TAN Lihua has served as the President, Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Beijing Symphony Orchestra for 26 years. He has also served as the Vice President of the Chinese Musicians Association and Deputy Director of the NCPA Artistic Committee. He is included in the first batch of “Talents of Four Areas” appraised by the Publicity Department of the CPC. He has been a Member to the 10^th, 11^th and 12^th National Committees of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th Council of Beijing Musicians’ Association. He honourably wins the titles of “Young and Middle-aged Artist with Professional Excellence and Moral Integrity” by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and “Excellent Expert of the Ministry of Culture”. He is also a winner of the China Golden Record Award.

 

TAN Lihua has conducted the Russian National Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and other world-class orchestras. As a guest conductor, he has also cooperated with orchestras in Germany, Russia, Austria and France. Maestros who have cooperated with TAN Lihua include pianists Lazar Behrman, Denis Matsuev and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violinists Vadim Repin and Midori Gotō, and cellists Yo-Yo Ma, Natalia Shakhovskaya, Mischa Maisky, Julian Lloyd Webber and WANG Jian.

 

He has been in cooperation with domestic orchestras such as the China National Symphony Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra.

DONG Junjie, a national first-class conductor, is General Party Branch Secretory and President of the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra. He used to be Vice President of the Tianjin Song and Dance Theatre and Head, Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Opera Troupe, as well as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Tianjin Song and Dance Theatre National Orchestra. He graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in 2001, and had studied under Prof. XU Xin, a famous conductor and educator, and Prof. JIA Guoping, a famous composer. He holds a master’s degree from the Tianjin Conservatory of Music, where he studied under Prof. XU Changjun, a famous composer and educator and President of the Tianjin Conservatory of Music. He is now a doctoral student at the Tchaikovsky National School of Music, Ukraine. He is a guest conductor of the National Opera of Ukraine, a guest conductor of the Penang Philharmonic Orchestra, Malaysia, a guest principal conductor of the Guangdong Zhuying Orchestra, and a guest conductor of the China National Opera & Dance Drama Theatre. He is a member of the China Musicians Association, a director of the China Nationalities Orchestra Society, a director of the Professional Committee of Conducting, Vice President of the Tianjin Nationalities Orchestra Society, Vice President of the Tianjin Musicians Association, a guest professor at Tianjin Conservatory of Music, a guest professor at the Shanxi Normal University, and the first Chinese honorary professor at the Tchaikovsky National School of Music, Ukraine. Over the past 20 years, he has been holding many concerts in cooperation with well-known art troupes at home and abroad, and serving as a conductor on a series of important occasions, winning a good reputation.

In January 2005, under the leadership of DONG Junjie, the Tianjin Song and Dance Theatre National Orchestra toured 12 cities in three European countries for cultural exchanges. In late October, DONG Junjie went to Rome, Italy and gave a performance at the opening and closing ceremonies of the “China Tianjin Week”. After creating brilliance in the Wiener Musikverein, Ludwigshafen, Munich and Hamburg, he continued the brilliance of Chinese national music in Rome, Italy. In February 2016, participated in the “Happy Spring Festival” overseas performance project initiated by the Ministry of Culture, and went to London with the Tianjin Song and Dance Theatre National Orchestra to hold “British Night” Chinese National Concert in the Central Hall Westminster. In June 2016, he was invited to the Kharkov National Opera, Ukraine to conduct Puccini’s classic opera Turandot. In October of the same year, he was invited by the National Opera of Ukraine to conduct the opera Turandot, becoming the first Chinese conductor to appear in the National Opera of Ukraine, and winning the title of “Magic Genius”. In 2017, he conducted the Ukraine National Radio Symphony Orchestra in giving a concert to “celebrate the 25^th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Diplomatic Relations between China and Ukraine”. In 2018, he was invited by the Tchaikovsky National School of Music, Ukraine to conduct the performance of the opera La Traviata, and raise his baton over the Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra to hold a concert. His superb conducting art is widely admired and has been reported by many media including the Ukraine National TV and Central TV.

