Dance of Fate: Rachmaninoff with YANG Yang,
Haochen Zhang and NCPAO

If you can only listen to one piano concerto, which will be your choice? I believe many have the same answer: Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Over the past more than a hundred years since its debut, the piece has shown great vigor and growing popularity. Not only is it cherished by lovers of classical music, but it also appears in movies, motion pictures, pop music and as accompaniment for figure skating.  

Some say this piece always hits you at the very bottom of your heart. Some say it lifts up the spirit whenever one is downhearted. Everyone perhaps has their own understanding of this fantastic piece of music.

The “Sound of Summer” online concert series will, for the first time, present a piano concerto, featuring prestigious conductor Yang Yang and pianist Zhang Haochen. Under the baton of Yang Yang, China NPAC Orchestra will also present Rachmaninoff’s last orchestral work Symphonic Dances.

By Gao Jie

YANG Yang

YANG Yang, born in a musical family, learned piano with Prof. LI Qifang. Later, he learned conducting respectively with Prof. XU Xin and Prof. WU Lingfen, and then was admitted to the Conducting Department of Central Conservatory of Music, being one of the students of Prof. YU Feng.

In November 2006, YANG Yang won the first place for his outstanding performance at the Dimitris Mitropoulos International Competition for Orchestral Conducting in Greece.

As an active conductor in China, YANG Yang has cooperated with lots of mainstream orchestras and opera houses domestically. Meanwhile, he has also cooperated with foreign orchestras such as Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, German Philharmonic Orchestra of Cologne, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, National Rhine Philharmonic Orchestra, New Brandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Italian Verona Opera House, Teatro Regio Torino, Italian Rome Philharmonic Orchestra, French Cannes Symphony Orchestra, Bordeaux Symphony Orchestra, Valencia Orchestra of Spain, Greek Symphony Orchestra, Athenian Chamber Orchestra and Korean Incheon Philharmonic, etc. He had performed in cooperation with world famous musicians such as cellist Lynn Harrell, Alban Gerhard, WANG Jian, Natalia Gutman, violinist Maxim Vengerov, Gidon Kremer, Midori, Sarah Chang, Augustin Dumay, Lenard Karpison, Cho-Liang Lin, pianist Gary Graffman, Lang Lang, Barry Douglas, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Kun-Woo Paik, Jon Kimura Parker, soprano Sumi Jo, clarinetist Sabine Meyer, Wenzel Fuchs, French horn player Radovan Vlatkovic, Stefan Dohr, etc.

Recommended by maestro YU Long, YANG Yang started his conducting career in the year of 1998, at the First Beijing International Music Festival (BMF). Since then, he conducted operas and concerts at BMF eight years consecutively. From 2000 to 2016, YANG Yang held the position as the Assistant Conductor and Resident Conductor of China Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO). In 2006, YANG Yang attended an advanced training course hosted by maestro Myung-whun Chung in South Korea. In 2009, he has presided over the founding of Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra (HPO).

Since 2009, YANG Yang and HPO had successfully completed eight music seasons, and performed at leading festivals including Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Ravello Festival, Emilia Romagna Festival, Taormina Festival, Ljubljana Festival. He also toured with HPO extensively in Russia and Estonia.

In recent years, he has conducted operas including Turandot, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme by G. Puccini, La Traviata, Rigoletto by G. Verdi, Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni, Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo, Carmen by Bizet, Die Zauberflöte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Night Banquet and Wolf Cub Village by GUO Wenjing, etc.

YANG Yang is now Music Director and Chief Conductor of China National Opera House, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra.

Haochen Zhang

Since his gold medal win at the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, Haochen Zhang has captivated audiences in the United States, Europe, and Asia with a unique combination of deep musical sensitivity, fearless imagination, and spectacular virtuosity. In 2017, Haochen received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, which recognizes talented musicians with the potential for a major career in music.

Haochen has already appeared with many of the world’s leading festivals and orchestras including the BBC Proms with Long Yu and the China Philharmonic; the Munich Philharmonic with the late Lorin Maazel in a sold-out tour in Munich and China; the Easter Festival in Moscow by special invitation of Maestro Valery Gergiev; the Sydney Symphony and David Robertson in a China tour; and the NDR Hamburg and Thomas Hengelbrock in a tour of Tokyo, Beijing, and Shanghai.

In the 2019-20 season, Haochen continues his ongoing collaboration with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin with concerts in Philadelphia and a tour in Japan. Additional symphony highlights include Singapore Symphony, performances of all the Beethoven concertos with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and a tour in China with the National Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda. He also gives solo recitals across China and Europe.

In July 2019, Haochen released his debut concerto album on BIS Records performing Prokofiev’s second piano concerto and Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Dima Slobodeniouk. His debut solo album was released by BIS in February 2017, which includes works by Schumann, Brahms, Janacek, and Liszt.

In recent seasons, Haochen debuted with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and toured Asia with The Philadelphia Orchestra. He has given extensive recital and concerto tours in Asia with performances in China, Hong Kong, and Japan. In October 2017, Haochen gave a concerto performance at Carnegie Hall with the NCPA Orchestra, which was followed by his recital debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.

