XU Zhong is a Chinese conductor and pianist well-known in the international music scene. He is President of the Shanghai Opera House, Principal Conductor of the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, Dean of the Soochow University School of Music, Principal Conductor of the Festival de Verano/Teatro de Verano, International Opera Chairman of the Royal Welsh Academy of Music and Drama, an external expert at the Cardiff Singer of the World, and an independent non-executive director of NetEase CloudMusic. From 2012 to 2015, he served as the artistic director and principal conductor of the Teatro Bellini, Italy, becoming the first Asian musician in history to take up this position at a famous Italian theatre. From 2013 to 2019, he served as the music director and principal conductor of the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Israel, becoming the first Chinese musician to act as an orchestra director in Israeli music history.
XU was admitted to the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris with the highest marks, and studied under French piano virtuoso Dominique Merlet. He studied conducting with Prof. HUANG Xiaotong, a Chinese maestro, and studied opera conducting with Piero Rattalino, an Italian opera master. In his early years, he won grand awards and honours in numerous major international piano competitions including the 34th Maria Canals International Piano Competition, Barcelona, the First Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, the Santander International Piano Competition, the Fifth Tokyo International Piano Competition, and the International Tchaikovsky Competition; as a piano soloist, he was invited to world-famous music festivals held in Vienna, Luxembourg, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Nice, Natanli, Hamamatsu, etc. Also, he serves as a jury member at various major international piano competitions including Busoni (Italy), Clara Haskil (Switzerland), Dublin (Ireland), Leeds (Britain), Marguerite Long (France), Richter (Russia), Hamamatsu (Japan), Seoul (South Korea), etc.
XU maintains extensive cooperation with many famous symphony orchestras and opera houses all over the world. He has not only conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra de Paris, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Orchestra del Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, but also established long-term close cooperation with world-famous theatres including the Teatro alla Scala, Teatro La Fenice, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro di Verona, Gran Theatre del Liceu, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, L'opera de Paris, Royal Opera House, Oper Leipzig, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Sydney Opera House, and Hungary National Art Palace. He has conducted operas including Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana, La Traviata, Aida, Il Trovatore, La Bohème, Tosca, Turandot, Sister Angelica, La Cenerentola, Le Nozze di Figaro, Der Fliegende Holländer, Die Fledermaus, The Land of Smiles, Elektra, Carmen, The Human Voice, Orpheus in der Unterwelt, Aleko, and Don Giovanni. As a person who contributes to the development of opera art in China, he has conducted Chinese opera commissions including Shen Nong, TIAN Han, Morning Bell, John Rabe, Love of Songmao Mountain, etc. In recent years, he remains committed to composing original music. In 2021, he was invited to compose music for the Shanghai Theatre Academy Outpost, which is one of the first 39 key literary and artistic works themed “Building Comprehensive Well-off Society” and “The 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the CPC” launched by Shanghai as the opera Morning Bell is.
In early 2020, XU launched a “global music relay initiative”, bringing together top symphony orchestras and opera houses from all over the world to assist the Chinese and overseas Chinese in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. As a follow-up, the “Warming the World with Music: 12-Hour Live-streaming on Earth Day” was launched by him in cooperation with the Shanghai Opera House and Radio Shanghai Classical 947 in April. In 2021, he served as the artistic director and conducted the opening concert at the opening ceremony of the 37th Shanghai Spring International Music Festival. He conducted “Singing Loudly for the Past Century”, a large-scale outdoor symphony and chorus concert held with 100 pianos applied to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. He conducted Morning Bell to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. He conducted the world’s first 546-metre-high symphony and chorus concert, Singing for a Century-old Dream and Sailing to a New Era, on Floor 118, Shanghai Tower; he staged Singing for a Century-old Dream in Homage to Strivers, a performance series for sending New Year’s greetings, with artists from the Shanghai Opera House at the Construction Site of the First National Congress of the CPC.
In 2010, XU was awarded the title, Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2018, he was awarded the title, Officer dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
In 2021, XU was invited as International Opera Chairman of the Royal Welsh Academy of Music and Drama, becoming the first Chinese artist to take up this position. At the same time, he was invited as an external expert judge at the Cardiff Singer of the World. Other top musicians and artists, including Sir Antonio Pappano, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sir David Pountney and Sir Brian McMaster were also invited as external expert judges in this competition. In July of the same year, an opera-themed public-spirited poster endorsed by XU Zhong was placed on New York Times Square to promote the Shanghai Opera House. In December of the same year, XU Zhong was invited as an independent non-executive director of NetEase CloudMusic. He is not just the only musician among the board members to be an independent non-executive director, but also the first Chinese musician to serve as an independent non-executive director of a publicly-listed company.