As an indispensable backbone of the NCPA’s opera production, as well as China’s opera stage, the NCPA Resident Singers, founded in October 2011, stand composed of outstanding opera artists from at home and abroad. As one of the most representative and outstanding teams for interpreting the art of opera, they play a crucial role in about 70 Chinese opera commissions and world classic operas produced by the NCPA. They are a Chinese opera ensemble that has reached the most extensive and deepest cooperation with world-class conductors, directors, singers and stage artists, world-renowned theaters and art institutions, etc. They are also one of the few artist teams managed under professional international standards. Keeping their mission firmly in mind and remaining true to their original aspiration, the singers remain committed to maintaining the high quality of Chinese opera commissions and carrying forward the spirit of Chinese culture by adding the wings of vocal art to the Chinese story. They have toured Turin, Milan, Genoa, Florence, Parma, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and China Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Nanchang, Urumqi and many other places across the globe.

As leading artists, the NCPA Resident Singers have participated in national cultural performances and international cultural exchanges including A Millennium Promise, a theatrical gala held at the “Belt and Road” Forum for International Cooperation, and A Great Journey, a theatrical performance for celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. They also sing for the people by giving “100 public-spirited performances” and carrying out art education activities, as a significant part of the “Drip Irrigation Project” designed to popularise elegant art and widen the Chinese audience for opera.

Upholding the tenet of “being for the people, for art, and for the world” and adhering to the principles of leadership, inheritance, innovation, compatibility and openness, the NCPA Resident Singers stand devoted to spreading the art of opera in China and initiating a dialogue with the world through elegant art.

China NCPA Chorus was established on December 8, 2009. It is the resident chorus of the China National Centre for the Performing Arts. WU Lingfen, the famous conductor, serves as its chorus master. As the professional artistic performing group that belongs to the highest palace of performing arts in China, the chorus adheres to the NCPA’s guiding principle of "for the people, for art, for the world" and is recognized as a vigorous professional chorus with infinite potential.

As one of China’s leading choruses both in the opera and concert, the NCPA Chorus has participated in more than 60 Chinese and foreign operas produced by the NCPA such as Xishi, The Ballad of Canal, The Red Guards on Honghu Lake, Visitors on the Snow Mountain, FANG Zhimin, The Long March, The Daughter of the Party, Turandot, Carmen, La Traviata, Der Fliegende Holländer, and Aida. The chorus has also planned and performed in many large-scale vocal works and theme concerts including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mahler’s Eighth Symphonies, Verdi’s Requiem, and Concert to Commemorate the 110^th Anniversary of HUANG Zi’s Birth, opera concerts such as William Tell, Don Juan and so on. By means of the concerts, the chorus have get high appraisals by the high artistic standard. The late conductor Lorin Maazel said, “It is a chorus of passion”; conductor Daniel Oren, who was excited after rehearsal, said, “This is the chorus that has the best sound I have ever heard. Young as they are, they are better than many of the choruses in Europe”; conductor Antonio Pappano said, “This is a youthful and passionate chorus that has been well trained to sound wonderful and harmonious”; the world famous tenor Domingo once said, “I am honoured to cooperate with these gifted young artists”.

In addition, they were invited to participate in the Opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games music recording, The National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference 2024 New Year Tea Party Performance and other major national cultural activities. The chorus has actively demonstrated their mission and responsibility.

The NCPA Chorus has made unremitting efforts and continuous pursuit in art, and has accumulated a series of representative songs with distinctive artistic style like Take the Lead, The Moon Rises above the Island and so on. They have commissioned the creation and adaptation of The Sky-like Alashan, Crescent Moon and other works have been loved and widely praised by the audience.

The journey of music is full of beauty and joy. The NCPA Chorus has gone through a glorious history of 15 years. The artists of the chorus devote their most vigorous and dynamic youth to the cause of opera and chorus. Looking forward to a new journey, the NCPA Chorus will continue to sing without forgetting the original intention.

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, Daniele Gatti, Fabio Luisi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Leif Segerstam, Gunter Herbig, Shao-Chia Lu, ZHANG Xian, Rudolf Buchbinder, Stephen Kovacevich, Khatia Buniatishvili, Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, ZHANG Haochen, Víkingur Ólafsson, Kyung-Wha Chung, Vadim Repin, Siqing Lu, NING Feng, WANG Jian, 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 70 NCPA opera productions, including classical repertoires such as Das Rheingold, 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. In 2019, the orchestra’s recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 was awarded "Best Orchestral Album" at the 2018 Chinese Audiophile Vinyl Award. In 2021, the NCPAO released Beethoven’s Egmont becoming the first Chinese orchestra to record this masterpiece. In celebration of the decade tenure of its Music Director LÜ Jia, the orchestra released a selection of live recordings conducted by LÜ Jia in 2022. 2024 sees the NCPAO release the recordings of Bruckner’s complete numbered symphonies.

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, ZHAO Jiping, Michael Gordon, Kalevi Aho, HUANG Ruo, Bright Sheng, Bernd Richard Deutch, 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.

Alongside its concert series, the orchestra has received widespread praise for its international appearances at the Kissingen Summer Music Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and concerts in many cities in Germany, as well as cities in Sydney, Singapore, Seoul, Daegu, Abu Dhabi, Taipei and Macao. In 2014, the orchestra undertook its first North American tour and returned in 2017, where it performed at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Davies Symphony Hall and other major venues in the US and Canada, under the baton of LÜ Jia. Musical America praised its “joyful confidence and youthful strength”. Concerto Net described it as “a polished, first rate ensemble”. In 2021, they appeared in "See Me: A Global Concert" along with world-wide artists, orchestras and choirs as part of the Opening Ceremony of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda virtual event. In 2022, the orchestra recorded for the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, accompanying billions of viewers to witness the lighting of the Olympic flame. In April 2023, musicians from the orchestra visited South America performing joint concerts with Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra in Brazil and Instituto Superior de Arte de Teatro Colon in Argentina.

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 2020, the orchestra launched an online concert series drawing an average audience of 30 million viewers. In 2024, the Beijing Youth Orchestra, operated by the NCPAO, participated in World Orchestra Week and made its international debut at Carnegie Hall. April 2021 saw the orchestra complete their first six-city national tour, which Music Weekly praised as "a series of sophisticated programmes in concerts that blew the roof off,” followed by the second national tour in March 2023.

In February 2012, LÜ Jia took up the post of Chief Conductor, succeeding CHEN Zuohuang, 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. In 2022, SUN Yifan and LAI Jiajing were appointed as assistant conductors.