Erik Ochsner, Music Director

In 2025, Finnish-American conductor Erik Ochsner was officially named the ninth Music Director of the almost 100-year-old Youngstown Symphony Orchestra (“YSO”). 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 detail and precise synchronization.

With the YSO, he has led a large variety of repertoire: from Cherubini and Beethoven to Berlioz, Mahler, Prokofiev, Respighi, Wagner, and Williams; from a Frank Sinatra concert to a Holiday Pops concert; 3 films so far: Ghostbusters, Home Alone, and Back to the Future, plus he’s introduced YSO audiences to several unknown, or not-often performed, composers: Frederic Delius, Eugene Kapp, Uuono Klami, Alexander Mosolov, Anna Thorwaldsdottir, not to mention a collaboration with the Vindys!

Recent highlights include 2 performances of Lion King (1994) Live in Concert with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra in Muscat, Oman; 5 projections with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (one was called Walt Disney Animation Studios – A Decade in Concert, where Ochsner conducted, narrated, and made his professional whistling debut); stepping in for a colleague to conduct Star Wars in Concert Episode 4: A New Hope and Ratatouillle in Montreal, Canada, plus his 51st performance of La La Land Live in Concert in Vancouver, Canada.

Upcoming performances: Amadeus in Concert in Kuopio, Finland; Nightmare Before Christmas in Ottawa, Canada; and a private pops concert in Warsaw, Poland for the Annual Conference of Polish Pharmacists.

Working with his friend Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Ochsner commissioned Grandfather Camp: An Orchestral Fantasy, composed by Tom Chapin and John Foster for singing three actors and chamber orchestra: The story is based on Dr. Ruth’s writings about grandparenting. The piece will be workshopped in January 2027!

Ochsner’s long relationship with the Krakow International Film Music Festival has 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 Concert.

from 2017-2019, Ochsner was Principal Touring Conductor for La La Land Live in Concert, conducting 50 performances across the globe fo Justin Hurwitz’s Academy Award and Grammy Award winning score, often performing with tow of the original recording artsits, pianist Randy Kerber, and trumpeter Wayne Bergeron.

Mary Poppins (1964) (world premiere): Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Opera House; Love Actually: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; Beauty and the Beast (2017) in Concert: Taipei Symphony Orchestra on 40 hours’ notice; Nanjing Forest Music Festival (China); 18 suites of Hollywood film music; Opera America New Works Showcase (New York City) Music Director, 2017. The Music of Star Wars (world premiere); National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ottawa, Canada; concert featuring the iconic music of John Williams, as well as award-winning video game composers Gordy Haab and Kyle Newmaster.

Additional film projects: Batman (1989), Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pixar in Concert, Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Wars in Concert: Episodes 4, 5, 6, and 7.

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, Muscat, Nashville, New York, Ottawa, Portland, Reykjavik, Richmond, Rochester, Round Top, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Seoul, Shaghai, Sofia, South Bend, St. Louis, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Sydney, Taipei, Tampere, Thessaloniki, Tokyo, Vancouver, Wellington, Youngstown.

As Founder and Music Director of SONOS Chamber Orchestra, a performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (arranged for 4 pianos and 2 percussionists) was reviewed by the New York Times, “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, with some words in Japanese, Chinese, and Finnish. His mentors and teachers included Robert Spano, Charles Bruck, Erich Kunzel, Marin Alsop, and Helmuth Riling. He lives in New York City, loves traveling, wine, and collecting requiem recordings.

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
(1810-1856)

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

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