DONG Junjie has won awards including the “Excellent Conductor Award” at the First China Opera Festival organized by the Ministry of Culture, and the “Excellent Conductor Award” at the Fifth Japan-China Friendship Wind Music Festival. In 2009, he was awarded the title of “Rising Artist” and “Artist of Great Virtue and Talent”. In 2014, he was selected for the “Five-Batch” Talent Programme by the Tianjin Municipal Propaganda Department and identified as a first-class candidate for the Tianjin “131” Innovative Talent Training Project. In 2015, he won the title of “National Pacesetter of Great Talent and Virtue”. In 2012, he was invited as a judge in the CCTV Contest.

He has composed many orchestral music, film and TV music and vocal music works, some of which, including Waiting Until You Return, A Song for Mother, Land Abutting with the Sea, and The Grandeur and Prosperity of Tianjin, have won the “Golden Bell Awards” and the “Five-One” Project Award by Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, respectively.

In recent years, he has been successfully conducting opera, dance drama, symphonic music, traditional orchestral music and chorus, including operas The Wilderness, Thunderstorm, La Traviata, The White-haired Girl, Sister JIANG, The Song of Youth, Daughter of the Party, Turandot, L’Elisir d’Amore, Ordinary World, RONG Guanxiu, Promise of the Sea, A Bright Lamp: JIAO Yulu and Yanling Guerrilla, classical ballet Swan Lake, and dance drama A Handful of Wild Jujube, etc. He has successfully held thousands of concerts in cooperation with many orchestras, composers and performers from home and abroad. He conducts every performance smartly and accurately with great passion, abundant gestures and neat, appealing movements. His conducting style is certainly so stunning that the whole audience can be excited. Also, he is adroit at conveying feelings gently, and all this makes him one of the most attractive young conductors in today’s music scene.

TUO Peng is a national first-class conductor, who graduated from the Conducting Department of the Central Conservatory of Music in 2003, once studying under Prof. XU Xin. He is Deputy Managing Director and Principal Conductor of the Hebei Symphony Orchestra, China.

TUO Peng has cooperated with famous Chinese and foreign performers and singers including: Lang Lang, Siqing Lu, WU Bixia, Warren Mok, DAI Yuqiang, WEI Song, WANG Qingshuang, WANG Chuanyue, TAN Xiaotang, LIU Shikun, Rubén Simeó (Spain), etc. He has also received unanimous recognition from renowned conductors including: TANG Muhai, ZHENG Xiaoying, SHAO En, ZHANG Guoyong, YU Feng, LI Xincao and ZHANG Yi.

In recent years, TUO Peng has conducted the premiere of the large-scale symphonic concert Folk Songs of Hebei and famous composer Mr. BAO Yuankai’s symphony, The Charm of Yanzhao. In 2013, he led the Hebei Symphony Orchestra in accompanying the entire Final of the “15^th CCTV Young Singers’ Grand Prix”. His excellent performance won him high praise from the experts, jury members and society. In 2014, TUO Peng led the Hebei Symphony Orchestra in cooperating with the Comrade-in-Arms Art Troupe of Beijing Military Region on rehearsal of the symphonic chorus commission Xibaipo Suite of Songs, and also delivered a performance at the NCPA. In November 2018, he appeared with the orchestra at the “Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Concert of Symphonic Masterpieces” held at the Tianjin Concert Hall, and shared the stage with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra and Tianjin Symphony Orchestra, each performing their representative music commissions. The virtuoso performance received wide acclaim from the audience. In May 2019, TUO Peng led the orchestra to the “15^th ICIF Art Festival”, Shenzhen.

The Beijing Symphony Orchestra was founded in October 1977. In the 1990s, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra underwent a significant reform and reorganization under the leadership of artistic director TAN Lihua. The orchestra has held annual musical events for over ten years, with 90-100 concerts given each year. Starting with the classics, the orchestra has performed nearly 1,000 musical works, including operatic music, symphonic music, chamber music and contemporary music. It has cooperated with world-renowned maestros, instrumentalists and famous international orchestras to expand its repertoire. The Forbidden City Concert Hall, situated in the imperial garden, belongs to the Beijing Symphony Orchestra.

