For Immediate Release Contact: Austin Huang Pacific Northwest Cultural Exchange Council (360) 224-4888 January 12, 2015
Shenzhen Symphony Comes to Seattle for Special 2015 Chinese New Year Concert
One of China’s finest orchestras will perform in Seattle for a special Chinese New Year event in February. In collaboration with the Seattle Symphony and Stanford University, the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra will present an enchanted evening of music with conductor Jindong Cai, legendary pianist Yin Chengzong and Chinese pipa virtuoso Zhao Cong. The concert will be held at Benaroya Hall on Wednesday, February 25, bringing classical music together with Chinese artistic traditions in celebration of the Year of the Sheep.
The Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of orchestra president Mr. Chen Chuansong and music director Dr. Christian Ehwald, was founded in 1982 and has built up a major classical repertoire both at home and abroad over three decades. The symphony has performed before audiences throughout China, Asia and Europe. The Seattle Chinese New Year concert is its North American debut.
Jindong Cai joined the Stanford faculty in 2004 as the first holder of the Gretchen B. Kimball Director of Orchestral Studies Chair. He has held positions as assistant conductor with the Cincinnati Symphony and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, working closely with conductors Jésus López-Cobos, Erich Kunzel, and Keith Lockhart. He led the Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra on a successful concert tour to Portugal, the only American orchestra invited to participate in the Cultural Festival of World Expo 1998 in Lisbon. He has also served on the faculties at Louisiana State University, the University of Arizona, the University of California at Berkeley, and the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati.
Legendary Pianist Yin Chengzong began learning piano at seven years old and gave his first recital at the age of nine. He studied piano in the preparatory school of Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 1959, Yin won an award at the World Youth Peace and Friendship Festival in Vienna, Austria, and in 1960, he was sent to the Leningrad Conservatory to study. In 1962, he and American pianist Susan Starr were the second prize winners of the International Tchaikovsky Competition (Vladimir Ashkenazy shared the first-prize with British pianist John Odgon). In 1965, Yin joined the Central Symphony Orchestra of China as a soloist. He is one of the major composers for the Yellow River piano concerto.
In 1983, Yin immigrated to the US, and in the same year, he made his debut in Carnegie Hall in New York City. Yin has since performed under the baton of Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Claudio Abbado and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, and Sir Malcolm Sargent and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Yin has also appeared in Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, and at Lincoln Center. His solo performances were featured on China Central Television and CBS Sunday Morning. Formerly a professor and artist in-residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Mr. Yin now lives in New York City. Yin has released more than 20 albums, including an all-Chopin CD, a recording of Debussy's Preludes, and the Yellow River Concerto.
Zhao Cong plays the ancient Chinese pipa, a four-stringed instrument sometimes referred to as the Chinese lute. She learned to play from a very early age and won her first important award at the age of 13. Ms. Zhao was later recruited as first pipa soloist of the Central Orchestra for Chinese Music in Beijing. Ms. Zhao has toured in over 20 countries and performed for a dozen heads of state. Her popularity outside China and extensive touring have broadened her musical references to embrace other musical cultures and traditions, so that she now often performs a fascinating blend of classical Chinese music and music with Western references.
Yu Lina (于麗娜）Soprano Many award winners, national first class soprano, from Beijing.
Details:
2015 Chinese New Year Concert Featuring China Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Jindong On-line /> When: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 at 7:30 p.m. Where: Benaroya Hall, Seattle
Washington State China Relation Council City of Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs Greater Seattle Chinese Chamber of Commerce Seattle Symphony Seattle Youth Symphony 808 Seattle Chinese Golf Club Ministry of Culture of People's Republic of China Confucius Institute of Washington State
