Zdenek Macal

Czech-born Zdenek Macal, Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra since 1993, has received international acclaim, appearing as guest conductor with over 150 orchestras 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 and taking part in major international festivals including those in Vienna, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Prague, Zurich, Besançon, Athens, Montreux, Holland and the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.

Since his American debut with the Chicago Symphony in 1972, 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, San Francisco, Dallas, Detroit, Atlanta, Montreal and Toronto.

His most recent seasons have included guest appearances with the St. Louis Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, National Symphony, New World Symphony, the Juilliard Orchestra, Manhattan School of Music, and internationally with the Vienna SymphonyOrchestra, Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, National Orchestre France, Frankfurter Museum-Gesellschaft Orchestra, and the West German Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Recording for Delos, Macal has led the NJSO in Dvoˇrák's Stabat Mater, and Glière's Symphony No. 2 and Red Poppy Suite, and a Mussorgsky program including Pictures at an Exhibition, scenes from Khovanshchina, and Dream of the Peasant Gritzko (Schebalin's choral/orchestral version of Night on Bald Mountain). All of these recordings have elicited rave reviews. Maestro Macal has also recorded for the EMI, French Decca, Supraphon, Koss and Deutsche Grammophon labels.

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

Zdenek 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 Janácek Academy of Music where he graduated with the highest honors in 1960. Macal first received international attention by winning two prestigious contests, the 1965 International Conducting Competition in Besançon, France, and the 1966 Dmitri Mitropoulos Competition in New York, chaired by the late Leonard Bernstein.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey'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, a true state orchestra, performs over 150 concerts each season from Englewood to Atlantic City, including Masterworks, Chamber Orchestra, Winter Pops, and Family subscription concerts, an extensive educational program, free summer pops concerts, and many special events. While maintaining an active statewide presence, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will also be the resident orchestra in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, opening in 1997.

Zdenek Macal, Music Director of the NJSO since 1993, has been associated with the Orchestra for a number of years as a guest conductor and as Artistic Advisor since 1992. 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 1960s, when it was led by Kenneth Schermerhorn, the NJSO's growth in the 1970s under Music Director Henry Lewis was dramatic, bringing the NJSO into the national spotlight by expanding its geographic reach throughout New Jersey, to Carnegie Hall, the United Nations, and the Kennedy Center.

Since 1985, the NJSO has enjoyed new stature as a nationally and internationally prominent artistic force. During this period the Orchestra has gained outstanding critical acclaim for concerts in New Jersey, frequent performances in New York, at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and concerts abroad.

Almost every great artist of international stature has appeared with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. On television, the NJSO has been featured in three PBS specials, including an historic concert with Luciano Pavarotti at Madison Square Garden, and an Emmy Award-winning program with Sarah Vaughan at Newark Symphony Hall.