Cai Jindong

Cai Jindong 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.

Mr. Cai has received much critical acclaim for his orchestral and opera performances. In 1992, his opera conducting debut took place at Lincoln Center's Mozart Bicentennial Festival in New York, when he appeared as a last minute substitute for the world premiere of a new production of Mozart's Zaide. The New York Times described the performance as "one of the more compelling experiences so far offered in the festival." Mr. Cai has guest conducted the Arkansas Symphony, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Lexington Philharmonic, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and the Tucson Symphony, among others.

Mr. Cai maintains strong ties to his homeland and guest conducts several top orchestras in China including the China National Broadcasting Symphony, the National Opera and Ballet Theater of China, the Shanghai Symphony, and the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony. In 1997, he conducted the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in the Chinese premiere of John Corigliano's Symphony No. 1 - the first major contemporary American work ever performed in that country.

Mr. Cai has twice won the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music. He has recorded for Centaur Records and Vienna Modern Masters. His recording with the Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra, which contains music by William Grant Still and other African-American composers, was reviewed as "a startling album, both for its professionalism and its sonic excellence" and was widely broadcast on National Public Radio.

Born in Beijing, Mr. Cai received his early musical training in China, where he learned to play the violin and piano. He came to the United States in 1985 and did his graduate studies at the New England Conservatory and the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. In 1989, he was selected to study with famed conductor Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Center, and won the Conducting Fellowship Award at the Aspen Music Festival in 1990 and 1992.

Chinese National Orchestra As a national-level orchestra directly under the Ministry of Culture, Chinese National Orchestra, founded in 1960 under the direction of Premier Zhou Enlai, is regarded as the standard-setter, model and benchmark of China's folk music performance. The Orchestra, made up of folk orchestra, chorus and art creation center, boasts a group of world-renown musicians and sharp-sighted managers. Li Huanzhi (January 1919 to March 2000), famous composer and former Chairman of China Musicians' Association, had served as its first President and now Xi Qiang, a member of CPPCC, Chinese string instrument artist and musicologist, is at the wheel.

Chinese National Orchestra not only performs typical traditional music in various forms but dabbles in contemporary Chinese music, western classic music and other genres.

Adhering to popularizing traditional Chinese music and culture, the Orchestra collects, arranges and performs a great variety of excellent folk music and contemporary selected works, adding a glorious stroke to China's traditional music. Chairman Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, Premier Zhou Enlai as well as foreign heads of state had visited the Orchestra time after time, offering their highly compliments. Over these years, the Orchestra has produced a large number of eminent folk music talents, such as Li Huanzhi, Tang Rongmei, Qin Pengzhang and Liu Wenjin. Moreover, the Orchestra has also cooperated with such famous musicians as Christoph Eschenbach, Jean Michel Jarre, Yo-Yo Ma and Minoru Miki.

Since its inception, the Orchestra has for numerous times visited dozens of countries and regions - Asia, Europe and America, for performance besides tours around China. In 1993, the Orchestra founded the Asia Orchestra together with the Ensemble Nipponia and National Orchestra of Korea to promote art creation and exchanges of Asian folk music. In 1997, the Orchestra toured dozens of cities in America at the invitation of ICM and staged with world-renown cellist Yo-Yo Ma at the Carnegie Hall. In 1998, 1999 and 2010, the Orchestra staged the Grand Spring Festival Concerts at the Golden Hall of Vienna, Austria, whose masterful performance won rousing success and highly praise from local audience and media.

Not only does the Orchestra maintain traditional music genre, but attempt to breathe new life into it by creating innovative shows, such as Golden Melody, Music Gallery, Grand Folk Music, Melody of A Century, My Magnificent Country, Charming Moonlight, as well as annul Mid-autumn Concert held by the NCPA, weekly "Refined Chinese Music" Concerts, arousing extensive favor from audience and making great contribution for the development of traditional Chinese music.