Frank Huang

Frank Huang has led the New York Philharmonic's violin section as concertmaster since 2015, the chair that gives the first cue to every string entrance and plays the solo lines written into the orchestra's repertoire. He steps forward here as soloist in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, a piece he plays from inside an orchestra he otherwise leads by example rather than words.

As concertmaster, Huang's playing is built for ensemble as much as solo display, a clean, unforced sound that can cut through a full orchestra without pushing. In Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, listen for how the soloist and orchestra trade the melody back and forth from the very opening bars, a break from the formal introductions concertos usually got before Mendelssohn wrote this one. The rest of the program leans into Korngold, a composer who wrote for Hollywood films before this concert-hall writing, so expect lush orchestration and long melodic lines that reward the same warmth Huang brings to Mendelssohn. Strauss's waltz suite from Der Rosenkavalier closes the evening on a lighter, dance-driven note.

Huang trained as a violinist and built a career in American orchestras, including a term as concertmaster of the Houston Symphony, before winning the concertmaster post at the New York Philharmonic in 2015, one of the most visible chairs in American orchestral music. A concertmaster is chosen by audition, sits in the first chair of the first violins, and cues bowings and phrasing that the rest of the string section follows. Beyond that path, more specific details of his training and early career are not confirmed here.