Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts - Concert Hall

Date: June 28, 2017

Programme

Argun River

Fire Festival

The Holy Mountain

Steppe Eagle

Sorrow of Nuo'enjiya

Flowerlike Spring Water

Smoke

Northern Sky

Two Trees

Prairie Heaven

Conductor: HU Yongyan

HU’s versatile, energetic style makes him in high demand as a guest conductor for leading international symphony orchestras. In recent years his baton has lead such groups as the Orchestre National de France, London’s Royal Philharmonic, Germany’s Hamburg Symphony, New York’s Buffalo Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony, the Singapore Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the China Philharmonic and at Vienna’s Wien, Modern contemporary music festival. In 2004 and 2005 HU received critical acclaim for conducting at the Beethoven Festival in Beethoven’s hometown of Bonn, Germany. He was the featured conductor with the celebrated Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in Los Angeles for a concert broadcast around the world. His career highlight was conducting the New York Choral Society’s performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as well as China’s beloved Yellow River Cantata, a 2003 concert which was his Carnegie Hall debut.

Throughout his professional career, HU has enjoyed fruitful collaborations with stellar recording artists. One prominent example was the highly successful April, 2002 concert tour of the Republic of Korea leading the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra in cooperation with the virtuoso Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma. He’s also performed with such extraordinary artists as Itzhak Perlman, Lang Lang, Barbara Hendricks and Pinchas Zukerman. Extending his versatile talents to pop, Maestro HU has worked with such well-known contemporary performers as Charlotte Church, Nana Mouskouri, Mark O’Connor and Doc Severinsen.

HU’s own career path took him from Beijing to Yale University and the Juilliard School. His distinguished international conducting career has consistently emphasised imaginative programming realized through impeccable performances. In 1999 HU became the critically acclaimed Music Director and Conductor of the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, the resident orchestra of the Shanghai Grand Theatre. His pioneering work in Shanghai attracted top-level soloists who significantly enhanced Shanghai’s cultural atmosphere. In the United States, HU served as the Music Director and Conductor of two outstanding regional orchestras, Minnesota’s Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2000 and Nebraska’s Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, from 1993 to 1998.

In addition to his responsibilities of leading the Qingdao Symphony, Maestro HU Yongyan devotes a high level of passionate energy towards shaping the Central Conservatory of Music’s EOS Orchestra Academy (a professional training orchestra for graduate student performers, young and talented professional musicians throughout China) in Beijing, into a professional Chinese orchestra on par with its international counterparts. He regards EOS rehearsals, concerts and tours as a living laboratory of musical expression, designed to thoroughly please audiences while simultaneously giving exceptionally gifted young musicians in-depth exposure to both modern and traditional repertoire. As Artistic Director, he seeks the ideal balance between musical complexity and simplicity, believing that the music-loving public will respond with enthusiasm to vibrant interpretations of attractive programmes.Source: National Centre for the Performing Arts