The orchestra has worked with many famous orchestras and top musicians, such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; famous virtuosos include maestro Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, Thomas Sandrine, Andrew Davis, Leif Segerstam and Pavel Kogan; piano virtuosos include Lazar Berman, JustusFrantz , Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Tzimon Barto; violin virtuosos Vadim Repin, Midori Gotō, Lin Cho-Liang, Christophe Barratier and Sergey Krylov; cello virtuosos include Mischa Maisky, Lloyd Webber and Corona Crainey; viola virtuoso Yuri Bashmet; trumpeter Garber Portotzky; singers José Carreras and Jennifer Larmore.

Maestro Eschenbach said, “The Beijing Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra with high professional qualities. Their extremely strong musical apprehensiveness and performance style have impressed me deeply." Over the past decades, Beijing Symphony Orchestra made many achievements, one of which is its first international commercial tour in 2001. By far, the orchestra has given commercial performances worldwide for years.

The Beijing Symphony Orchestra shows special preference to contemporary Chinese music compositions. It has planned, participated in, commissioned and premiered new works by most of the contemporary Chinese composers, and it has premiered nearly 200 works. Since 2007, the orchestra has released eight record albums globally with EMI Records, a world-famous music label founded over a century ago.

The Beijing Symphony Orchestra has taken part in many large-scale international cultural exchange activities, and made several visits to Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Czech, Poland, Croatia, Hungary, Turkey, Slovenia, Serbia, South Korea, the USA, Canada and Montenegro. In 2001-2017, the orchestra toured Europe for eight times and won high praise from the European critics. In 2013, the orchestra made its debut in America during a two-week tour to Mexico and the USA. The Washington Post gave it a banner headline: “The Beijing Symphony Orchestra starts an Upsurge of Classical.” In February 2017, the orchestra gave a classic symphony concert at the Kennedy Center, receiving high acclaim from the audiences. It gave virtuoso performances at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto and National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada, kicking off celebrations for the 150^th anniversary of the founding of Canada. The joint performance given by the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Ottawa Symphony Orchestra and Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra was the first one to be given by the three orchestras together after the founding of Canada, which is of great historical significance. In September the same year, Beijing held the second 16+1 Summit of China and CEE Capitals Mayors in Podgorica, Montenegro as well as the “Beijing Day” Event in Belgrade, Serbia. Deputy Party Secretary and Acting Mayor of Beijing CHEN Jining attended the activities with a government delegation. The Beijing Symphony Orchestra gave a symphony concert under the theme, “Tour of Friendship” at the Podgorica National Theatre and Belgrade Sava Central Theatre respectively. The orchestra signed a memorandum of understanding with the Montenegro Symphony Orchestra and Serbia Belgrade Symphony Orchestra, entering into a specified relationship with them. Also, a symphony orchestra league was formed by Beijing with its international sister cities, enriching the connotations of the second 16+1 Summit of China and CEE Capitals Mayors and “Beijing Day” Event in Belgrade, Serbia, and achieving substantial results in cooperation.

In 1994, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra started devoting itself to popularizing symphonic music on a large scale in military camps, factories and mines, schools and communities in Beijing as well as Chinese concert halls and institutions of higher education. Over the past 20 years, the orchestra has held nearly 1,000 concerts for symphony popularization for millions of spectators of different professions and ages in school canteens and halls, factories and communities, as well as at opera houses and concert halls in Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities. In the 2014 season, it gave the opening concert on campus. In 2016, it initiated an activity titled, “Capital Civic Hall” and performed “symphonic music for common people”, introducing classical music into capital citizens’ daily life.

As the 2019 season is now on, all members of the Beijing Symphony Orchestra are writing a more brilliant artistic chapter with full passion in high spirits.

Founded in 1985, the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra is recognized as one of the most outstanding professional symphony orchestras in the country. The Orchestra stands committed to popularizing and developing Eastern and Western symphonic art. It is a “national advanced collective in cultural work” named by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Its current president is DONG Junjie, a famous conductor and composer. The famous conductor LI Biao became Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestra in 2021. TANG Muhai is the laureate conductor, and WANG Junshi is an honourary lifetime conductor. YI Juanzi and YANG Li are permanent conductors. The Orchestra has residence at the Tianjin Concert Hall.

