-- Yu Long: A Man of Artistic Distinction
As a Chinese conductor of international prestige, Yu Long has visited such places as Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Portugal, Slovakia, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Macao.
He has conducted at many venues, including the Hamburg State Opera, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Leipzig, the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, the Budapest Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, Le Theatre de Nice and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. The highlights of Yu's international career also include his successful cooperation with some world-class musicians, namely, Mikhail Pletnev, Frank Peter Zimmerman, Matt Haimovitz, Charles Neidich and Tiziana Fabbricini. Displaying his special strengths in such operatic productions as La Traviata, Turandot, Aida, Carmen, Lucia di Lammemore, Romeo and Juliet, and Don Pasguale, Yu has developed a repertoire covering works of different periods and forms over the years. His profound interpretation and unique style have won him extensive acclaim and international stature.
Yu was born into a family of musicians in Shanghai in 1964. He received his early childhood musical education from his grandfather, Ding Shande, a greatly renowned composer, who prepared him for the rigorous formal education he was to receive at the Shanghai Conservatory and the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin. Talent, hard work and direct guidance from first-rate educators and conductors in both China and Germany are the major contributing factors to Yu's current success.
Yu's professional experience and achievements inside China are twofold, administrative and artistic. In 1992, he was appointed as a principal guest conductor at the Central Opera Theater in Beijing. That same year, he was involved in the initiation of the Beijing New Year's Concert and served as the conductor for three successive years. In 1998, Yu helped initiate the Beijing Music Festival and was appointed as its artistic director. His remarkable administrative skills and artistic caliber have played a pivotal role in making the festival one of the most significant musical events in history. While helping promote music in China and its international exchange, Yu has also earned himself general recognition.
Equally impressive are Yu's achievements in conducting. In 1998 he conducted Verdi's Requiem and, in 2000, Orff's Carmina Burana by the China National Symphony Orchestra and its affiliated chorus. In 1999, the Music Accompanied Recital of Tang and Song Dynasty Poetry and the Concert Commemorating the Bi-centenary of Pushkin's Birth, both conducted by Yu, proved to be among the most significant events in China.
Yu has also helped found the China Philharmonic Orchestra and has been appointed as its first artistic director. As an artist and administrator of vision, Yu makes it his mission to help develop the orchestra through extensive cooperations with top musicians all over the world into an institution of high professional stature that will show the world the best of China's symphonic works and offer people high quality performances from various periods, composers and forms in the history of western music. On December 16, 2000, Yu conducted the premiere concert of the China Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing, which was a great success.
Yu's other achievements include the NAXO production of Korngold's Violin Concerto and Ding Shande's Long March Symphony by the Slovak Radio Orchestra. In November 2000, under his baton, the newly founded China Philharmonic Orchestra cooperated with DG in the production of two CDs: one of Wagner's Overture to Tannh & auml; user and Brahms' Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25 (orchestrated by Arnold Schoenberg), and the other of some highlights of Symphonic music.
Website: www.chinaphilharmonic.org
Address: Beijing Exhibition Center, No. 135, Xizhimen Wai Street, Beijing
Post code: 100044
Tel: 010-88384573 010-88384574
Fax: 010-88384160
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