Immortal Stories from China: CHEN Lin，LI Jia and NCPAO

With elements of Chinese folk music from different provinces and regions of China from the northwest to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the pieces in the PROGRAM of this concert tell ever-charming Chinese stories. 

Bao Yuankai's suite for orchestra "Chinese Sights and Songs" was premiered in 1991. Based on Han folk songs from six regions, Hebei, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Jiangsu and Shanxi, the orchestral work presents vivid pictures of the common people's lives.  

Drawing on elements from the folk song of the Loess Plateau, French Chinese composer Chen Qigang composed L'eloingement. The French title means "distance." The Chinese title Zou Xikou is a pun, referring to both the mood of the original folk song and the composer's complex feelings about parting, changes, hope, and expectations in the years away from the homeland.  Little Sisters of the Grassland composed by pipa master Liu Dehai in collaboration with Wu Zuqiang and Wang Yanqiao was the first concerto for the pipa and the orchestra. To honor Liu Dehai, who passed away in April, pipa player Li Jia, who studied with Liu Dehai, was invited to join the orchestra and perform this work in memory of the great Chinese musician.

Ode to the Red Flag, composed in 1965, vividly portrays the scene of the first Five-Starred Red Flag rose in the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. It shows the pride of the liberated Chinese people in the celebration of victory, as well as their love for their motherland. 

By Gao Jie

CHEN Lin

Conductor CHEN Lin is currently teaching at the Conducting Department of Central Conservatory of Music. CHEN Lin is not only active on various important stages across the country, but has also cooperated with many international music groups. She was claimed as "a hard-won excellent musician” by the long-standing Stuttgarter Kammerorchester.

In 1996, CHEN Lin was admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music and became a student of China’s famous conductor Professor YU Feng. In 2000, under the recommendation of the maestro Mr. Seiji Ozawa, she was exempted from the examination to study in the top Tanglewood Music Festival in US and won the Bernstein Scholarship. From 1999 to 2003, she entered the finals of the Besancon International Competition for Young Conductors three times. In 2007, in the 8th Gregory Fitelberg’s International Competition for Conductors held in the famous city Katowice of Poland, she took the second place, winning two prizes of "Silver Baton Award" and "the Best Conductor Award for Polish famous composer Szymanowki’s works”.

In 2003, CHEN Lin served as assistant conductor of Seiji Ozawa Music Academy and took part in numerous opera rehearsals. She also acted as the conductor of the Music Academy in China Tour in 2005, gaining great success. In 2006, she was invited to Japan's famous Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto as a guest conductor and conducted Rossini’s opera Il barbiere di Siviglia and many concerts. In 2011, Mr. Ozawa cancelled his performances at the NCPA in Beijing due to health conditions. CHEN Lin took over the conducting for parts of the concerts and received good praises. In 2013, CHEN Lin was invited to conduct the Closing Concert of Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto.

In recent years, CHEN Lin is also recognized as an opera conductor. In 2011, she was invited by the China National Opera House to conduct the premiere of Strauss's opera Die Fledermaus of the Chinese version in China. In 2015, she was invited to cooperate with the China National Opera House again to conduct Puccini's opera Tosca. From 2014 to 2016, under the invitation of the Taiwan Creation Opera Institute, she conducted Puccini’s opera La bohème and Mozart’s opera Così Fan Tutte.

CHEN Lin has conducted a wide range of works, like symphonies, Western classical operas and Chinese contemporary original operas. She has maintained good cooperation with China's leading orchestras and opera houses, such as the NCPA, the China National Opera House, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra and so on. Her musical talents have attracted the attention of renowned international music communities and music festivals, including Japan's Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, French Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Poland Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra, and Stuttgarter Kammerorchester.

As a professional professor of conductor, CHEN Lin also concentrates on studies of teaching modern conducting methods. She has made outstanding teaching achievements at the university since 2004 and the conducting profession students under her supervision have repeatedly won excellent results in major competitions at home and abroad. From 2005 to 2008, she was appointed to be the music director of the student orchestra and the professor of Conducting Department, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), US.

LI JIA

Doctor in Music Performance, pipa teacher at the China Conservatory of Music. In 1990, Li entered the primary school affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 1993, she was admitted to the secondary school affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 1999, she entered the China Conservatory of Music to continue her studies with pipa master LIU Dehai. In 2006, she graduated with master's degree in music performance and stayed in the school to teach. She has given many solo concerts, and in 2009, she became the first doctoral student in Chinese pipa performance, under master LIU Dehai. In 2002, she performed as the pipa soloist in the world premiere of Qigang CHEN's Iris devoilée and participated in a world tour of Europe and North America. She has participated in many important festivals in China and abroad and has collaborated with renowned orchestras such as the Orchestre National de France, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, the China Philharmonic and the China NCPA Orchestra.

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.