Siqing Lu Violinist
One of the most prominent and influential Chinese violinists today, Siqing Lu performs regularly with major international and Chinese orchestras, in recitals and with the China Trio which he founded in 2011. As the first Asian violinist to win the prestigious International Paganini Violin Competition, Siqing has performed to acclaim in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls worldwide, including the Musikverein in Vienna, Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Southam Hall at National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Maison Symphonique and Place des Arts in Montreal, Barbican Centre, Royal Opera House and Wigmore Hall in London, Theatre Des Champs Elysees and Louis XIV Opera House at Palace of Versailles in Paris, the Great Hall in Moscow, Suntory Hall,Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall in Tokyo, Hamer Hall at the Arts Centre in Melbourne, Sydney Opera House, the Esplanade in Singapore, Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing among others.
In 2019, as the first soloist in residence of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO), Siqing Lu would perform the Season Opening Gala of MSO. Besides, Siqing Lu would take a worldwide recital tour of more than 30 cities. In addition, Siqing was also invite as guest soloist on tour with the NCPA Orchestra at the Abu Dhabi Music Festival, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra at the Bangkok International Dance and Music Festival, the China National Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House, as well as the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra on their historic first ever South America tour.
Siqing appears regularly at many of the top music festivals and prestigious music events around the world. He is the Artistic Director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts May Festival in Beijing, and is on the Jury of several prestigious international competitions such as the Menuhin Competition and the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition. In fall of 2016, he founded the Siqing Lu Shenzhen Futian International String Festival, of which he is the Artistic Director.
Siqing Lu has released more than 20 CDs and video recordings for Philips, Naxos, Marco Polo, and BIS. His five recordings of the Butterfly Lovers violin concerto, the most famous work among the Chinese violin repertoire, has sold millions of copies worldwide. His interpretation of this piece is widely considered the best and he has thrilled audiences in more than 20 countries worldwide performing this violin concerto. His latest recording of the Mendelssohn and Bruch violin concertos as well as TAN Dun's violin concerto Out of Beijing Opera with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was released worldwide by Australia’s ABC Classics to acclaim in March 2018.
Over the past decades, Siqing Lu has received numerous honours worldwide for his outstanding artistic achievement and social contributions, including Honourary Certificate from the United States House of Representatives, New Jersey Outstanding Achievement in Arts Award for Asian, California Senate Honourary Certificate, Honourary Certificate from the California Executive Committee of the House on multiple occasions, the Montblanc Outstanding Artist Award, China Youth Magazine's “The 100 Most Influential Young People of the 21st Century in China” award. On September 16th of 2006, the City of Millbrae, California passed a legislation to have the date proclaimed as “Siqing Lu Day” in honour of Siqing’s achievements.
Siqing Lu was born in 1969 in Qingdao, China. He began to study violin at the age of four. As an eight-year-old child, he became the youngest student ever to be admitted by the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing as a special talented student and studied with Prof. WANG Zhenshan. At the age of eleven, the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin chose Siqing to study at his school in London. In 1984, he returned to China for advanced studies at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Five years later, he went to the Juilliard School and studied with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang.
Siqing Lu plays the “Miss Crespi” 1699 Stradivari violin, generously loaned to him by Chinese-Australian arts philanthropist Mr. David Li.
HUANG Mengla Violinist
HUANG Mengla, born in Shanghai, one of the most active violinists on the world stage today. He won the 1st place of 49th Paganini International Violin Competition with the Renato De Barbieri Memorial Award for the best interpretation of Paganini's Caprices at the age of 22, thus getting named as “Oriental Paganini”. His performances shared us in profound thoughts, exquisite emotions under extraordinary skills, which always mesmerized the whole classical music world.
HUANG has always been devoted to the promotion of classical music with his very own blend of Eastern and Western musical philosophy. He has toured with worldwide top orchestras such as Sinfonieorchester Basel, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, achieving astounding success throughout Asia, Europe and the USA.
As a solo violinist, HUANG has made his USA debut on concert stages such as Alice Tully Hall and Lincoln Center in New York and became the first Chinese violinist to give a recital at Prague Spring International Music Festival. He has been invited to perform with Bamberger Symphoniker, Stuttgart Radio Symphony, Hamburg Symphony, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Danish National Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Nice Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic,etc. Conductors with whom he has collaborated included Neeme Jarvi, Jonathan Nott, YU Long, Henrik Schaefer, TANG Muhai, Edo de Waart, Andrew Manze, LÜ Jia, Simone Young, ZHANG Yi, etc.
Nowadays, HUANG has completed over one hundred global touring performances with his own projects “Paganini 24 Caprices”recital and “In the name of Concerto” string quartet concerts. “His talent is rapidly becoming known to the world", said journal The Gramophone.
As the first Chinese contract musician with Universal Music under DG label, he exclusively released albums with highlighting personal style including “Violin Show Pieces”, “Violinissimo”, “Paganini 24 Caprices”, “Milonga del Angel”, etc.
HUANG has worked as a professor in Shanghai Conservatory of Music, while serving as a guest professor of Royal Academy of Music and Ishikawa Music Academy for many years. He has also taken on the duty as a member of jury in many international violin competitions such as Sendai International Violin Competition, helping young generations grow and develop with his original aspiration and rich experience.
CHEN Xi Violinist
As a violinist, CHEN Xi has remained active on the international and domestic music stages in recent years, performing in many cities in mainland China, as well as in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. He has also performed as a soloist with renowned orchestras and participated in masterclasses in the U.S., Canada, Russia, France, Turkey, Italy, Japan and Korea. He is teaching at the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM).