Haochen Zhang has performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio, San Francisco Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, Mariinsky Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, Taiwan Philharmonic, and Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestras, among others. In recital, he has performed at Spivey Hall, La Jolla Music Society, Celebrity Series of Boston, CU Artist Series, Cliburn Concerts, Krannert Center, Wolf Trap Discovery Series, Lied Center of Kansas, and UVM Lane Series, among others.

Haochen is also an avid chamber musician, collaborating with colleagues such as the Shanghai, Tokyo, and Brentano Quartets. He is frequently invited by chamber music festivals in the United States including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and La Jolla Summerfest.

Haochen’s performances at the Cliburn Competition were released to critical acclaim by Harmonia Mundi in 2009. He is featured in Peter Rosen’s award-winning documentary chronicling the 2009 Cliburn Competition, A Surprise in Texas.

Haochen is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied under Gary Graffman. He has also been studying periodically with Andreas Haefliger in Vienna. He was previously trained at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Shenzhen Arts School, where he was admitted in 2001 at the age of 11 to study with Professor Dan Zhaoyi. In January 2019, Zhang was hired as Resident Artist of Southern University of Science and Technology.

China NCPA Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Beijing. Since its founding in 2010, the orchestra has fast established itself as one of the most adventurous and dynamic orchestras in the country and earned an international reputation through extensive performances abroad. Numerous world-renowned artists have collaborated with the orchestra, including Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Myung-Whun Chung, Christoph Eschenbach, Fabio Luisi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Leif Segerstam, Gunter Herbig, Shao-Chia Lu, Xian Zhang, Rudolf Buchbinder, Stephen Kovacevich, Khatia Buniatishvili, Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, Haochen Zhang, Kyung-Wha Chung, Vadim Repin, Siqing Lu, NING Feng, Jian Wang, Gautier Capucon, Alison Balsom, Sabine Meyer, Placido Domingo, Leo Nucci, Renee Fleming among many others. Lorin Maazel worked closely with the orchestra before his passing and praised the musicians for their “amazing professionalism and great passion in music”. Christoph Eschenbach also declared it as “one of the finest orchestras in Asia”. Over the years, the orchestra has gained critical acclaim for its artistic excellence in both concerts and operas. To date they have played in over 60 NCPA opera productions, including classical repertoires such as Tristan and Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Aida, Otello, Nabucco, Tosca, Turandot, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, and newly commissioned works Rickshaw Boy, The Long March, Fang Zhimin, The Jinsha River, Visitors on the Snow Mountain and The Dawns Here Are Quiet. Their live recording of The Ring without Words with its creator, Lorin Maazel, was released on SONY Music worldwide, the only recording the great maestro ever made with an orchestra from China. The orchestra has consistently offered creative and diverse programmes through its concert season. As part of its continuous efforts to promote contemporary music, the orchestra presented the China Premieres of major works by John Adams, Toru Takemitsu et al. and gave the World Premieres of dozens of substantial new orchestral works commissioned from composers across the globe, including Qigang Chen, Bright Sheng, ZHAO Jiping, Michael Gordon, Kalevi Aho, et al. It has also played a significant role in the NCPA's Young Composers Programme, providing a unique platform nurturing the next generation of composers in China. The orchestra has consistently offered creative and diverse programmes through its concert season. As part of its continuous efforts to promote contemporary music, the orchestra presented the China Premieres of major works by John Adams, Toru Takemitsu et al. and gave the World Premieres of dozens of substantial new orchestral works commissioned from composers across the globe, including Qigang Chen, Bright Sheng, ZHAO Jiping, Michael Gordon, Kalevi Aho, et al. It has also played a significant role in the NCPA's Young Composers Programme, providing a unique platform nurturing the next generation of composers in China. With its commitment to educational and outreach activities, the orchestra has presented a series of Weekend Matinee Concerts at its home venue, providing local audience specially selected programmes and accessible ticket prices. The orchestra also frequently initiates wide-reaching educational projects in association with educational institutions across the city. In this unpredictable 2020, the NCPAO led by the Music Director LÜ Jia has collaborated with LI Xincao, CHEN Lin, LI Biao, YANG Yang, ZHANG Yi, Siqing Lu, Haochen Zhang and many other artists in presenting online concert series over 5 months period. In November, the NCPAO announced its 2020-21 season after several rounds of adjustments. The new season sees the orchestra’s performances in operas including Fang Zhimin, Visitor on the Snow Mountain, LAN Huahua, and the premiere of the NCPA’s new production of Gianni Schicchi. In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth and the 160th anniversary of Mahler’s, Music Director LÜ Jia conducts the NCPAO in Egmont with actor SUN Qiang and a series of classic symphonies and chamber works of the two great composers. The 2020-2021 season features several Chinese artists’ debuts, among them YU Feng, ZHANG Jiemin, Jinxu Xiahou, Jianing Kong, Tianqi Du, and CHEN YUE. Highlights of the season also include the returns of ZHANG Guoyong, YUAN Ding, SONG Yuanming, Xuefei Yang, ZHANG Qiang, LI Jia, and David Wang. As the Composer-in-Focus, ZHAO Jiping’s music will be performed by the NCPAO throughout the season. In February 2012, LÜ Jia took up the post of Chief Conductor, succeeding Zuohuang Chen, NCPA’s then Artistic Director of Music as well as a founder of the orchestra. In January 2017, LÜ Jia started serving as NCPA's Artistic Director of Music and the NCPA Orchestra's Music Director.