Erik Ochsner, Music Director

Finnish-American conductor Erik Ochsner is honored and thrilled to be the new Artistic Director and Music Director of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra. He first appeared with the orchestra to conduct performances of Ghostbusters Live in Concert in 2022; subsequently he has been invited back as a guest conductor seven times culminating in his hiring. 

Ochsner’s versatility as a conductor has stretched across a broad range of repertoire: from conducting as few as five performers in contemporary and modern works, to leading 300 performers across 20+ full length films using the Live in Concert format. Audiences and critics alike praise Ochsner’s energy, attention to dtails, and precise synchronization.

Highlights of his appearances in Youngstown: Mahler Symphony No. 1, Strauss’ Overture to Die Fledermaus, Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23, a specially curated concert including 7 works called Unknown and Gorgeous: River and Iron, which featured the US premiere of Uuno Klami’s Kalevala Suite, and Eugene Kapp’s Kalevipoeg Ballet Suite (1947), plus Respighi’s Pines of Rome; Two more film concerts, Home Alone in Concert, and Back to the Future in Concert; a concert featuring The Vindys and the YSO, a narrated Superheroes concert, a Romeo and Juliet concert with soprano Avery Boettcher, and a concert with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 and 2 pieces of Luigi Cherubini. 

Most recently, Ochsner conducted three performances of Lion King (1994) Live in Concert, and three performances of Frozen Live in Concert with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Upcoming performances include performances of Star Wars in Concert: Episode 6: Return of the Jedi and Nightmare Before Christmas with the Filmharmonique orchestra in Edmonton, Canada, and Lion King (1994) Live in Concert in Oman. 

Working with his friend Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Ochsner commissioned Tom Chapin and John Foster to create a new piece for three actors and chamber orchestra: Grandfather Camp: An Orchestral Fantasy. The story is based on Dr. Ruth’s writings about grandparenting. A successful development workshop took place, and the piece is currently being orchestrated for future performance!

Ochsner’s long relationship with the Krakow International Film Music Festival have been hugely successful leading sold out performances in a 16,000-seat arena of Pixar in Concert, Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, and Lion King (1994) (all performed in Polish), plus Disney in Concert: The Magic of Music with the Krakow Film Festival Youth Orchestra. 

As Principal Touring Conductor for La La Land Live in Concert, Ochsner conducted 50 performances across the globe of Justin Hurwitz’s Academy Award and Grammy Award winning score, often performing with two of the original recording artists, pianist Randy Kerber, and trumpeter Wayne Bergeron.

Ochsner conducted the world premiere of Mary Poppins (1964) with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House; made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducting Love Actually; on 40 hours’ notice, he flew to Taipei to conduct Beauty and the Beast in Concert to fill for an ailing colleague; at the Nanjing Forest Music Festival in China, he conducted a concert of 18 suites of Hollywood film music; Music Director of the 2017 Opera America New Works Showcase in New York City. In collaboration with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Ochsner led the premiere of The Music of Star Wars featuring the iconic music of John Williams, as well as award-winning video game composers Gordy Haab and Kyle Newmaster. 

Other Film projects he has conducted include: Back to the Future, Beauty and the Beast (2017), Batman (1989), Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Frozen, Ghostbusters, Home Alone, La La Land, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, Love Actually, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pixar in Concert, Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Wars in Concert: Episodes 4, 5, and 6.

Equally comfortable on the concert stage or leading opera, oratorio, and multi-media performances, he has performed in Adelaide, Athens, Beijing, Budapest, Calgary, Dallas, dammam, Detroit, Indianapolis, Jakarta, Kitchener-Waterloo, Krakow, Leipzig, Louisiana, Louisville, Melbourne, México City, Montreal, Monterrey, Moscow, Nashville, New York, Ottawa, Portland, Reykjavik, Richmond, Rochester, Round Top, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Seoul, Shanghai, Sofia, South Bend, St. Louis, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Sydney, Taipei, Tampere, Vancouver, Wellington, Youngstown.

He is Founder and Music Director of SONOS Chamber Orchestra which performed Rite of Spring in an arrangement for 4 pianos and 2 percussionists. The New York Times said, “All the hallmarks of a great “Rite” were here.”

During an 8-year collaboration, Ochsner served as Rehearsal Conductor for Academy Award winning composer Tan Dun (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Highlights include Assistant Conductor and Chorus Master for The First Emperor workshop, a Metropolitan Opera commission, and Cover Conductor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of The Map, a multimedia cello featuring Yo-Yo Ma, with performances in Boston, Carnegie Hall, and Tanglewood.

The Bulgarian Monitor said “Sensuality and synchronicity, matched by perfection, accompanied each of the melodies during La La Land: Live in Concert.” Radio Canada wrote, “[Ochsner] was of remarkable precision to the musical direction…the music of the orchestra seemed to emanate from the film. There was no distinction between the screen and the stage.” The Ontario Arts Review has said “Watch this man, he is brilliant.”

Recordings include Brian Wilbur Grundstrom: An Orchestral Journey (CD), and Tea: A Mirror of Soul (DVD).

