XIE Nan is a world-renowned violinist, professor, director of the violin teaching and research department and doctoral supervisor at the Central Conservatory of Music, and vice-president of the Violin Society of the Chinese Musicians’ Association. She has been a member of the jury of the CCTV Piano and Violin Competitions, the HKIVS Shlomo Mintz International Violin Competition, the Competition Andrea Postacchini, the Hong Kong International Violin Competition and the Schoenfeld International String Competition. She has been described as a “violin magician” by national and international critics.

XIE has an extraordinary musical talent. At the age of nine, she won second place at the Guangdong Music Competition for her performance of the Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E minor; at the age of 14, she won recognition at the Beijing International Youth Violin Competition; at the age of 16, she won the first place at the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poland, where she was also awarded the only prize for “Best Performance of Works by Wieniawski”. Z. Brzewski, President of the jury of the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, described her performance as a “passionate, brilliant and evocative”. The famous English violinist R. Masters called her “a remarkable talent”.

She has been honoured by the Ministry of Culture of the PRC for her outstanding achievements. CCTV has also recorded her solo albums and broadcast them nationwide.

XIE studied with Professor ZHU Xiongzhen, Professor HUANG Xiaozhi and Professor LIN Yaoji. After receiving her master’s degree with distinction, she went to the U.S. for further studies under Professor Alice Schoenfeld and was awarded the highest performance diploma by the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. She has been personally coached by the famous violin virtuosos Isaac Stern, Salvatore Arcado and Pinchas Zuckerman and has received high praise from them. In 1999, she published her recording of Rodolphe Kreutzer’s 42 Études, which was hailed as the “bible of the violin” by the great violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz, becoming the first violinist in the world to record the complete set of the works. She also published a number of solo albums such as The Past of the Violin and The Works of Ma Sicong. In recent years, XIE has been selected into the Program for New Century Excellent Talents by the Ministry of Education, and has published Brahms’ Three Violin Sonatas and released the teaching materials simultaneously, filling the gap of such recordings in China. Her latest album Encounter was recently published by the China Record Group and won the 2019 Audiophile Best Art Award.

Over the years, XIE has remained active on the international music scene, often participating in major performances and exchanges around the world, including performances in the UK, Germany, Austria, Poland, Finland, North Korea, Russia, the Netherlands, Japan, the U.S., Canada, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand and other countries, as well as in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan of China, where she has been well received and highly praised by audiences. She has been invited to give solo violin performances at the Beijing International Music Festival, Macao Arts Festival, Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, Asian Symphony Music Festival in Japan, Forum of Asian Culture Ministers and the third anniversary concert of CCTV Music Channel. She has collaborated with the China Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, China National Opera House Symphony Orchestra, China Youth Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, Taiwan Philharmonic Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Kuopio Symphony Orchestra of Finland, Brabants Symphony Orchestra of the Netherlands, China Macao Orchestra, Seoul Chamber Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, and Taipei Experimental Chinese Orchestra, receiving overwhelmingly positive comments and responses from all over the world. Since teaching at the Orchestral Instruments Department of the Central Conservatory of Music, she has devoted her passion to teaching, and her students have won numerous prizes in major competitions at home and abroad. After the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, she held a charity concert for the victims. She has also been invited to give masterclasses at Yale School of Music, Boston University School of Music, McGill Schulich School of Music in Canada, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore, Xinghai Conservatory of Music, Wuhan Conservatory of Music, Tianjin Conservatory of Music and other institutions, to great acclaim.

As an outstanding Chinese musician, XIE has taken it as her mission to promote Chinese music. Since 2002, she has performed the violin concerto The Butterfly Lovers at the prestigious Musikverein in Vienna, the Frits Philips Music Hall in the Netherlands, the Festival Hall Osaka in Japan and the Johannesburg City Theatre in South Africa, all with great success (the performance at the Musikverein in Vienna has been published by the China Record Group). She presented the traditional Chinese music version of The Butterfly Lovers with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and the Taipei Experimental Chinese Orchestra at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall and Taipei Concert Hall respectively, causing a great sensation and earning her the reputation of the “Queen of Butterflies”. Her performance was magnificent and passionate and her music was delicate and soulful with a mellow and sweet tone. Her outstanding interpretations have been described as “passionate calmness and a spark of intelligence”.

XIE’s violin for the concert is generously provided by the Yu Art Foundation.

LI Zhe is a Chinese-Canadian violinist who serves as Concertmaster of the China NCPA Orchestra. He has remained active in professional orchestras and on the international chamber music scene, with extensive orchestral, operatic and chamber music experience and impressive orchestra principalship. He has served as a violin performer and concertmaster at the London Symphony Orchestra, I Musici de Montreal Chamber Orchestra, China National Opera House Symphony Orchestra and China NCPA Orchestra. He is founding member of the “Beijing Trio” and “China NCPA Quartet”, distinguished expert at the Ministry of Culture and State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, director of CFCM, guest professor and postgraduate supervisor at the Central Conservatory of Music, and expert at the Poly Cinemas Art Review Committee.

