The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Long Yu, Music Director and Conductor

Overview

Called "the best in the Far East", The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is the earliest and best known ensemble of its kind in Asia.  Formed in 1879 as The Shanghai Public Band, and developing into an orchestra in 1907 The Shanghai Symphony promoted Western music and introduced the first Chinese orchestral works to Asian audiences.  As well as works of Mussorsky and Rachmaninoff, don't miss the spectacular Concerto in the second portion of this performance.

Yuja Wang has firmly established herself as one of the most significant pianists of her generation, debuting with the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago, Houston and San Francisco Symphonies to critical acclaim.

TICKETS: $46, $43, STUDENTS $20/RUSH SEATS $15 AT DOOR WITH ID

Related Sites

• Yuja Wang web site
• Yuja Wang bio in Chinese
• Shanghai Symphony web site

Program

PROGRAM

Mussorsky     Khovantchina:  Introduction, 'Dawn on the Moscow River'

Rachmaninoff    Piano Concerto No. 2 in c-minor, Op. 18

-intermission-

Chen Qigang     "Iris devoilee" - An extraordinary concerto for full orchestra, soprano, and traditional Chinese instruments 

About the Artists

As one of the most distinguished Chinese conductors with an established international reputation, Maestro Long Yu is also Music Director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, President of the Beijing Music Festival Artistic Committee and President of the Artistic Committee of the Shanghai Oriental Center.

Besides his concerts throughout the year, Long Yu has appeared with the world's major orchestras and opera companies, including the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC, the Hamburg State Opera, the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Leipzig, the Budapest Radio Symphony Orchestra, Le Theatre de Nice, the Ireland National Philharmonic Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

Long Yu was born in Shanghai in 1964 into a family of musicians. He received his early music education from his grandfather Ding Shande, a celebrated composer and an educator of high prestige. This prepared him for the rigorous formal music education he subsequently received first at the Shanghai Music Conservatory and then at the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin. In 1992, he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Central Opera Theatre in Beijing. In the same year, he was involved in organizing the inaugural Beijing New Year's Concert, now an annual event, and served as its conductor for three successive years. In 1998, he founded the Beijing Music Festival held the position of Artistic Director and has been President of the Beijing Music Festival Arts Foundation from 2005. Under his leadership the Beijing Music Festival has become one of the internationally acclaimed festivals. Along with numerous performances by world-renowned ensembles and artists, the festival has been commissioning new music from composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Glass and Guo Wenjing.

Yuja Wang has firmly established herself as one of the most significant pianists of her generation. She first came to international recognition in February 2005 when, on one day's notice, she replaced Radu Lupu with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Pinchas Zukerman conducting, performing Beethoven's Concerto No. 4. The success was immediate and dramatic with the Canada press reporting "a star is born." Yuja was immediately reengaged to perform Chopin's Concerto No. 1 in June and has been invited back every season since.

Twenty-two year old Chinese pianist Yuja Wang is widely recognized for playing that combines the spontaneity and fearless imagination of youth with the discipline and precision of a mature artist. Regularly lauded for her controlled, prodigious technique, Yuja’s command of the piano has been described as “astounding” and “superhuman,” and she has been praised for her authority over the most complex technical demands of the repertoire, the depth of her musical insight, as well as her fresh interpretations and graceful, charismatic stage presence. Following her San Francisco recital debut The San Francisco Chronicle wrote “The arrival of Chinese-born pianist Yuja Wang on the musical scene is an exhilarating and unnerving development. To listen to her in action is to re-examine whatever assumptions you may have had about how well the piano can actually be played,” and The Washington Post called Yuja’s Kennedy Center recital debut “jaw-dropping.”

Highlights of the current season include her debut in Lisbon, Portugal where she replaced Evgeny Kissin performing both the Tchaikovsky Concerto and Prokofiev No. 3 at each concert. Yuja also performed on the closing concert of the 2007 St. Petersburg Winter Arts Festival at the invitation of Yuri Temirkanov. In January she replaced Yefim Bronfman performing Prokofiev No. 2 with the Swedish Radio Orchestra. Yuja gave debut recitals in Ann Arbor, Washington DC and San Francisco to rave reviews. In summer 2008 she will make her debuts at the Verbier (Switzerland) and Saratoga festivals.

In the 2005-06 season she appeared with the Baltimore, Grand Rapids and New Jersey symphonies and made her debut at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center and the new Strathmore Concert Hall in Bethesda, MD where she performed Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" with the China Philharmonic and Long Yu. She also joined Michael Stern at the IRIS Chamber Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony and Nagoya Philharmonic (Japan).

Yuja made her debuts with the New York Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Japan and the Chicago, Houston and San Francisco symphonies in the 2006-07 season. She first performed with New York at the Vail Festival in July 2006 and then again joined the orchestra in Tokyo, Lorin Maazel conducting, performing Liszt Concerto No. 1. In September, she performed Ravel's G Major Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas conducting, and returned in the spring to perform Beethoven Concerto No. 2 with Charles Dutoit. Yuja collaborated further with Dutoit at the Chicago and NHK symphonies where she made her debuts performing Prokofiev's Concerto No. 2.

Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is the earliest and the most well knownensemble of its kind in Asia, through which the Chinese symphonic music develops.  Originally known as the Shanghai Public Band, it developed into an orchestra in 1907, and was renamed the Shanghai Municipal Council Symphony Orchestra in 1922. Notably under the baton of the Italian conductor Mario Paci, the orchestra promoted Western music and trained Chinese young talents very early on in China, and introduced the first Chinese orchestral work to the audience. It is hence reputed as the “the best in the Far East.” The history of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra may be referred as the history of China’s symphonic music development.  Spanning three different centuries, the Shanghai Symphony has now embraced a new era; it has held over ten thousand concerts, including premiere performances of several thousand musical works, and has collaborated with many guest artists (conductors, soloists and vocalists) of world renown. The orchestra has gained a reputation as the most authoritative explainer of Chinese symphonic compositions while promoting them with every possible endeavor. The Shanghai Symphony has become increasingly influential both at home and abroad, after most recently completing the audio and video recordings of such excellent music as: Zhu Jian’er’s Symphonies, Tan Dun’s multimedia concerto The Map, and music for the prize-winning film (Oscar and Grammy Awards) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Since the 1970s, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra has toured extensively abroad. In 1990, the orchestra made its debut at Carnegie Hall in New York; in 2003,The orchestra performed in 11 cities in the US; in 2004, it toured Europe to celebrate the Sino-French Cultural Year. The Orchestra’s 125th Anniversary Celebration Concert, given at the Berliner Philharmonie (the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is the first Chinese symphony orchestra to play in this hall), was hailed as a great success. Maestro Long Yu is currently Music Director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.