News
Maestro Long Yu Leads World Premiere of Émigré by Aaron Zigman and Mark Campbell in 2023-24 Season
Maestro Long Yu, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (SSO), and the New York Philharmonic (NY Phil) today announce the co-commission of Émigré, a new oratorio by award-winning composer Aaron Zigman, with lyrics by Pulitzer Prize winning librettist Mark Campbell and songwriter Brock Walsh. The 90-minute oratorio tells the story of Jewish refugees escaping Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and finding a home and community in Shanghai. The work will be premiered on November 17, 2023, at the Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall before its US premiere on February 29, 2024, at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. The work will be recorded by Deutsche Grammophon in live and studio sessions in the context of the world premiere performance and is due to be released in February 2024.
Learn more about the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra premiere here and New York Philharmonic's US premiere here.
July 6, 2023
The Song of the Earth
Today, Deutsche Grammophon (DG) releases The Song of the Earth featuring Long Yu and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra! Recorded in Shanghai with soloists Michelle DeYoung, Brian Jagde, Zhang Liping, and Shenyang, the album brings centuries-old Chinese poetry vividly to life. It pairs Gustav Mahler’s symphonic song-cycle Das Lied von der Erde (“The Song of the Earth”), based on German translations of six ancient Chinese poems, with the world premiere recording of Xiaogang Ye’s settings of the same texts in the original Mandarin.
Purchase the album or stream it on your favorite platform here.
July 9, 2021
Beijing Music Festival Leads Copyright Protection in China
Beijing Music Festival announced their 2020 festival today with the theme, "The Music Must Go On." Long Yu stressed the importance of buying copyrights for all 240 hours of music this year stating, “Copyrights are an important aspect for musicians’ survival, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when most concerts are taking place online. We need to pay respect to these great artists who still overcome many difficulties and work hard in order to continue to perform for music lovers. One of the most important ways we can help is to raise copyright awareness and to pay respects through it. BMF strives to lead the standardization of copyright use in China’s music market. This provides all audiences with the highest quality of authentic music and sends a message that China has made a very important contribution to the protection of intellectual property rights.”
Learn more here.
September 8, 2020
Triumphant Return to Live Concerts
Maestro Yu conducted his first concert tonight since the shuttering of concerts due to the pandemic. The program, performed by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, included Chinese works such as "Wuhan" by Fang Shi and Chinese Heart by Ding Xiaoli. Read more here.
June 5, 2020
Annual New York Philharmonic Lunar New Year Concert
The New York Times has chosen New York Philharmonic's annual Lunar New Year Concert & Gala, which Maestro Long Yu is conducting, as a classical music concert to see this weekend. The musicians will be bringing in the year of the rat with a blend of cultures including American-Israeli violinist Gil Shaham's performance of a Chinese favorite, The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, and Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang's performance of Gershwin's iconic Rhapsody in Blue.
January 23, 2020
Deutsche Grammophon Releases Gateways &
Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Embarks on Summer Tour
Deutsche Grammophon released Gateways today, the first of a series of albums featuring works by major Chinese composers. The album, featuring Maestro Long Yu and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, includes two works by Qigang Chen, as well as Rachmaninov’s “Symphonic Dances” and Kreisler’s “Tambourin chinois”, with Maxim Vengerov as the soloist. Gateways is available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Apple Music, and more. Click here to see the full list. Watch the trailer here.
Looking ahead, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's 140th Anniversary Summer Worldwide Tour led by Maestro Long Yu debuts at the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival, Wolf Trap and Ravinia Festival and returns to Lucerne Festival, Grafenegg, and Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam from August 14 to September 1 with soloists Eric Lu, Alisa Weilerstein, and Frank Peter Zimmermann. Read more from Gramophone
here about what is in store for the symphony.
June 28, 2019
Maestro Long Yu and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
Summer Tour Includes Debut at BBC Proms;
Plus First Track Released of Gateways
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Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's 140th Anniversary Summer Tour led by Maestro Long Yu debuts at the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival, Wolf Trap and Ravinia Festival and returns to Lucerne Festival, Grafenegg, and Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam from August 14 to September 1 with soloists Eric Lu, Alisa Weilerstein, and Frank Peter Zimmermann.