Born in Gaomi, northern coastal Shandong Province of China, LI has shown his musical talent since he was a teenager. At the age of 10, he won the 2nd Prize in the National Violin Competition. He is a graduate of the Affiliated Primary School of Central Conservatory of Music, the Central Conservatory of Music Middle School, and Central Conservatory of Music, and used to study under violin educator Prof. LIN Yaoji. After graduation, he won full scholarship for advanced studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Universite de Montreal, becoming the last disciple of the late violin educator Yfrah Neaman. Also, he studied under Gorden Nicolich, the concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Eleonora Turovsky, a violin educator.

During his studies, LI served as Concertmaster of the China Children’s Symphony Orchestra, China Teenagers’ Symphony Orchestra, China Youth Symphony Orchestra, Guildhall Symphony Orchestra, British Musicians Orchestra and Orchestre Symphonique de Universite de Montréal. In 2001, he was selected for the London Symphony Orchestra’s “Music Talent” programme, starting his career as a professional performer. In 2005, he began to serve as Associate Concertmaster and Deputy Concertmaster of the I Musici de Montreal Chamber Orchestra. During this period, he also worked with four musicians in holding a solo concert of Paganini’s 24 capriccios, and served as Montreal-China Cultural Ambassador and Secretary-General of the Quebec Chinese Musicians’ Associations. After returning home on invitation in 2010, he served as Concertmaster of the China National Opera House Symphony Orchestra and China NCPA Orchestra. Under his leadership, the orchestras gave about 1,000 concerts and performed about 100 operas in dozens of music seasons, including Turandot, Der Fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, and Aida, winning wide acclaim from all walks of life. For his outstanding performance, he has twice won the “Excellent Performance Award” by the Ministry of Culture.

ZHOU Yang is the principal oboe of the China NCPA Orchestra and the silver medalist of the L’UFAM (International Chamber Music Competition) in Paris, France. He received a double master’s degree in oboe performance and chamber music from the Ministry of Education of China.

He was born in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province in northeast China and graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music Middle School, the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Musique de Paris, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse and the Conservation National de Région de Versilles. During his studies, he studied with Prof. ZHU Dun and Prof. JIN Jingchun at the Central Conservatory of Music, Prof. Jean-Claude Jaboulay, principal oboist of the Paris Symphony Orchestra, and Prof. Pascal Soumont, principal oboist of the Orchestre National de France. He was fortunate to have the guidance and assistance of oboists KAI Sai, Jaques TYS, David Walter, and Hansjörg Schellenberger.

During his studies in France, he was awarded the Amical Scholarship in France and sponsored by the Zygmunt Zaleski Stichting Foundation in the Netherlands.

Since 2010, he has been working with the NCPA Orchestra and has participated in basically all the operas and concerts produced by the NCPA.

From 2012 to 2015, he performed with Eisenbach at festivals in Schleswig-Holstein and Kissingen, performed with CHEN Zuohuang in Berlin, Nuremberg and Sydney, and performed with LÜ Jia in Singapore, Seoul, and Daegu, as well as in Taipei and Macao of China. He made two trips to North America in 2014 and 2017, performing at Carnegie Hall in New York, Chicago Symphony Center, Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco and other major venues for performing arts in the US and Canada.

In April 2017, he appeared with the NCPA orchestra in the gala entitled “Millennium Covenant” at the “Belt and Road” Forum for International Cooperation, completing the performance as a major political task and making an outstanding contribution to the multilateral diplomatic activities of the Forum.

ZHOU has a wealth of performance experiences and has worked with many renowned artists from at home and abroad, including conductors ZHENG Xiaoying, LÜ Jia, LI Xincao, CHEN Zuohuan, LYU Shaojia, ZHANG Guoyong, ZHANG Yi, ZHANG Xian, YUAN Ding, HU Yongyan, TANG Muhai, Chung Myung-whun, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Ashkenazy, Ivan Fischer, Fabio Luiz, Daniel Oren, Kyung-Wha Chung, Eisenbach, Segerstam, and others. He has also collaborated with renowned performers such as Lang, WANG Jian, WANG Yujia, NING Feng, Siqing Lu, CHEN Sa, HE Hui, Sofie Mutter, LI Biao, Fleming, Gauthier Capuçon and Honeck. He has given performance in countries and regions such as the U.S., Canada, Australia, Russia, Germany, Italy, North Korea, UAE, and Korea, as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan of China.