September 3, 2002
NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Zdenek Macal - Music Director

The NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, the state's preeminent performing arts organization, is one of the oldest orchestras in the United States. It was founded in 1922, but traces its roots to 1846, when the Eintracht Orchestra and Singing Society of Newark was founded. Today, the NJSO fulfills its mission as a true state orchestra by performing over 150 concerts each year from Englewood to Cape May including classical, pops, summer parks and summer Amadeus Festival concerts as well as many special events. The NJSO also takes great pride in its extensive education programs which bring over 50,000 schoolchildren to performances each year. While maintaining an active statewide presence, the NJSO is the Resident Orchestra of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, NJ.
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Zdenek Macal, an internationally renowned maestro, was appointed Music Director of the NJSO in 1993. Under his leadership the NJSO has enjoyed new stature as a nationally and internationally prominent artistic force. Prior to Macal, the Orchestra was led by Hugh Wolff, Music Director from 1985-92, an era of great artistic and organizational growth. A fully professional ensemble only since the 1960's, when it was led by Kenneth Schermerhorn, the NJSO's growth in the 1970's under Music Director Henry Lewis was dramatic, bringing the NJSO into the national spotlight by expanding its geographical reach throughout New Jersey, to Carnegie Hall, the United Nations and the Kennedy Center.

Almost every great artist of international stature has appeared with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. On television, the NJSO has been featured in five PBS specials, including performances with Andrea Bocelli at Liberty State Park, Luciano Pavarotti at Madison Square Garden, an Emmy-award winning program with Sarah Vaughan at Newark Symphony Hall, and an acclaimed performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Westminster Symphonic Choir from the NJSO's Opening Night Celebration at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC). Zdenek Macal has led the NJSO in five acclaimed recordings on the Delos International label: Dvorįk's Stabat Mater was released in 1994, Gliere's Red Poppy Suite and Symphony No. 2 was released in 1996, an all-Mussorgsky CD including Pictures at an Exhibition, the Introduction and Galitsin¹s Journey from Khovanshchina, and the Dream of the Peasant Gritzko (Night on Bald Mountain) from Sorochinsky Fair was released in 1997, Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique and the "Love Scene" from Romeo et Juliette was released in the fall of 1998, and Dvorak's Requiem and the Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" was released in the spring of 2000.

Czech-born ZDENEK MACAL, appointed Music Director of the NJSO in 1993, is renowned for his passionate, graceful conducting style. He has guest conducted over 150 orchestras world-wide, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, L'Orchestre de Paris, National Orchestra of France, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Czech Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Orchestra della Scala, Stockholm Philharmonic, Hamburg Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, and NHK Tokyo, as well as the Prague National Theatre, Smetena Theater, Brno Opera, and the opera houses in Cologne, Geneva, Turino, and Bologna. He has taken part in major international festivals including those in Vienna, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Prague, Zurich, Athens, Montreux, Holland, the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and the Ravinia, Tanglewood, and Wolf Trap Festivals in the United States.

Since his American debut with the Chicago Symphony in 1972, Maestro Macal has conducted widely throughout North America, regularly leading the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Detroit, Atlanta, Montreal and Toronto. Macal has been associated with the NJSO since 1992 when he was appointed Artistic Advisor.

In 1999, Maestro Macal was named Director of Conducting Studies and Artistic Advisor at the Manhattan School of Music's Graduate Conducting Program with Orchestra, a program that began in the fall of 2000.

Guesting highlights of Macal's 2000-2001 season in North America include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and multiple engagements with the Manhattan School of Music. His international guesting highlights include the Ochestre National de France and multiple engagements with the Prague Symphony Orchestra.

Maestro Macal has helped to build the NJSO's reputation through an exclusive recording contract with Delos International and the introduction of several highly acclaimed festivals, including the summer Amadeus Festival which takes place in Newark and Princeton, New Jersey. Macal and the NJSO celebrated the opening of the acclaimed New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey, with a gala performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which was taped for a national broadcast in December 1997.

In May 2000, Maestro Macal and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra released Dvorak's Requiem and the Symphony No. 9 in E minor "From the New World" on the Delos International label. Macal has led the NJSO in four other recordings on the Delos label: Dvorak's Stabat Mater was released in 1994; Gliere's Red Poppy Suite and Symphony No. 2 was released in 1996; a third recording, featuring the music of Mussorgsky was released in 1997; and a recording featuring Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique was released in 1998. In addition to Delos, Maestro Macal has recorded for the EMI, French Decca, Supraphon, Deutsche Gramophone, and Koss Classics labels. Under the Koss label, Macal has recorded all of the Dvorak symphonies and tone poems, as well as a recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Macal has been heard with the Milwaukee Symphony in broadcasts throughout the United States, and with the New Jersey Symphony in national radio broadcasts on the American Public Radio network.

Maestro Macal, who is now a U.S. citizen, was born in 1936 in Brno, Czechoslovakia. At the age of four, he began violin studies with his father, and went on to attend the Brno Conservatory and the Janacek Academy of Music where he graduated with the highest honors in 1960. His previous positions include Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Cologne Radio Symphony and the Radio Symphony of Hanover, Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Conductor of Chicago¹s Grant Park Summer Festival. Macal was Principal Conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra, where he conducted both symphonic and operatic performances.

Maestro Macal first received international attention by winning two prestigious contests, the1965 International Conducting Competition in Besancon, France, and the 1966 Dmitri Mitropoulos Competition in New York, chaired by the late Leonard Bernstein.

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