Arts and Communication. Her first opera, Scourge of Hyacinths, based on a play by Wole Soyinka with staging and design by Robert Wilson, received more than 20 performances in France, Switzerland, and Mexico.

Tania León has received Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. She has appeared as guest conductor throughout the US and on all continents of the world. Her honors include induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; recognition from the Fromm, Koussevitzky, and Guggenheim foundations; the ASCAP Victor Herbert Award; and a 2018 United States Artists Fellowship.

Tania Leon by Michael Provost

About Jaap van Zweden

Conductor Jaap van Zweden has become an international presence on three continents over the past decade. The 2018–19 season marks his first as the 26th Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. He continues as Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, a post he has held since 2012. Guest engagements this season include the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, San Francisco Symphony, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra, where he is Conductor Laureate. He has appeared as guest conductor with many other leading orchestras around the globe, among them the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre national de France, and London Symphony Orchestra.

In his inaugural season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, Jaap van Zweden conducts repertoire ranging from five World Premieres to symphonic cornerstones. He presides over three season pillars — each presenting a World Premiere — that contextualize music through programs complemented by citywide collaborations. Music of Conscience explores composers’ responses to the social issues of their time, with music by Beethoven, Shostakovich, John Corigliano, and David Lang. New York Stories: Threads of Our City looks at musical expressions of the immigrant experience in New York, centered on a premiere by Julia Wolfe. The Art of Andriessen spotlights the music of Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. Maestro van Zweden also welcomes New Yorkers to Phil the Hall, concerts for community and service professionals; the Annual Free Memorial Day Concert; and the Concerts in the Parks, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer.

Jaap van Zweden has made numerous acclaimed recordings. In February 2019 Decca Gold will release his live New York Philharmonic performances of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps and Debussy’s La Mer, continuing the Philharmonic’s partnership with Universal Music Group’s newly established US classical music label. In 2018 he completed a fouryear project with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, conducting the first-ever performances in Hong Kong of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, which have been recorded and released on Naxos Records. His highly praised performances of Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Parsifal — the last of which earned him the prestigious Edison Award for Best Opera Recording in 2012 — are available on CD and DVD.

Photo by Chris Lee

Born in Amsterdam, Jaap van Zweden was appointed at age 19 as the youngest-ever concertmaster of Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He began his conducting career almost 20 years later, in 1996. He remains Honorary Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, where he was Chief Conductor from 2005 to 2013, served as Chief Conductor of the Royal Flanders Orchestra from 2008 to 2011, and was Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2018. Jaap van Zweden was named Musical America’s 2012 Conductor of the Year and was the subject of a 60 Minutes profile on CBS in October 2018.

In 1997 Jaap van Zweden and his wife, Aaltje, established the Papageno Foundation to support families of children with autism. The Foundation has grown into a multifaceted organization that focuses on the development of children and young adults with autism. The Foundation provides in-home music therapy through a national network of qualified music therapists in The Netherlands; opened the Papageno House in 2015 (with Her Majesty Queen Maxima in attendance) for young adults with autism to live, work, and participate in the community; created a research center at the Papageno House for early diagnosis and treatment of autism and for analyzing the effects of music therapy on autism; develops funding opportunities to support autism programs; and, most recently, launched the app TEAMPapageno, which allows children with autism to communicate with each other through music composition.

About Janine Jansen

Janine Jansen by Marco Borggreve

A violinist with an enviable international reputation, Janine Jansen works regularly with the world’s preeminent orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, and New York Philharmonic. She was the featured artist at the 2014 BBC proms, culminating in an appearance at the world-renowned Last Night of the Proms.

Ms. Jansen has won numerous prizes, including four Edison Klassiek awards, three ECHO Klassik awards, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, an NDR Musikpreis for outstanding artistic achievement, and most recently the Concertgebouw Prize. She has also been awarded the VSCD Klassieke Muziekprijs for individual achievement and the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award for performances in the UK. Ms. Jansen studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Philippe Hirschhorn, and Boris Belkin.