LI Xincao is Deputy Director and Principal Conductor of China National Symphony Orchestra, a member of the 13^th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Vice President of the China Musicians Association, professor and postgraduate tutor at the Department of Conducting, both of Central Conservatory of Music and China Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

LI used to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, studying under XU Xin, ZHENG Xiaoying, LI Delun, YAN Liangkun, and Prof. L. Hager. Since 1999, he has been giving historic visiting performances around the world with the China National Symphony Orchestra, winning high praise from authoritative music critics of various countries. As the first Chinese conductor to raise his baton at the Vienna State Opera, he has been to five continents.

In 2000, LI was named one of the “100 young people who may influence China in the 21^st century” by China Youth. In 2004, he was named as one of the top 10 winners of the “First China Youth Learning and Success Award” by the Communist Youth League Central Committee.

LI has served as chief conductor of theatrical performances on many national diplomatic occasions. In 2016, he conducted Enduring Memories of Hangzhou at the G20 Hangzhou Summit. In 2017, he conducted Sailing to the Future at the “BRICs Xiamen Summit”. In 2018, he made a visit to North Korea with a delegation of Chinese artists. In 2019, he conducted Struggle, Chinese People, a large-scale music and dance epic staged in order to celebrate the 70^th anniversary of the founding of the PRC.

In the opera world, LI has conducted more than 30 classic operas including Mulan Poem, The Wilderness, Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, Salome, Der Rosenkavalier, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Turandot, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Aida, L’Elisir d’Amore, and Carmen.

The Chinese conductor LÜ Jia has received great acclaim internationally. Born into a musical family in Shanghai, LÜ began studying piano and cello at a very young age. He later studied conducting at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, under the tutelage of esteemed conductor ZHENG Xiaoying. At the age of 24, LÜ entered the University of Arts in Berlin, where he continued his studies under Professor Hans-Martin Rabenstein and Robert Wolf. The following year, he was awarded both the First Prize and Jury’s Prize at the Antonio Pedeotti International Conducting Competition in Trento, Italy, and launched his career as a conductor.

Over the past decades, he has conducted over 2,000 orchestral concerts and opera performances in Europe and America, and became the first Asian conductor to serve as the artistic director of a major Italian opera house, as well as the first Chinese conductor to lead Chicago Symphony. He has worked with important productions at the Bayersiche Staatsoper in Munich, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and La Scala in Milan, as well as opera houses in Lausanne, Turin, Rome, Naples, Verona, Venice, Florence, Frankfurt and Stuggart. He has also worked with many renowned orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Lyon National Orchestra in France, Finnish Radio Symphony, Hamburg Radio Symphony, Bamberg Symphoniker, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and many others across Europe, America and Australia.

LÜ Jia was the first Chinese conductor to record Felix Mendelssohn’s complete orchestral works, and also the only conductor so far who has recorded the complete works by the important Swedish composer Ingvar Lidholm. His interpretations of German Classical Romanticism and French Impressionists have been praised for their “extremely convincing musical interpretation" with "musical precision and perfect baton technique.” Having directed nearly 50 operas in Italy and Germany, homelands of the European opera tradition, he has also been praised by Italian music critics as “a conductor who understands Italian opera even better than the Italians themselves do”. In 2007, his performance of La Gazza Ladra at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro was voted as European Opera Production of the Year. That same year, in recognition of his important contribution to musical culture in Italy, Lü Jia was awarded the President’s Prize by President Giorgio Napolitano. In 2012, the Domingo International Vocal Competition invited LÜ Jia to serve on the jury, making him the Competition’s first-ever Chinese jury member.

In 2012, LÜ Jia was appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of Opera at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing China. Under his musical direction, NCPA's own productions of Lohengrin, Der fliegende Holländer, Otello, La Nozze di Figaro, Un Ballo in Maschera, Tosca, and many other works, have received glowing reviews from the international press. With these brand new productions aspiring to high international standards, the NCPA has become a strong contender in the world of opera, and also launched an exciting new chapter in the history of professional opera productions in China. In the meantime, the NCPA Orchestra, under LÜ's baton, has fast established itself as one of the leading new ensembles in the orchestral world in China, presenting impressive performances season after season.