Ochsner attended The Pierre Monteux School and is a graduate of Dartmouth College. He speaks French, German, and Italian. His mentors and teachers include Robert Spano, Charles Bruck, Erich Kunzel, Marin Alsop, and Helmuth Riling. He lives in New York City, loves traveling, wine, and collecting requiem recordings. 

www.erikochsner.com and www.SONOSChamberOrch.org and YouTube

Jenny Lin, Pianist

Pianist Jenny Lin is an artist of keen musicianship, brilliant technique, and a compelling perspective shaped by a deep fluency in global culture. Born in Taiwan, raised in Austria, educated in Europe and America, Lin has built a vibrant international career, notable for innovative collaborations with a range of artists and creators. In every performance, Jenny Lin places her considerable technical skills and her fierce intellect at the service of the composer’s intention, yielding results that win the loyalty and rapt attention of audiences and fellow artists alike.

In recent seasons, Lin has performances – both digital, and in person – for Washington Performing Arts; at Hudson Hall performing the American premiere of William Bolcom’s Suite of Preludes; at Boston Conservatory’s piano series; at Little Island in NYC; and at Winnipeg New Music Festival. She also released a number of new albums, including Simple Music with music by Giya Kancheli in partnership with accordionist Guy Klucevsek; Liszt Harmonies poétiques et religieuses on the Steinway label with pianist Adam Tendler; and a new recording featuring the complete vocal works of Artur Schnabel with contralto Sara Couden, a complement to Lin’s earlier album of the complete Schnabel piano works.

Recent performances include dates for the Mostly Mozart Festival; at “Angel’s Share” in the catacombs of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery; at St. Olaf College; at OKM Music in Oklahoma; and as the featured pianist in Elliot Goldenthal’s original motion picture score for Julie Taymor’s film, The Glorias. She performed a recital of Philip Glass’s music for the Morris Museum – a continuation of a close collaboration with Glass, with whom she has appeared regularly since 2014. This experience has inspired the creation of her own commissioning initiative, The Etudes Project, in which she works with a range of living composers to create new technical piano etudes, pairing each new piece with an existing etude from the classical canon. The results form both a series of solo recital programs and albums released by Sono Luminus. The first volume showcases Lin’s commissioning by ICEBERG New Music, a composer collective including a range of brilliant emerging composers. The Etudes Project; Vol. 1 ICEBERG was released to critical acclaim, and Volume 2 is forthcoming.

Other notable recordings in Lin’s catalogue (which includes more than 50 albums, on Hänssler Classic, eOne, BIS, New World, Albany, et al) include Philip Glass’s Etudes, the complete Chopin Nocturnes, Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues Op. 87, the Liszt Sonata and Schumann Fantasie. Lin has also recorded “Get Happy,” an album of Broadway song arrangements, and her ingenious Steinway & Sons release of transcriptions of the songs of Chinese pop singer Teresa Teng.

Jenny Lin is the central figure in “Cooking for Jenny” by Felix Cabez for Elemental Films, a musical documentary portraying her journey to Spain. Other media appearances include CBS Sunday Morning, NPR Performance Today, and “Speaking for Myself”, a documentary by filmmaker Bert Shapiro, about Manhattan as seen through the eyes of eight contemporary artists.

A passionate advocate for education, Jenny created “Melody’s Mostly Musical Day“, a musical album and picture book for children, following the adventures of an imaginative little girl from breakfast to bedtime, told in a collection of 26 classical piano works from Mozart to Gershwin. Since the publication of the book, Lin has toured a multimedia concert version of the program which she performs regularly at schools and educational institutions throughout North America. This season also marks a decade of outreach concerts Lin has programmed and presented in retirements communities.

Lin has performed with orchestras throughout the world, including the American Symphony Orchestra, NDR and SWR German Radio Orchestras, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, and others, with conductors including Lothar Zagrosek, Jiri Starek, Urs Schneider, Alexander Mickelthwate, Kek-Tjiang Lim, Wen-Pin Chien, Peter Bay, James Bagwell, Celso Antunes and Daniel Raiskin. She has given premieres of piano concertos by composers such as Stefano Gervasoni, Valentin Silvestrov, Unsuk Chin, and Haralabos Stayfalakis, and presented in performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, at BAM Next Wave, Spoleto USA, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and elsewhere.

Fluent in English, German, Mandarin, and French, Jenny Lin studied Noel Flores at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, with Julian Martin at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, and with Dominique Weber in Geneva. She has also worked with Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, and Blanca Uribe, and at Italy’s Fondazione Internazionale per il pianoforte with Dimitri Bashkirov and Andreas Staier. In addition to her musical studies, Lin holds a bachelor’s degree in German Literature from The Johns Hopkins University. Jenny Lin currently resides with her family in New York City and serves on the faculty of Mannes College The New School for Music.

Lin served as the Executive Director of the Manchester Music Festival from 2023-2024, overseeing its 50th Anniversary Season. She was recently appointed Director of Music for The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC.

