Ravinia 2019, Issue 6, Week 11

SHANGHAI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Long YU, music director CHEN Xieyang, honorary director ZHANG Jiemin, conductor in residence e Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is one of the earliest and best-known orchestral ensembles of its kind in Asia, through which Chinese symphonic music has de- veloped. Originally known as the Shanghai Public Band, it was renamed the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra in . Under the baton of the Italian conductor Mario Paci, the orchestra promoted Western music and trained young talent very early on in China, and it was the rst to introduce Chinese orchestral music to audiences, earning the title “the best in the Far East.” With a long history of years, the SSO is synonymous with the history of China’s symphonic music development. Spanning three di erent centuries, the SSO has now embraced a new era; it has held over , concerts—giving premieres of sev- eral thousand musical works—has played a major role in collaborations between world-class musicians internationally and domestically, and has gained a reputation as the authority on Chinese symphonic compositions while promoting them with every possible endeavor. It was the very rst orchestra in China to institute a gov- erning council and to manage a high-qual- ity concert season with a ticket presale system. In addition to its regular cocnert season, the orchestra created the Shanghai New Year’s Concert, the Spring Festival Concert, and the Music in the Summer Air. ese performances have not only fos- tered cultural exchange but have also built a bridge between people, orchestras, and nations. e SSO is a leader in co-commissioning new works with other major orchestras, in- cluding such pieces as One Sweet Morning by John Corigliano (with the New York Philharmonic) and Duo by Zhao Lin (with the Chinese Philharmonic Orchestra and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra), and has also commissioned works such as the symphonic overture Instants d’un Opera de Pekin by Qigang Chen and the symphonic suite Dunhuang by Xiaogang Ye. It has pre- miered the most contemporary Chinese works on any ensemble, including In Memoriam by Huang Tzu, Butter y Lovers by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang, sym- phonies by Zhu Jian’er, and e Map by Tan Dun. e original soundtrack to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , performed by the SSO, won Oscar and Grammy Awards—a rst in Chinese musical history. e SSO has toured abroad extensively since —in the orchestra made its debut at Carnegie Hall, and in it per- formed in cities in the US, while in it toured Europe to celebrate the Sino- French Cultural Year. Its th anniversa- ry celebration concert, given at the Berlin Philharmonie—the rst time a Chinese orchestra played the hall—was hailed as a great success. In , under the direction of Maestro Long Yu, now its music director, the SSO embarked on a -concert North American tour. In July , Yu led the orchestra in a joint concert with the New York Philharmonic in Central Park, pro- moting the Shanghai Expo. Between and , Yu led the orchestra in sev- eral concerts in Germany, the Netherlands, the US, and Brazil, which included a con- cert commemorating the th anniversary of the Victory of the World Anti-Fascist War in United Nations Hall. e orchestra made its debut in Lucerne and gave other concerts in Tirol, Grafenegg, and Hamburg during a summer European tour. e SSO and Yu signed an exclusive record con- tract with Deutsche Grammophon in June , and its rst album, Gateways , was released a year later. e SSO is presently celebrating its th anniversary with a three-week world tour including debuts at the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival, Wolf Trap Festival, and Ravinia Festival in addition to return visits to the Lucerne Festival, Grafenegg Festival, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Promoting the popularity of high art is the SSO’s obligation and also a powerful meth- od of Urban Cultural Contextualism. With its new home, Shanghai Symphony Hall, completed in September , the SSO carries centuries of dreams into reality, and starts a new orchestra-venue integra- tion model. e SOA—a joint initiative be- tween the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music—held the orienta- tion for their students. e SSO chamber concert, inaugurated in and held reg- ularly since , will be passed on into the new Chamber Hall. With a long history of years, the SSO continues to always practice its mission: “Music Connecting Worlds.” e SSO has become a strong the promoter and driver of cultural exchanges between the West and Asia, as well as Asian musical educa- tion, continuing a three-century-old glori- ous dream. FIRST VIOLINS LI Pei Guillaume MOLKO ZHANG Songjie CHEN Jingya DU Yi HUANG Na LI Wenting LIU Lei PAN Yi SU Ting WANG Chunhao WANG Wei XIONG Yu YU Renchao ZHANG Yanan ZHENG Tao SECOND VIOLINS MIAO Lejun CHEN Jiayi CHEN Yi HUANG Hong HUANG Yilu LI Xia LIU Sha SHI Zhenyu TIAN Junjun WANG Nana WANG Yun WU Aolie XU Qing YANG Can YIN Yuefeng VIOLAS Born LAU BA Tong SHI Zhenli CHEN Yue GUO Weiqi GUO Yang LI Xiang LIU Jiayu MA Ke PIAO Hong WANG Guan YE Linfang YU Haifeng ZHANG Siyuan CELLOS HUANG Beixing ZHU Lin CHEN Shaojun CHEN Xihui HU Cunyuan HUANG Yunyan JIN Weihua LI Li LU Jinhu WANG Shujie XU Jiajia ZHOU Runqing BASSES ZHU Shunhua ZHANG Ming GAO Xian QI Jiandong QU Xudong SHEN Yunxuan WANG Xiaorui WU Jinrong ZHANG Kaixuan FLUTES HU Zhe GONG XiaoYun LIU Lin HUANG Fangyu OBOES ZHANG Xin MAN Jingyi Jung-Jun HAM CLARINETS CHEN Kun DAI Le WU Yuru BASSOONS CHAN Tingyuen CHENG Min CHEN Jui-chieh HU Yu WEN Lu ZHAO Sihong HORNS GUO Zhongbao Peter SOLOMON XIE Yelin SHI Jieliang ZHONG Zhuoning LIU Chuang WU Chewei TRUMPETS XIA Fei Stefano FLAIBANI LI Xiaonan WANG Zhen GAO Yuchi TROMBONES HAO Jie ZHANG Huaming CAO Chensen TUBA Alexander FILIPPOV TIMPANI Enrico CALINI PERCUSSION ZHENG Wei GU Kai FANG Qi SHI Chunli ZHANG Xinru FU Yifei LIN Weichen HARP SUN Zhiyang CHEN Lei President ZHOU Ping Secretary of Party Branch WANG Wanchun Vice President QU Yue HE Dageng CHEN Yi String players behind the Principal and Associate Principal are listed alphabetically. AUGUST 12 – AUGUST 18, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 97