In 2017, LÜ Jia has been appointed as Artistic Director of Music of National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), and Music Director of China NCPA Orchestra. Before taking up his current posts in Beijing, LÜ served as Music Director at Verona Opera, Artistic Director at Symphony Orchestra of Tenerife, as well as Chief Conductor at Trieste Opera, Symphony Orchestra of Florence, Lazio Chamber Orchestra of Rome and Norrkopping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden. In addition to his NCPA music directorship, he is also currently the Music Director and Principal Conductor of Macao Orchestra.

LIU Sha is National-level A-list Conductor, Principal Conductor of the China National Traditional Orchestra, Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Macau Chinese Orchestra and Master’s Supervisor at Conducting Department of the Central Conservatory of Music. He graduated from the Conducting Department of the Central Conservatory of Music in his early years, and studied under the tutelage of Professor XU Xin. Later, he went to the N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg Conservatory for further conducting studies, where he studied under the tutelage of Professor Alexander Polishchuk, and completed the programme with top honours and was awarded a diploma in Opera-Symphony Conducting. He also attended the master classes of world-famous maestros Seiji Ozawa, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jorma Panula, Colin Metters and Gustav Meier.

For many years, as a member of the China National Traditional Orchestra, he has visited Russia, France, South Korea, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany, the United States and other countries. In 2010, he conducted at Concert in Celebration of the 50^th Anniversary of China National Traditional Orchestra, and was received and praised by national leaders. In 2011, he visited Europe and conducted at world-famous “Salzburg Festival (Salzburger Festspiele)”. In 2013, he performed at the Chinese New Year Concert in Hawaii. He also participated in the Pan Pacific Asia Art Festival of Stanford University in San Francisco.

LIU Sha is a visionary who has been advocating, commissioning and performing new works by young Chinese composers. The resulting achievements have thrusted him into the limelight of music circles in China and Asia. In 2016, he was the youngest conductor to be named “China’s Top Ten Conductors in Chinese Orchestral Music”.

The China National Traditional Orchestra is the world’s largest comprehensive national music performance group with the most complex art genres, and a national art ensemble directly under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It consists of a large national orchestra, national chorus, music creation centre and performance centre. The Orchestra was founded in 1960 under the direction of Premier ZHOU Enlai, and its first president was famous composer Mr. LI Huanzhi, former President of Chinese Musicians’ Association. The current leaders of the Orchestra include Party Secretary LIU Jie, President ZHAO Cong, Deputy Party Secretary and Secretary of Committee for Discipline Inspection LIU Yupu, and Vice President TANG Feng.

Standing committed to carry forward the traditional Chinese folk music, the Orchestra has created and performed numerous wonderful musical works, and given birth to a great many national musicians, making outstanding contributions to the inheritance and promotion of the Chinese cultural spirit. Party and state leaders and many foreign leaders have watched many performances given by the Orchestra and spoken highly of it.

Over the years, the Orchestra has been travelling to more than 30 countries and regions in the world, cooperating in frequent international cultural exchanges to promote Chinese culture and folk music, achieving a series of remarkable achievements. It has been to many countries in five continents, including the USA, Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Denmark, Spain, Norway, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, etc. Also, it has often given performances for cultural exchanges in China Hong Kong, China Macau and China Taiwan, making all the compatriots feel the strong family ties among the Chinese people.

In recent years, the Orchestra has created and launched large-scale national musicals Impressions Chinese Music and Rediscover Chinese Music, large-scale folk concerts Splendor of Folk Music, Lingering Folk Music, Song and Moon and The Land is So Lovely, musical theatre Looking for DU Fu, concerts Golden Echo, Folk Music in Red Makeup, Beautiful Xinjiang, Spring in Tibet and Silk Road, large-scale folk symphonic music and painting Sun Yat-sen, and the world’s first large-scale traditional instrumental drama Xuanzang’s Pilgrimage to the West, which have become classics in the Orchestra’s repertoire.