On March 24th and 25th, China NCPA Orchestra, under the baton of ZHANG Yi, will perform at Abu Dhabi Festival in the Emirates Palace Auditorium, along with pianist ZHANG Haochen and violinist LÜ Siqing. Their upcoming visit marks the first collaboration between NCPA and Abu Dhabi Festival.
China NCPA Orchestra
China NCPA Orchestra has taken part in many of NCPA opera productions. During 2016/17 Season with the theme of “Music Speaks”, the Orchestra has participated in 15 NCPA opera productions, including Tannhäuser and Rusalka. Under the baton of NCPA Music Director and Principal Conductor LÜ Jia, Myung-whun Chung, LÜ Shaojia, ZHANG Yi and other conductors, China NCPA Orchestra has presented more than 30 concerts in cooperation with Kyung-wha Chung, ZHANG Haochen, NING Feng, WU Wei and many other soloists at home and abroad. Meanwhile, as the Resident Artists of NCPA (2016/17 Season), composer CHEN Qigang and pianist Yuja WANG have also joined hands with China NCPA Orchestra in concerts and educational projects.
Conductor ZHANG Yi
In recent years, China NCPA Orchestra has toured in Europe, Australia and East Asia. In November 2014, it visited North America to perform at the concert halls of Chicago, Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. In May 2015, under the baton of master Valery Gergiev, artists of both China NCPA Orchestra and the Mariinsky Orchestra performed at Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Moscow. In October 2015, China NCPA Orchestra participated in the tour of NCPA Opera Commission The Rickshaw Boy in Italy. Moreover, in the upcoming 2017/18 Season, China NCPA Orchestra will once again embark on the performance journey towards the North America.
Pianist ZHANG Haochen
Since its inception in 2004, the annual Abu Dhabi Festival invites global influential artists and art troupes, and has become a grand art event of the Middle East.
Violinist LÜ Siqing
At two concerts respectively on March 24th and March 25th, conductor ZHANG Yi will perform together with China NCPA Orchestra, pianist ZHANG Haochen and violinist LÜ Siqing, demonstrating works of Bach, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Prokofiev and other western classical music maestros. Violin concerto The Butterfly Lovers will also be performed at the concert. The concert on March 24th will begin with Slavonic March by Tchaikovsky. Then China NCPA Orchestra and pianist ZHANG Haochen will jointly present Piano Concerto No. 2 by Russian composer Rachmaninov. In the second half of this concert, another popular classical work Symphony No. 9 by Dvorak will also be presented.
Rehearsal of China NCPA Orchestra on March 20th
At the concert on March 25th, China NCPA Orchestra will present violin concerto The Butterfly Lovers (by Chinese composers CHEN Gang and HE Zhanhao) and ballet music Romeo and Juliet Suite by Russian composer Prokofiev. These two classical works respectively tell two true love stories with different cultural backgrounds. Conductor ZHANG Yi introduced, “Inspired by the American ‘New World’, Dvorak integrates European classical music composition tradition, and leaves us the eternal From the New World. Prokofiev absorbs strong Russian elements, and gives full play to incisive soul and strength of Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet Suite. Regardless of all the boundaries, people's minds and emotions are always interlinked in fact. From the perspective of China NCPA Orchestra and me, this will be a journey with focus on cultural dialogue in true sense.