The Orchestra has performed numerous Western classic symphonic works, Chinese symphonic works, opera music works, solos and ensembles; it has invited thousands of famous Chinese and foreign conductors, performers, singers and performing artists to its music season.

Tianjin is one of the first Chinese cities to open their doors to Western classical music. Symphony has a broad audience base in Tianjin. The Tianjin Symphony Orchestra stands on the shoulders of history, facing the future, and basing itself on Tianjin with a view on the whole world. It has worked hard to build itself into a domestic first-class and world-renowned symphony orchestra.

The Hebei Symphony Orchestra is a province-owned, state-run professional symphony orchestra founded in 1983, consisting of two performing entities - Symphony Orchestra and Vocal Music Band. The incumbent Party Secretary and Managing Director is SHANG Mingkai. Famous Conductor ZHANG Guoyong serves as an artistic consultant and chief guest conductor. Young Conductor TUO Peng acts as Principal Conductor.

Having adhered to the tenet of “serving the people and socialism” over the past forty years since its establishment, the Orchestra, based in Hebei with the world in view, striving to upgrade its professionalism under the guidance of an art production policy - “making the past serve the present and foreign things serve China”. Hundreds of famous Chinese and foreign conductors, performers and singers have been invited for tutoring and performing. The Orchestra has attended an “international music festival held in France. The Vocal Music Band has won numerous awards in international and domestic vocal competitions.

In recent years, the Hebei Symphony Orchestra has commissioned many symphonic works such as Heroic Hebei, Baipo Symphony·From Here Comes the People’s Republic of China, Folk Songs of Hebei, large-scale song cycle Xibaipo Suite of Songs - The World is Full of Vicissitudes, symphonic tone poem The Great Wall, large-scale symphonic song suites Hopeful Hebei and Winter Olympics Symphony, symphonic song suite Journey of Time, etc. Among these, Heroic Hebei was selected by the former Ministry of Culture as one of the 16 excellent songs collected nationwide to “celebrate the 60^th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and World Anti-Fascist War”. Baipo Symphony·From Here Comes the People’s Republic of China was selected by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and former Ministry of Culture for the Opening Ceremony of “Report to the Motherland” on the 60^th National Day. Xibaipo Suite of Songs - The World is Full of Vicissitudes, a large-scale song suite performed in cooperation with the Comrade-in-Arms Art Troupe of Beijing Military Region, was selected by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and former Ministry of Culture for the Opening Ceremony of the “Excellent Theatrical Performance held to celebrate the 65^th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China”. The symphonic tone poem, The Great Wall, received financial backing from the China National Arts Fund in 2016. The large-scale symphonic song suite, Hopeful Hebei, was performed when the Hebei Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government celebrated the 70^th National Day. The symphonic song suite, Journey of Time, received financial support from the China National Arts Fund in 2023 and was selected for the 2022-2023 “Symphony of the Times” Creation Support Programme by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The orchestral piece The Starry Sea won the Excellence Award at the “Symphony of New Era - National Symphony Festival”. The song Answer Sheet was selected for the Excellent National Stage Art Programme Creation Support Programme.

The Hebei Symphony Orchestra has attended many events on invitation including the CCTV-MTV Music Awards, the First, Third, Seventh and Eighth China Orchestra Festival”, etc. The Orchestra has organised the Second China Symphony Season Hebei Division, performed twice at the Beijing Modern Music Festival, accompanied the entire Final of the 15^th CCTV Young Singers’ Grand Prix, and won the Gold Award in the Third “Yellow River Cantata” Invitational by the former Ministry of Culture. In 2019, the Orchestra was invited to the “Tiananmen Square for Symphony of a Thousand in Celebration of the 70^th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China”. In 2020, the Orchestra organised the “Chongli Forest Concert 2020” in support of the Winter Olympics. The Orchestra has attended other events, including the CMG “2018 Spring Festival Gala” Live at Tai’an, the “2022 New Year’s Concert” Recording, the “2022 Spring Festival Gala”, etc.