Nuremberg Symphony

Artistic quality and stylistic flexibility – these features represent the trademark of the Nuremberg Symphony. Since its foundation in 1946 the orchestra has been active in all kinds of musical fields: opera, operetta, oratorio, film and in particular the symphonic concert. No matter which genre - it makes music an adventure.

Acting as the concert orchestra of the European metropolitan area of Nuremberg, the Nuremberg Symphony brings the joy of classical music to an audience of almost 200,000 people every year performing some 100 concerts every season. While focusing on the classical and romantic repertoire in its symphonic concerts at the Nuremberg Meistersinger Hall, it is devoted to exciting projects across different genres like pop, jazz, film and literature in its series at the Music Hall. In Advent the city-hall concerts brimming with Christ-massy atmosphere and focusing on festive baroque music are a must for the visitors of the famous Nuremberg Christmas market. And the entire world of music is covered in its programmes when performing at the Serenade Court during the summer season or at Europe’s biggest Classic Open Air in the Luitpoldhain, a large park.

A further centrepiece of its work is formed by the age-appropriate and interactive children’s and teenager’s concerts with which it committedly participates in supporting the new blood of concert goers. Thus in our concerts given in cooperation with partners such as MUBIKIN (acronym for musical education for children and youngsters in Nuremberg) the peewees sit next to the pros, whilst in the projects together with Klasse.Im.Puls youngsters with particular need of educational support may perform on stage first time. In 2012 the orchestra was awarded the Paula-Maurer-Prize for a special children’s project. Aside from that new performance formats such as concerts for persons suffering from dementia or genre-boosting productions with pop and jazz music are in focus.

The year 1993 represented a highlight in the orchestra’s history: the Nuremberg Symphony won one of the coveted Grammy Awards in Los Angeles for its sensational recording of the main title music for the TV series Beauty and the Beast - the peak of a “Hollywood connection” reaching far back into the 1950’s, when the orchestra recorded the film scores for Ben Hur and Quo Vadis.

For a long time the Nuremberg Symphony has performed well on the international stage. World class artists such as Cecilia Bartoli, Cheryl Studer, Edita Gruberova and José Carreras made music with it and splendid names like Albrecht Mayer, Martin Stadtfeld, Cameron Carpenter, Daniel Hope, Mischa Maisky, Martin Grubinger or Sabine Meyer fascinated repeatedly the Nuremberg audience together with the Nuremberg Symphony. During his 8 years of being its Chief Conductor, drawing to an end in summer 2017, the brilliant and charismatic British Alexander Shelley managed to lift the orchestra to a new artistic level and to an outstanding popularity.

Being internationally celebrated by audiences and press alike, the up-and-coming star Kahchun Wong is going to take over the baton starting with the 2018/19 season. With the winner of the prestigious 5th Mahler competition the Nuremberg Symphony have thus paved the way in good time for a successful future guaranteeing highest quality.

Since 2003 Lucius A. Hemmer has been Managing Director of the Nuremberg Symphony. Since then the orchestra has completed a number of international guest performances in Vienna, Prague, Milan and several cities in Japan and China. There are again plans for a big tour of Asia in the upcoming season 2017/18.

Inspired and self-confident, the Nuremberg Symphony carries out its interpre-tations “made in Nuremberg” into the whole world.

Nuremberg Symphony – experience music!

Violinist: Mengla Huang

As one of the most active violinists in the world stage, Huang came to international attention after taking first prize at the prestigious Premio Paganini International Violin Competition in 2002. He has performed with many of the world’s finest orchestras including the Dresden Staatskapelle, Bamberg, Danish National,NHK Symphony Orchestra, China Philharmonic,Shanghai, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestras, Hong Kong Philharmonics, among many others. Conductors with whom he has collaborated include names such as Neeme Järvi, Jonathan Nott, Long Yu, Mario Venzago, Henrik Schaefer, Muhai Tang, Jia Lü etc.

In April 2007, Huang gave his New York debut at Lincoln Center and his Boston debut at the Jordan Hall. He capped the year with an invitation to perform at the grand opening gala of the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. At the beginning of 2011, he initiated cooperation with the renowned Dresden Staatskapelle and toured together in China and Germany. The year followed by a series concerts in Japan and Italy. In second half of 2014, he toured in Japan and Italy. His latest recording project was the 24 caprices by Paganini, which was released in 2011. He is the first Chinese violinest who records for DG exclusively.

Conductor: Kahchun Wong

An innovative and passionate force both on and off the conductor’s podium, Singaporean conductor Kahchun Wong came to international recognition as the winner of the 5th International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in 2016, following in the footsteps of Gustavo Dudamel, who then invited him to be a Conducting Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2016/2017 season. In January 2017, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra named him as their next Chief Conductor, a position he will assume from the 2018/2019 season.

Highlights of Wong's current and future seasons include European debuts with the Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre Capitole du Toulouse, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Weimar, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Teatro lirico Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste and Orquestra de València, as well as Asian debuts with the Tokyo Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Kanagawa Philharmonic, Shanghai Philharmonic and Kunming Symphony. He will also return to the Bamberg Symphony, George Enescu Philharmonic, China Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony and Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Having assisted Valery Gergiev and Yannick Nezet-Seguin with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, as well as Dudamel and Esa-Pekka Salonen with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Wong will travel with Ivan Fischer with the Budapest Festival Orchestra on its North American tour in January 2018. As Nuremberg’s Chief Conductor Designate, he will embark on an extensive tour of China in December 2017 and lead Klassik Open Air, the largest European outdoor festival of classical music in summer 2018.

Known for his depth and sincere musicality, Musical America’s June 2016 Artist of the Month has been invited and re-invited to multiple orchestras following last-minute debuts. The same summer, Wong captivated audiences in China, stepping in for an indisposed Jesús Lopez Cobos for three consecutive subscription weeks with the China Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony and Guangzhou Symphony. In September 2016, he was asked, this time with only twelve hours’ notice, to replace the violinist/conductor Augustin Dumay with the Kansai Philharmonic. Most recently in May 2017, he stood in for Antonello Manacorda with the Staatsphilharmonie Rhineland-Pfalz to critical acclaim.

An advocate of music education, Wong is the co-founder of Project Infinitude, a grassroots initiative for children from diverse backgrounds to inspire their first musical steps. As he feels strongly about giving back to the community which has raised him, the pilot program has taken place in Singapore at the Enabling Village, a space where people with different abilities can feel accepted for who they are. He and his co-founder Marina Mahler, granddaughter of the composer Gustav Mahler, look to expand the project in a sustainable and thoughtful way to more communities in the future.

Originally a trumpet player, Wong read composition at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music and continued his education in conducting with Christian Ehwald and Hans-Dieter Baum at the Hanns-Eisler Musikhochschule in Berlin, Germany. In 2011 and 2012, he studied with Robert Spano at the Aspen Academy for Conducting, and in 2013, he received the Bruno Walter Conducting Scholarship at the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music. He was additionally twice selected by Bernard Haitink for his masterclasses at the Lucerne Festival in 2012 and 2014. A protégé of Kurt Masur, Wong had the privilege of sharing the podium together with him in his last years on multiple occasions, in cities such as Leipzig, New York and Tokyo.