Last September, a group of New York Philharmonic musicians performed at a small church near Lincoln Center. Included on the concert: music by J.S. Bach and Mozart. On the podium: no one. Instead, all eyes were on Frank Huang. It was he who set the tempos and tone of the performance, conveying the arc of the music to his colleagues through eye contact and gestures.
It is a role familiar to Huang who, as the Philharmonic’s Concertmaster, leads the violin section and serves as conduit between the conductor and the Orchestra as a whole, helping to clarify musical phrasing and technical issues that may arise. Audiences are familiar with his arrival onstage to cue the A from the oboe when the Orchestra tunes, and as the one who often performs solos when the other violins are silent.
What those in the hall cannot see are the offstage tasks that begin weeks before a performance.
“I get the score and indicate bowings and phrasing to maximize the character of the piece or help with technical difficulties,” explains Huang. “This can be extremely tricky, especially because the Philharmonic plays so many premieres and commissions. In many cases, sometimes you don’t know exactly what the composer had in mind, and it can be pretty challenging to figure out how to get the sound he or she wants.” He cites occasions where the composer’s notes direct the musicians to tap their instruments with pencils, spin noisy balls in their hands, or sync with electronic sounds.
When it comes to performance, “Visual information is so important on stage,” Huang says. “I try to make eye contact with the other musicians as much as possible, and ideally with the conductor. We strive to make sure we’re always there for the conductor and each other, and that everyone is on the same page. If you get a conductor who has a different approach to cuing, the concertmaster is a familiar sightline to lock onto visually.” In rehearsal the concertmaster can even step in and verbally interpret the maestro’s vision into language that the musicians can understand and implement.
Each year Huang steps in front of his colleagues to perform a concerto with the Orchestra; this year he is the soloist in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 (December 5–7), which he last played about 15 years ago. “I’ve always loved this piece,” he says. “This concerto is complex, but the slow movement is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever heard. The concerto has a lot of complicated rhythms, and the second movement is challenging in terms of sound production — holding long notes for extended periods of time, which is hard to sustain over an orchestra. There is a lot going on!”
Born in Beijing to professional musicians, Frank Huang arrived in Houston at age seven, and began studying the violin with his mother. At 16 he enrolled in the pre-college program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with David Weilerstein, and received a bachelor of music degree from there in 2002. He subsequently attended Juilliard, where he currently serves on the faculty. He has won numerous violin competitions and performed with major ensembles, including as first violinist of the Grammy Award–winning Yin Quartet, and then served as concertmaster of the Houston Symphony for five years before he joined the New York Philharmonic as Concertmaster in 2015.
“The fun thing about playing in a great orchestra is it can feel like a string quartet where everyone is watching and listening,” he says. “As with any section leader, when you are cuing the movement, especially at the start of a piece, there is a lot of information that has to be there in a short time. What kind of energy? What is the tone of the music? Sometimes one quick gesture will show it. When it’s a piece we know and the conductor is clear, there’s very little need to draw attention to your own gestures.
“It’s such a joy to be part of such a unified group,” adds Huang. “Sometimes making eye contact with someone across the stage, being telepathic with your colleagues — it’s wonderful to be communicating with them and sharing beautiful music with the audience.”