Gabriela Lena Frank                                                                    Elegía Andina
(b. 1972)

Philip Glass                                                                                     Concerto for Piano No. 2 “Lewis and Clark”
(b. 1937)                                                                                             Jenny Lin, piano

INTERMISSION

Robert Schumann                                                                        Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, WoO 3: Overture
(1820-1856)

Robert Schumann                                                                        Symphony No. 3 “Rhenish”
(1810-1856)

Jenny Lin, Pianist

Pianist Jenny Lin is an artists of keen musicianship, brilliant technique, and a compelling perspective shaped by a deep fluency in global culture. Born in Taiwan, raised in Austria, educated in Europe and America, Lin has built a vibrant international career, notable for innovative collaborations with a range of artists and creators. In every performance, Jenny Lin places her considerable technical skills and her fierce intellect at the service of the composer’s intention, yielding results that win the loyalty and rapt attention of audiences and fellow artists alike. 

In recent seasons, Lin has performances – both digital, and in person – for Washington Performing Arts; an Hudson Hall performing the American premiere of William Bolcom’s Suite of Preludes; at Boston Conservatory’s piano series; at Little Island in NYC; and at Winnipeg New Music Festival. She also released a number of new albums, including Simple Music with music by Giya Kancheli in partnership with accordionist Guy Klucevsek; Liszt Harmonies poétiques et religieuses on the Steinway label with pianist Adam Tendler; and a new recording featuring the complete vocal works of Artur Schnabel with contralto Sara Couden, a complement to Lin’s earlier album of the complete Schnabel piano works.

Recent performances include dates for the Mostly Mozart Festival; at “Angel’s Share” in the catacombs of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery; at at St. Olaf College; at OKM Music in Oklahoma; and as the featured pianist in Elliot Goldenthal’s original motion picture score for Julie Taymor’s film, The Glorias. She performed a recital of Philip Glass’s music for the Morris Museum – a continuation of a close collaboration with Glass, with whom she has appeared regularly since 2014. This experience has inspired the creation of her own commissioning initiative, The Etudes Project, in which she works with a range of living composers to create new technical piano etudes, pairing each new piece with an existing etude from the classical canon. The results form both a series of solo recital programs and albums released by Sono Luminus. The first volume showcases Lin’s commissioning by ICEBERG New Music, a composer collective including a range of brilliant emerging composers. The Etudes Project; Vol. 1 ICEBERG was released to critical acclaim, and Volume 2 is forthcoming.

Other notable recordings in LIn’s catalogue (which includes more than 50 albums, on Hänssler Classic, eOne, BIS, New World, Albany, et al) include Philip Glass’s Etudes, the complete Chopin Nocturnes, Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues OP. 87, the Liszt Sonata and Schumann Fantasie. Lin has also recorded “Get Happy,” an album of Broadway song arrangements, and her ingenious Steinway & Sons release of transcriptions of the songs on Chinese pop singer Teresa Teng.

Jenny Lin is the central figure in “Cooking for Jenny” by Felix Cabez for Elemental Films, a musical documentary portraying her journey to Spain. Other media appearances include CBS Sunday Morning, NPR Performance Today, and “Speaking for Myself”, a documentary by filmmaker Bert Shapiro, about Manhattan as seen through the eyes of eight contemporary artists.

A passionate advocate for education, Jenny created “Melody’s Mostly Musical Day,” a musical album and picture book for children, following the adventures of an imaginative little girl from breakfast to bedtime, told in a collection of 26 classical piano works from Mozart to Gershwin. Since the publication of the book, Lin has toured a multimedia concert version of the program which she performs regularly at schools and educational institutions throughout North America. This season also marks a decade of outreach concerts Lin has programmed and presented in retirement communities. 

Lin has performed with orchestras throughout the world, including the American Symphony Orchestra, NDR and SWR German Radio Orchestras, The RAI National Symphony Orchestra, and others, with conductors including Lothar Zagrosek, Jiri Starek, Urs Schneider, Alexander Mickelthwate, Kek-Tjiang Lim, Wen-Pin Chien, Peter Bay, James Bagwell, Celso Antunes, and Daniel Raiskin. She has given premieres of piano concertos by composers such as Stefano Gervasoni, Valentin Silvestrov, Unsuk Chin, and Heralabos Stayfalakis, and presented in performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, at BAM Next Wave, Spoleto USA, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and elsewhere.

Fluent in English, German, Mandarin, and French, Jenny Lin studied Noel Flores at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, with Julian Martin at the Peabody COnservaotry in Baltimore, and with Dominique Weber in Geneva. She has also worked with Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, and Bianca uribe, and at Italy’s Fondazione Internazionale per il pianoforte with Dmitri Bashkirov and Andreas Staier. In addition to her musical studies, Lin holds a bachelor’s degree in German Literature from The Johns Hopkins University. Jenny Lin currently resides with her family in New York City and serves on the faculty of Mannes College The New School for Music. Lin served as the Executive Director of the Manchester Music Festival from 2023-2024, overseeing its 50th Anniversary Season. She was recently appointed Director of Music for The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC.