Siqing Lu Violinist
Siqing Lu is one of the foremost and influential Chinese violinists today. As the first Asian violinist to win the esteemed International Paganini Violin Competition, Mr. Lu performs regularly worldwide with major orchestras and leading conductors, and regularly gives recitals and appears with the China Trio which he founded in 2011 on the world’s great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals.
Highlights of recent years including being honored as Artistic Ambassador of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, as well as being appointed the first Chinese soloist-in-residence of MSO for the 2019-2020 season. Performances as guest soloist 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 first ever South American tour. In addition, Mr. Lu’s acclaimed recital series, The Legend of Magic Bow: Siqing Lu Violin Recital, has taken him to over a hundred cities throughout China and around the world.
Mr. Lu is the Artistic Director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) May Festival in Beijing, and the founder/Artistic Director of the Siqing Lu Shenzhen Futian International String Festival. Mr. Lu also serves regularly on the jury of international competitions such as the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition and the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition.
Mr. Lu has more than a dozen concerto and solo CDs to his name, for labels such as Philips, Naxos, Marco Polo, BIS and NCPA Classics. His five recordings of The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, has sold millions of copies worldwide. His 2018 recording of Beauty of the Violin, consists of the Mendelssohn, Bruch and Tan Dun's Violin Concertos with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was released globally by Australia’s ABC Classics to critical acclaim, and soon became the Number One CD album on the Australia’s top 20 classical music album chart.
Appearances regularly with orchestra such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Salzburg Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, the NCPA Orchestra and China Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Lu has received numerous honors for his outstanding artistic achievements and social contributions, including New Jersey’s Outstanding Achievement in Arts Award for Asian, California Senate Honorary Certificate, the Montblanc Outstanding Artist Award. The City of Millbrae, California passed a legislation to have September 16th of 2006 proclaimed “Siqing Lu Day” in honor of him.
Mr. Lu was born in 1969 in Qingdao, China. He began studying the violin at the age of four. Mr. Lu became the youngest student ever to be admitted by the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing at the age of eight as a special student and studied with Professor Zhenshan Wang. At the age of eleven, Lord Yehudi Menuhin hand-picked him to study at his school (The Yehudi Menuhin School) in London. In 1984, he returned to China for advanced studies at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Five years later, he became a scholarship student at the Juilliard School and studied with Ms. Dorothy DeLay and Mr. Hyo Kang. In 2021, Mr. Lu became the President of the Yehudi Menuhin School Qingdao, a sister school to the Yehudi Menuhin School in the UK.
Siqing Lu plays on a 1734 ex-Ricci Guarneri del Gesu violin.
HUANG Mengla Violinist
HUANG Mengla is a renowned violinist who won the Gold Award in the 49th International Violin Competition “Premio Paginini”. His virtuosity and profoundly expressive musicianship stir the very soul, ablaze with sense and sensibility. He is thus hailed as “a performer with poetic grace and fiery passion” by the Washington Post.
Always committed to promoting classical music and East-West cultural exchange, HUANG Mengla has shared the stage with world-leading orchestras, including the Staatskapelle Dresden, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra Basel, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker and London Symphony Orchestra, at world-class concert halls such as the Carnegie Hall, Berliner Philharmonie and Royal Albert Hall.
HUANG Mengla was the first Chinese violinist to cooperate with Deutsche Grammophon, which has exclusively released his four albums including Paganini 24 Caprices. Other albums of his feature Bach, Beethoven and contemporary Chinese and foreign composers.
As a professor at the Orchestral Instruments Department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, HUANG Mengla has served as a judge for numerous music competitions, including the Sendai International Violin Competition. Dedicated to education, he spares no effort to discover and train the next generation of young musicians, thus becoming a role model in the classical music scene today.
ZHU Dan Violinist
ZHU Dan, a world-renowned violinist, is “one of the outstanding Chinese artists who can set the trend in the international music scene today”, according to Gramophone, a prestigious British classical music magazine. Maestro Zubin Mehta thinks highly of him as “a first-class musician and a violinist of exceptional talent”. The Strad, a famous magazine, describes him as “an artist who is admirably modest and adept at creating beautiful tones”. ZHU Dan was the first Chinese violinist invited to give solo recitals at the world’s three leading music festivals - Tanglewood Festival, Salzburger Festspiele and Verbier Festival.Recently, he worked with the Boston Symphony and Maestro Eschenbach in giving a concert in honour of Bernstein, and with Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino at its first season concert under Maestro Zubin Mehta’s baton, both receiving resounding acclaim from the international critics. ZHU Dan offers masterclasses at internationally renowned music institutes, such as the Sibelius Academy, Princeton University, Manhattan School of Music, Seoul Insitute of the Arts and Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In late 2015, he was invited by the UNESCO to perform at a concert held at its headquarters in Paris to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its founding, appointed Artistic Ambassador. Since 2021, he has been Artistic Director of the Festival Etruscan Bloom in Florence, Italy. He is also a tenured professor of violin at the Akademija za glasbo, Univerza v Ljubljani, Slovenia.
ZHU Dan performed Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto at the Carnegie Hall at the age of 18. Then he gave concerts all over the world. As a recitalist, he is often invited to perform in the concert seasons of leading European and American symphony orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Sueddeutsche Philharmoniker, as well as Orchestre National de France, Belgian National Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg and Wiener Kammer Orchester. He also appears on leading Chinese orchestras’ performing tours. Besides, he has reached many collaborations with well-known Chinese and foreign conductors, such as Christoph Eschenbach, Philippe Entremont, Zubin Mehta, Jacek Kaspszyk, Uroš Lajovic, Gianandrea Noseda, Krzsystof Penderecki, Alexander Rahbari, Carl St.Clair, Jefferey Tate, HUANG Xiaotong, ZHANG Guoyong, TANG Muhai, YU Feng, SHAO En, TAN Lihua, YU Long, LÜ Jia, ZHANG Yi and LIN Daye. ZHU Dan often gives recitals by joining hands with such piano virtuosos as Gerhard Oppitz, Kun-Woo Paik and Michel Dalberto. In recent years, they have interpreted complete sonatas of composers such as Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms at major concert halls and festivals in Paris, Vienna, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. In terms of chamber music, he plays classics with Lang Lang, Gidon Kremer, Richard Goode, Natalia Gutman, Nobuko Imai, Mischa Maisky, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Mitsuko Uchida. In 2020, he formed the string trio “Trio 3D” at the Lucerne Festival, Switzerland, alongside the violist Diemut Poppen and cellist Danjulo Ishizaka. ZHU Dan has recorded albums for such music labels as Cascavelle, Naxos, CPO and Salzburger Festspiele ORF. His two latest world premiere recordings - Boris Papandopulo’s Violin Concerto and SHENG Zongliang’s Let Fly Violin Concerto - have both been released worldwide recently.
ZHU Dan also took an active part in the expeditions to the South Pole launched by two international environmental organisations - The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Antarctica Forum, becoming the first violinist in history to perform on the Antarctic continent. This was made into a documentary by Phoenix Satellite TV.
SU Zhen Violist
SU Zhen is a violist and educator, professor of viola and doctoral supervisor at the Central Conservatory of Music, Vice President of the String Music Society of China Musicians Association, guest professor at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), distinguished expert at the China Conservatory of Music, and the first Chinese jury member of a top-tier international viola competition.
Li-Wei Qin
“Mr. Qin has a great deal going for him, including a meltingly beautiful tone, flawless centered intonation and an ironclad technique” - New York Times
As one of the most sought-after cellists of his generation, Chinese Australian Li-Wei Qin has appeared all over the world as a soloist and as a chamber musician. After being awarded the Silver Medal at the 11th Tchaikovsky International Competition, Li-Wei won First Prize in the prestigious 2001 Naumburg Competition in New York.“A superbly stylish, raptly intuitive performer ”(Gramophone Magazine, January 2015) was the description of the cellist’s Elgar and Walton concerti recording with the London Philharmonic.
Two times 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, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Hamburg, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, La Verdi Orchestra Milan, Finnish Radio orchestra Helsinki, Vienna Radio Orchestra, Prague Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, China Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony and Melbourne Symphony among many others. Leading conductors with whom he has worked include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Eliahu Inbal, Sir Andrew Davis, Marek Janowski, Jaap Van Zweden, Gianandrea Noseda, Simone Young, Hans Graf, YU Long, LÜ Jia, TAN Dun, the late Marchello Viotti, the late Jiri Belohlavek and the late Lord Menuhin. Li-Wei has also appeared with chamber orchestras such as the Kremerata Baltika, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Munich, the Manchester, the Zurich, the Australian Chamber Orchestras.
Recent and upcoming concerts includes debuts with the London Symphony (Noseda) , Russian Philharmonic (Jurowski), New Japan Philharmonic (Hisaishi), Southwest German Chamber Orchestra (Bostock), and Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Return visits to the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras.
In recital and chamber music, Li-Wei is a regular guest at the City of London, Rheingau and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festivals, Wigmore hall London and the Lincoln Centre Chamber Music Society New York, with musicians including Daniel Hope, Nabuko Imai, Cho-liang Lin, Peter Frankel, the Danish and Jerusalem Quartets.
He has recordings on Universal Music/Decca with Singapore Symphony, on Sony Classical with Shanghai Symphony, and on ABC Classics with London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Li-Wei was invited to join the BBC “New Generations” scheme in 2001, and in 2002 received the Young Australian of the Year Award. Other major invitations included appearances at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (New Zealand Symphony), 2012 London Olympics, Davos World Economics Forum (Basel Symphony) and the Fortune Global Forum 2017 Opening Ceremony.
Prior to teaching at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, National University of Singapore, Li-Wei taught at the Royal Northern College of Music Manchester. Currently he is also a guest professor at Shanghai and Central Conservatory of Music in China, as well as guest professor in Chamber Music at the Royal Northern College of Music. Li-Wei is in much demand world-wide for masterclasses and as a member of jury in international competition such as Geneva, Isangyun, Paulo, Schoenfeld and Young Tchaikovsky. As artistic director, Li-Wei successful founded the annual Qingdao International Cello festival in 2018. Li-Wei plays a 1780 Joseph Guadagnini cello, generously loaned by Dr Wilson Goh and 2016 Y. Chen Cello.
WANG Tao Clarinettis
WANG Tao is a clarinettist born in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. He is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Central Conservatory of Music, guest professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, the founder of the “Yuyue Clarinet Classroom”, Yamaha artist, and Jury Chair of the Yamaha National Clarinet Competition. He has given numerous solo recitals in China, the United States, France, Austria, Japan, Switzerland and other countries, and shared the stage with many orchestras, too. WANG Tao won the First Prize and Chinese Music Performance Award in the Second National Competition by the Ministry of Culture, acclaimed as “a performer with charismatic personality”. He has released over ten albums simultaneously in China and abroad, with several genres of music involved, and has won numerous awards in major competitions for different genres of music. He has performed in a lot of prestigious multi-genre art activities both at home and abroad on invitation. In the year marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations between China and France, WANG Tao was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen by Seine, France in recognition of his outstanding artistic achievements. He was the only Chinese musician to perform alongside the British violinist Daniel Hope and Zurich Chamber Orchestra to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the founding of Deutsche Grammophon (DG). He was invited to the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) as a “young leader” and delivered a speech at the Young Leaders Camp.
In addition to winning the Best Instrumental Album Award at the 18th Taiwan Golden Melody Awards for his multi-genre music album, WANG Tao has released a classical instrumental album via Deutsche Grammophon, becoming the first Chinese wind instrumentalist to release an album in the name of DG. His album has had over 100 million hits on new media and digital platforms. As one of the most prominent Chinese clarinetists today, he has helped found a number of chamber music ensembles, such as Cloud & Quartet, Ange Quartet and Peking Trio. Meanwhile, he works with many renowned musicians to popularise chamber music.
Beyond that, WANG Tao is an all-rounder—he has published novels, contributed to several urban newspapers, published a few clarinet textbooks, created diverse forms of multi-genre art performance, played the hero in the film The Great Sound, appeared in many TV dramas and variety programmes, hosted TV and radio programmes, and taken part in a wide range of charitable activities. In 2018, Mr. WANG Tao had his fan base rise over one million on social platforms, becoming the first wind instrumentalist in the world to reach this milestone. In 2020, he appeared on the cover of the Japanese monthly magazine Clarinet. That same year, he was featured in Clarinet, an authoritative official journal of the International Clarinet Association, gave a performance at the Grand Opening Ceremony of Yellow Lounge China, served as a judge at the final of CCTV Instrumental Competition, and worked as a recommender for Here I Am for CCTV Festival Spring Gala.
LIU Mingjia Oboist
LIU Mingjia is Oboist Principal of the San Francisco Opera, a teacher of oboe at the Tianjin Juilliard School and Head of the Woodwind Department, a former professor of oboe at the Colburn School, and Vice President of the International Double Reed Society. Born in Qingdao, he attended the Central Conservatory of Music Middle School, studying under Prof. WEI Weidong. After graduation, he went to the United States for further education at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying under world-renowned oboe virtuosos Alex Klein and Robert Walters. When he was a sophomore, LIU Mingjia successfully joined the Kansas City Symphony as Oboe Principal, becoming the youngest oboe principal among all professional American orchestras. Thus atypically, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music awarded him an artist certificate in recognition of his phenomenal achievement. Just one year later, LIU Mingjia outshone others again, standing out from nearly 200 global competitors and accordingly joining the San Francisco Opera as Oboe Principal with support from all voters in the three theatre tests. Mr. Luisotti, Music Director of the San Francisco Opera, praised his performance as “melody from heaven”.
Despite his busy schedule at the San Francisco Opera, LIU Mingjia appeared as a guest principal or soloist at the season concerts and touring concerts given by the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, NCPA and China National Symphony Orchestra.
Not being a performer only, LIU Mingjia has had his teaching talents and contributions unanimously recognised by both Chinese and foreign music institutions. In 2012, he had the honour of being invited back to his Alma Mater, the Central Conservatory of Music, for the International Oboe Festival. In 2016, he was formally appointed as a professor by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Since 2017, he has served as a judge several times for the Fernand Gillet-Hugo Fox International Competition organised by the International Double Reed Society. In 2018, he was elected Vice President of the International Double Reed Society. That same year, he was appointed as an artist and professor by the Aspen Music Festival, the best in its class, and the Colburn School, the best in its class, too. His students have garnered awards in the U.S. Spotlight Instrumental Competition, Fernand Gillet-Hugo Fox International Competition, Norma Hooks Young Artist International Competition and other competitions. Besides, they have secured positions at various professional orchestras, such as the China Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra, Chengdu Symphony Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Opera House, Dachao Symphony Orchestra and San Francisco Opera.
Now LIU Mingjia is one of the very few Chinese musicians who excel in both performing music and teaching music in the world. In 2022, he joined the Tianjin Juilliard School, where he is, based in China, committed to building a more international platform for the next generation of oboists.
JIN Zhicheng Hornist
JIN Zhicheng is undoubtedly one of the most talented hornists of his generation. He is a BOB (The Best of the Best) innovative talent of the Central Conservatory of Music, now studying under the tutelage of Prof. MAN Yi, a famous Chinese hornist and doctoral supervisor. JIN Zhicheng has gained high praise from numerous conductors and horn virtuosos from around the world at the Beijing International Horn Festival, Prague Spring International Music Festival, White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Busan Music Festival and other festivals, widely acclaimed by people from all walks of life. As a recitalist, he has shared the stage with many well-known Chinese and foreign orchestras at their invitation, including the Mariinsky Orchestra, Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Pilsen Philharmonic, Asia Philharmonic Orchestra, Jeju Symphony Orchestra, Central Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Kunming Nie Er Symphony Orchestra, Changsha Symphony Orchestra, Nanchang Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Xiamen Municipal Opera and Dance Drama Troupe and China Youth Symphony Orchestra.
JIN Zhicheng began to appear frequently in various international and domestic music competitions at the age of 11. He has won one award after another. When he was just 16 years old, JIN Zhicheng carried off the Silver Award for Brass Performance with his unique musical talent in the 17th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2023. At the award concert, he performed alongside Maestro Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra, gaining high praise from the maestro. That August, he garnered the First Prize for Horn Performance in the 18th International Brass Competition held on Jeju Island, South Korea.
In 2024, JIN Zhicheng, 17 years old then, won the First Prize in the 75th Prague Spring International Music Competition, as well as four other prizes - Audience Prize, Czech Radio Prize, Prize of the City of Prague and Bärenreiter Prize. He was also invited to perform at the 80th Prague Spring International Music Festival in 2025.
In 2025, JIN Zhicheng came third in the International Aeolus Competition for Wind Instruments in Düsseldorf, came first in the horn category, and won the Best Audience Award. That same year, he came first in the brass category at the Chinese Golden Bell Awards for Music.
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.
WEI Zijian Pianist
Chinese pianist WEI Zijian is rapidly becoming a rising star among his generation of pianists. His performances are characterized by genuine emotion and unique charm, and are loved and acclaimed by audiences around the world.
In the year 2024, WEI Zijian triumphed as the recipient of the highest honour in the prestigious Cleveland International Piano Competition, while also securing accolades including the Best Chamber Music Performance Award, the Henle Verlag Urtext Special Prize, the Audience Choice prize, and the Young Judge Prize. He is poised to embark on his inaugural recital tours at the esteemed Carnegie Hall in New York City and in Zurich, Switzerland in 2025.
In recent years, WEI Zijian has frequently performed as a soloist with renowned orchestras in North America, Europe, and China. For example, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Central Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra, the Changsha Symphony Orchestra, the Sichuan Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra, the Zhengzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra, among others, have performed in various prestigious concert halls both domestically and internationally.
WEI Zijian pursued his secondary education at the High School Affiliated with the Xinghai Conservatory of Music, mentored by Professor Jay Pengjie Sun Professor LIU Xi, and Professor Popova. In the year 2016, he was successfully admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music, and has been undergoing musical education under the esteemed guidance of Professor WEI Danwen, a celebrated pianist and the department chair of the Piano Department at the Central Conservatory of Music.
WEI has achieved remarkable distinctions, including the First Prize in the 2017 Changjiang Cup National University Piano Competition, the Grand Prize in the Professional Category of the 2018 Huanglong Music Season Piano Competition, the First Prize in the 2018 Jianfa Gulangyu International Piano Competition, and the Third Prize in the 76th Geneva International Music Competition, as well as the receipt of the ROSE-MARIE HUGUENIN Award in 2022.
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