In 2000, CHEN Xi won a prize in the 8th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition. In 2001, he won the first prize in the national audition for international competition, the first prize of the youth group and the Award of Excellence in Performance of Chinese Works in the 7th China National Violin Competition. In 2002, at the age of 17, he won the silver medal (gold medal vacant) at the XII International Tchaikovsky Competition for Violin, becoming the youngest first-prize winner in the history of the competition. In 2012, he was named one of China’s Top 10 Violinists by CCTV. He also became the first violinist to perform at the Hall of Supreme Harmony at the Forbidden City, along with the usage of the violin from Sarasate who is the author of the famous violin masterpiece Gypsy Airs.
CHEN Xi has given recitals in numerous internationally renowned concert halls, such as at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Dolby Theatre, Jordan Hall in Boston, Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, Seoul Arts Centre, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris and the China NCPA.
SU Zhen Violist
SU Zhen is a violist and educator. She serves as the viola professor and doctoral advisor of the Central Conservatory of Music; visiting professor of Royal Academy of Music, UK; distinguished expert of the China Conservatory of Music; She has won the Music Dean’s Award by Royal Academy of Music (the top award issued to graduates by RAM) as the first violist to receive this honor in over 180 years since the establishment of RAM, and still is an Honorary Fellow of RAM. She is the vice president of the Strings Association under China Musicians Association, the first Chinese judge of top international viola competitions, and the representative of the Tenth National Women’s Congress of China. Her performance was honored as “one of the best violists in the world” and “an excellent performance” by the world-class Gramophone magazine and Strad.
SU Zhen has been constantly active in major music festivals at home and abroad over the years. She has been engaged in education for nearly two decades, and many of her students have served as concert masters in famous professional orchestras at home and abroad, as well as educators in internationally renowned music conservatories. SU Zhen has also been committed to cultural exchanges between China and UK, US and Europe, making significant contributions to the communication and exchanges between Chinese and foreign music industry.
Li-Wei Qin Cellist
Li-Wei Qin has appeared all over the world as a soloist and chamber musician. Twice a soloist at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall, Li-Wei has enjoyed successful artistic collaborations with many of the world’s great orchestras including all the BBC symphony orchestras, the LA, London, and Hongkong, Osaka, China and NDR Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestras, Berlin Radio Symphony and Konzerthaus Orchestra, La Verdi Orchestra Milan, ORF Vienna Radio Orchestra , Prague Symphony, Sydney Symphony and Melbourne Symphony. Leading conductors with whom he has worked include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Andrew Davis, Marek Janowski, Jaap Van Zweden, Gianandrea Noseda, Jan Pascal Tortelier, Hans Graf, YU Long, TAN Dun, the late Marcello Viotti, the late Jiri Belohlavek and the late Lord Menuhin. Li-Wei has also appeared with chamber orchestras such as the Kremerata Baltika, Sinfonia Vasovia, the Munich, Manchester, Zurich and the Australian Chamber Orchestras.
He has also appeared at the Wigmore Hall, the Jerusalem and Rheingau and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festivals, and at the Lincoln Centre Chamber Music Society New York, with Daniel Hope, Nabuko Imai, Mischa Maisky, David Finckel, WU Han and Peter Frankel among many others.
Li-Wei’s recordings on Universal Music/Decca include the complete Beethoven Sonatas, Rachmaninov with Albert Tiu, Dvořàk Concerto with Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and Elgar and Walton Concerti with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Li-Wei's 2013 live concert with the Shanghai Symphony and with maestro YU Long has been released on Sony Classical.
Prior to teaching at the YST Conservatory, Li-Wei was a professor at the Royal Northern College of Music Manchester. He is a guest professor at Shanghai and Central Conservatory of Music, China.
Li-Wei plays a 1780 Joseph Guadagnini cello, generously loaned by Dr. and Mrs. Wilson Goh.
SUN Yingdi Pianist
SUN Yingdi won the First Prize in the 7th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition held in Utrecht, the Netherlands in April 2005, becoming the first Chinese pianist to win this prestigious competition. His outstanding interpretation of Liszt has been praised by major media reports as “Liszt in primary colours.”
In recent years, SUN has been an active pianist both in China and worldwide. He has performed with many renowned orchestras, including Mariinsky Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR Netherlands, Radio Symphony Orchestra, North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Slovenia Philharmonic, Israel Symphony Orchestra, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand National Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, China NCPA Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Macao Orchestra, among others. He has enjoyed collaborations with some of the world-famous conductors, including Valery Gergiev, Myung-Whun Chung, Michel Plasson, Petr Altrichter, Edo de Waart, Zoltan Kocsis, Andreas Ligeti, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Daniel Raiskin, Stephane Dénève, David Stern, Yuri Bashmet, YU Long, TANG Muhai, CHEN Zuohuang, LÜ Jia, Tsung Yeh, TAN Lihua, ZHANG Guoyong, LI Xincao, XU Zhong and TAN Dun, among others.
SUN is also an active practitioner of Chinese contemporary music. He premiered famous composer HE Xuntian’s piano concerto and famous Chinese musician TAN Dun’s Farewell to My Concubine for the piano, opera and orchestra. He recorded and released the piano concerto Mountain Forest by Chinese composer LIU Dunnan. He also participated in the recordings of A Century of Piano Solo Works by Chinese Composers and the complete works of SANG Tong, the former president of Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
SUN has always been an avid chamber musician. At the end of 2011, he joined with violinist LÜ Siqing and cellist Li-Wei Qin to formed the China Trio. The Trio holds occasional concerts every year and has become one of the most influential chamber groups in China. His recordings have been released by the Netherlands Brilliant Classics and the China NCPA Classics. He was also invited to be a jury member of the Liszt International Piano Competition, International Anton Rubinstein Competition and CCTV Piano and Violin Competition.