Plus, Deutsche Grammophon is launching a series of albums featuring works by major Chinese composers. Gateways, the first album, contains two works by Qigang Chen, as well as Rachmaninov’s “Symphonic Dances” and Kreisler’s “Tambourin chinois”, with Maxim Vengerov as soloist. The full album releases June 28. Read more from Gramophone here.
Listen to the first track of Gateways here. Pre-order the album here.
April 17, 2019
Long Yu Featured on Gramophone Cover, April 2019
"[DG president Dr. Clemens Trautmann] recalls the 'incredibly high standards' he heard from the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra a few years ago at the Lucerne Festival... 'Karajan and Bernstein weren't just music directors, they were cultural entrepreneurs,' [Trautmann] says of DG's linchpin artists of the last century. 'We see similar potential in the partnership of the SSO and its music director Long Yu – a conductor who is making a difference to the cultural landscape inside China, and outside it too.' "
Read more in Gramophone's April issue, available here.
March 21, 2019
Four Sold-Out Performances with New York Philharmonic, Yo-Yo Ma, and Wu Man Greeted With Great Critical Acclaim
The first of Maestro Yu's four sold-out performances with the New York Philharmonic, Yo-Yo Ma, and Wu Man received glowing reviews from The New York Times (" 'A Happy Excursion' had a fitting companion in Tchaikovsky’s emotive 'Pathétique' Symphony. The Philharmonic musicians can probably play this overprogrammed piece in their sleep; in the past, it has occasionally felt as if they were doing just that. But under Mr. Yu’s baton, they summoned surprising extremes, leavened occasionally with the brisk lightness of a Tchaikovsky ballet.") and New York Classical Review ("A venerable warhorse like the “Pathéthique” is always in danger of coming off as superficial. But the Philharmonic under Yu—one of China’s most active and prominent conductors—delivered a sensational performance, one of the finest this listener has heard. The playing had an etched crispness like that of the frigid winter wind outside the hall, and every section played with a keen-edged clarity and precision.")
March 7, 2019
Carmina Burana, Live From the Forbidden City Released on Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon launched the celebrations around its 120th anniversary with a gala concert in Beijing's Forbidden City in October 2018 with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra led by Maestro Yu. Today, the thrilling performance of Carmina Burana featuring soprano Aida Garifullina, tenor Toby Spence, and baritone Ludovic Tézier is available digitally and on CD and DVD/Blu-ray.
Preview the album with iTunes here. It is available for purchase from DG here.
January 18, 2019
Long Yu Receives Honorary Doctorate
Congratulations to Maestro Yu who has today earned an honorary doctorate from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. The honor is awarded to outstanding individuals for their achievements and contributions to the performing arts and cultural industry and the development of the Academy. Maestro Yu believes promoting young people and music education are two of musicians' most important tasks. He plans to continue dedicating his time and energy participating in music education and supporting young musicians and their artistic projects.
Read more on the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts's page here.
November 1, 2018
Long Yu to Pass Baton of Beijing Music Festival to Shuang Zou
Long Yu is stepping down as Artistic Director of the Beijing Music Festival after 20 years and passing the baton to Shuang Zou, BMF's wonderfully talented and innovative Assistant Programming Director. He announced the transition yesterday at BMF's 21st Season launch and spoke with BBC Music Magazine in an exclusive first conversation available here.
Yesterday, Yu announced "It has been my hope to pass the torch to a capable young generation, for a sustainable manner of China’s music world... I think only in this way, our music career can be developed and passed on. Once we were the successors. Now we have become the engineers – paving the road and building the bridges for young people as our predecessors did. This sort of building and re-building sustains our music industry... In retrospect, I was a young man at only 34 years of age when I founded the BMF 20 years ago; today as I see Ms. Zou Shuang
becoming the new Artistic Director at a similar age, I feel sincerely relieved and filled with emotion."
