Long Yu, Artistic Director & Chief Conductor
Paloma So, violin
Yiwen Lu, erhu
Serena Wang, piano
“Long Yu, China’s Herbert von Karajan, (is) the most powerful figure in China’s classical music scene.”
– The New York Times
"A superpower of China’s burgeoning music world."
– Washington Post
The China Philharmonic founded in 2000 quickly became China’s leading orchestra attaining an international profile through the excellence of its concerts at home, the brilliant development of the annual Beijing Music Festival inviting the world’s leading artists and orchestras, and its numerous international tours including Japan, Korea, along the Silk Road, Europe, Russia and three tours to the United States. It has played in the world’s leading concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall at the invitation of the BBC Proms, and David Geffen Hall at the invitation of the New York Philharmonic.
The China Philharmonic has championed new music and living composers, both Chinese and international, and has mixed standard orchestral repertoire with world and Asia premieres. The orchestra returns to America for its fourth tour in 2024 with a planned connection to South American concerts.
The CPO proudly and actively discovers innovative methods and platforms to promote classical music to a wider audience. The CPO has presented more than 6,000 music compositions through more than 1,000 performances to global audiences - many featured as world & Chinese-premieres - in the forms of concerts, operas, cantatas, incidental music, ballets, chamber music, musicals, film/TV music, multi-media, and crossovers with Chinese traditional instruments. The CPO has worked with more than 1,000 guest artists, and its touring accumulated more than one million kilometers - equivalent to circling the globe 20 times.
An active promoter of Chinese contemporary music, the China Philharmonic has established its tradition of presenting concerts dedicated to Chinese music during each of its seasons and commissioning new works both domestically and internationally. The CPO continually collaborates with prominent musicians around the world, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Emanuel Ax, Sarah Chang, Placido Domingo,Charles Dutoit, Augustin Dumay, Sir Mark Elder, Renée Fleming, Gary Graffman, Nigel Kennedy, Lang Lang, Yundi Li, Mischa Maisky, Krzysztof Penderecki, Itzhak Perlman, Mikhail Pletnev, Josef Silverstein, Anatol Ugorski, and Jian Wang.
The CPO closely works with the China Central Television, having filmed more than 500 concerts and recorded the music of more than 100 TV shows. The orchestra's New Year’s Concert has been broadcasted on CCTV for 19 consecutive years, with hundreds of millions of audiences watching it live annually.
In addition to its extensive performances in China, the CPO has toured to over thirty countries, having performed in such major venues as the Avery Fisher Hall, Palais Garnier, Barbican Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Musikverein, BBC Proms, as well as tours of Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The CPO has impressed audiences worldwide and won the respect of international press - named among the "Ten Most Inspiring Orchestras" by Gramophone in the spring of 2009. The New York Times has also praised the CPO as the pride of China and its culture, having earned a place among the top orchestras of the world.
In 2016, the China Philharmonic embarked on a Tour of the Americas, gaining widespread acclaim in such venues as the Walt Disney Hall, David Geffen Hall, San Francisco Symphony Hall, Mondavi Center (CA), UNC Chapel Hill, Strathmore Hall (MD), and Tilles Center (NY). The CPO’s 2019-20 season was dedicated to celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven, and its 20-21 season is dedicated to commemorating the 110th anniversary of the passing of Mahler. Additionally, during the pandemic-stricken season, the CPO joined forces with Lang Lang, Siqing Lü, Jian Wang and Han Xiaoming and presented a special “Ode to the Flag across the Screens” TV program, bringing the power of music to people fighting the pandemic across the country.
An artistic organization with national importance, the China Philharmonic Orchestra fulfills its social responsibility by annually performing in universities all over China. Under the guidance of China’s Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and Ministry of Finance, the orchestra visits primary schools in poverty/rural areas every year, in addition to participating in other charitable events and volunteer work.
Maestro Long Yu
Hailed as the “most powerful figure in China’s classical music scene” by The New York Times, Long Yu holds positions as the Music Director of the Shanghai Symphony; Artistic Director & Chief Conductor of the China Philharmonic; Music Director of the Guangzhou Symphony; as well as Principal Guest Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Maestro Yu is the Founder of the Beijing Music Festival (Artistic Director, 1998 - 2018) and Co-Director of the MISA Summer Festival in Shanghai.
In the 2019/20 season, Maestro Yu makes guest appearances across the globe, including with the Royal Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, to name only a few. In June 2018, Maestro Yu signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, which began a global release and distribution partnership. As part of Deutsche Grammophon’s 120th anniversary celebration, Maestro Yu conducted a spectacular launch concert in the 2018/19 season at the historic site of the Imperial Ancestral Temple (Forbidden City, Beijing), alongside Daniil Trifonov and Aida Garifullina.
Maestro Yu has conducted a highly-acclaimed list of orchestras and opera houses throughout the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, DC’s National Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Montreal Symphony, BBC Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Hamburg State Opera, MDR Leipzig, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony, Bamberg Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, and Singapore Symphony. Maestro Yu continues to collaborate frequently with many of the world’s most celebrated soloists such as Alison Balsom, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Maxim Vengerov, and Yuja Wang.
Leading the development of the orchestral landscape in China, Maestro Yu has created the nation’s first orchestral academy as a partnership between the Shanghai Symphony, Shanghai Conservatory, and the New York Philharmonic. His dynamic vision is focused on introducing China’s growing audiences to key Western repertoire.
In 2014, the New York Philharmonic named Maestro Yu an honorary member of their International Advisory Board. The following year, Maestro Yu received the Global Citizen Award from the Atlantic Council and the Samuel Simons Sanford Award from the Yale School of Music. Most recently, he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the German Order of Merit. In 2018, Long Yu was conferred an Honorary Doctorate from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Long Yu is currently Vice President of the Chinese Musicians Association.