New Jersey Symphony : Season Finale: Ravels Bolero with Xian Zhang
About This Event
The New Jersey Symphony closes its season at NJPAC with a performance of Maurice Ravel’s Boléro conducted by Xian Zhang. Ravel’s score — long adapted between concert-hall and popular settings — foregrounds steady orchestral variation and formal clarity; the orchestra’s versatility and Zhang’s experience with diverse repertoire shape this season finale.
About Boléro
Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel’s *Boléro* (1928) is built on a single, unchanging rhythmic pulse and a melody that returns again and again, passed through the orchestra as the sound steadily accumulates. Its cultural afterlife in New York is long, from early performances by the city’s major orchestras to its later adoption by ballet and film, where its slow escalation became shorthand for modern spectacle. Now at NJPAC, the New Jersey Symphony performs the score under Xian Zhang. The piece can read as an experiment in repetition that turns orchestration into narrative.
About the Artists
New Jersey Symphony
The New Jersey Symphony is a professional orchestra based in New Jersey, known for performing a wide range of classical and contemporary music.
Xian Zhang
Xian Zhang is a prominent conductor known for her work with various orchestras and her contributions to classical music.
Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel appears in New York City programs at Groupmuse NYC, where his sets move between Rock/Pop framing and repertoire that nods to the concert hall. He has been billed alongside music by Astor Piazzolla and Johann Sebastian Bach, including events titled “Piazzolla, Bach, Ravel and more.