Read Yu's full speech here.
June 26, 2018
Long Yu and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Sign Exclusive Recording Deal with Deutsche Grammophon
The new partnership is set to build on Long Yu’s critically acclaimed work as Music Director of the SSO and help promote the orchestra’s powerful blend of tradition and ambitious future vision. It will also enhance the SSO’s “Music Connecting Worlds” ethos. Their first DG recording, an album of works from the Chinese and Russian repertoires, will be released in 2019 to mark the SSO’s 140th anniversary and celebrate its status as China’s earliest symphony orchestra. In addition to making new albums with the orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon will also release earlier recordings from the SSO’s existing catalogue.
Read more here.
June 7, 2018
Lunar New Year with the New York Philharmonic
Maestro Yu leads the New York Philharmonic in their Lunar New Year gala this week featuring the Farmers' Chorus of Yunnan Province, pianist Serena Wang, and Andy Akiho's innovative work, Ricochet - a concerto for Ping Pong, Violin, Percussion & Orchestra. Yes, it involves two real ping pong players, real ping pongs, and a real ping pong table. Read more about the concert in the New York Times here.
February 19, 2018
Hong Kong Philharmonic Performance "Resounding Success"
Bachtrack commends Maestro Yu's recent performance with the Hong Kong Philharmonic saying, "Long Yu’s première of Er Huang in Hong Kong was a resounding success, traversing the full gamut of emotional latitude the work afforded, from contemplative introspection to boisterous clamour. He laid bare the variety of orchestral colours and kept us on tenterhooks with a superb sense of timing."
Read more here.
December 18, 2017
Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Announces 2017-18 season
Under the directorship of Maestro Long Yu, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra announces their upcoming season featuring an "Us & Them" theme: conflicts, tuning, and integration.
Guest artists include pianists George Li and Louis Lortie; conductor/composer Tan Dun; conductor Charles Dutoit; and more.
June 29, 2017
KUSC to air Shanghai Symphony concert series from China
The first Chinese symphony series to be broadcast on radio in the United States will begin Saturday, May 27 on Classical KUSC based in Los Angeles. Each of the 13 concerts will air 8-10 p.m. on Saturdays, through August 26. The series features an all-star line-up of soloists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Lang Lang, Maxim Vengerov, Yujia Wang and Christian Tetzlaff. Guest conductors include Zubin Mehta, Sir Andrew Davis, Osmo Vänskä, Daniele Gatt and Paavo Järvi.
Read more about the broadcast series here.
May 29, 2017
Yu launches AEP-China
With the partnership of Volkswagen Group (China), Yu officially launches AEP-CHINA in Shanghai, a cultural and art education program for all young people of China. The program aims to promote high-quality music and rich art activities throughout China; gather and link the young people of the whole country via the charm of music; and build an international platform for participation and create more diversified opportunities of expansion for the young music fans around the country.
April 16, 2017
The Guardian Names Yu's Performance with Philharmonia in Top February 2017 Performances
"The Chinese Year of the Rooster (signalling steadfastness and courage but with a touch of moodiness) has just begun. That was one event celebrated by Thursday’s night’s Chinese-themed concert from the Philharmonia...a brilliantly energised performance under conductor Long Yu."
Read the full Guardian article here. The evening's soloists
included Maxim Vengerov (violin), 11-year-old Chinese/Canadian Paloma So (violin), and Chinese Shenyang (bass-baritone).
February 23, 2017
Yu Launches Youth Music Culture Guangdong with World-Renowned Cellist, Yo-Yo Ma
Led by Long Yu (Chairman of the Artistic Committee) and Yo-Yo Ma (Artistic Director), the inaugural 2017 Youth Music Culture Guangdong (YMCG) launched on January 7. The two-week program is designed to focus on teaching orchestral, chamber, and self-organized playing and link this to a curriculum on “cultural citizenship” that emphasizes effective engagement with each other and society’s needs.
Read the Financial Times feature here.
Read the full Strings article here.
January 11, 2017