From 10 to 17 April 2021, China NCPA Orchestra, one of China’s leading orchestras, will embark on an extensive China tour under the baton of LÜ Jia with violinist Siqing Lu, soprano SONG Yuanming and tenor WANG Chong, visiting Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Changsha, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

For over a decade, the NCPA Orchestra has been the proud resident orchestra of the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA), making this magnificent venue in the capital the centerpiece of its artistic activities. While they have toured internationally on a regular basis and have appeared on stages in major European and American cities, they have rarely appeared in other cities in China, and fans outside the capital have rarely had the opportunity to see their passionate and energetic stage presence.

The repertoire of this tour is a reflection of the originality of National Center for the Performing Arts: from the orchestra’s excellent commissioned new works in recent years, such as the Chinese composer Julian Yu’s “Evolution” and ZHAO Jiping’s Violin Concerto No. 1 to Bruckner Symphony No. 6 in A major and Brahms Symphony No. 3 in F major will give audiences a chance to witness German and Austrian works that the orchestra is proud to perform.

A magnificent music journey combining East and West, highlighting the overwhelming beauty of Chinese music in a unique way.

China NCPA Orchestra

China NCPA Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Beijing. Established in March 2010, the orchestra performs in more than thirty opera productions presented by its home venue every year as well as in regular orchestral concerts in its own season.

Artists associated with the orchestra included Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Myung-Whun Chung, Fabio Luisi, Christoph Eschenbach, Shao-Chia Lü, Xian Zhang, Rudolf Buchbinder, Lang Lang, Stephen Kovacevich, Yuja Wang, Jian Wang, Gautier Capucon, Kyung Wha Chung, Vadim Repin, Placido Domingo, Renee Fleming, and Leo Nucci 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”.

The orchestra has gained critical acclaim for its performances in NCPA’s opera productions of not only classical repertoire such as Tristan and Isolde, Der Rosenkavalier, Tosca and Aida, but also newly commissioned works like The Rickshaw Boy, The Long March, and The Jinsha River. In its own orchestral concert season, it has consistently presented creative and diverse programmes. Their performance of Ring without Words with its creator, Lorin Maazel, was released on SONY Classics worldwide. The orchestra also gave the Chinese premieres of works by Toru Takemitsu, et al, commissioned and world premiered many works by Michael Gordon, Augusta Read Thomas, Qigang Chen, and ZHAO Jiping et al.

The NCPA Orchestra has flexed its wings on the international stage, receiving widespread international praise for its performances at the Kissingen Summer Music Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and concerts in many cities in Germany, as well as in Sydney, Singapore, Seoul, Daegu, Abu Dhabi, Taipei and Macau. The orchestra undertook its first North American tour in 2014 and the revisiting tour 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”.

Conductor: LÜ Jia

Artistic Director of Music of National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Music Director of China NCPA Orchestra, and Music Director & Chief Conductor of the Macao Orchestra, prior to which he has acted as Music Director of the Verona Opera House, Italy, and Artistic Director of the Santa Cruz De Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Spain.

Lü Jia has conducted nearly 2000 orchestral concerts and opera performances in Europe and the United States. He has worked with such renowned opera houses and symphony orchestras as: La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and many others. As the first Asian conductor appointed as Music Director in an important opera house in Italy, he has been praised by critics as “a conductor who has a deeper understanding of Italian operas than the Italians themselves do.”

Violinist: Siqing Lu

Well recognized as one of the most outstanding Chinese violinists today, Siqing Lu performs regularly with major international and Chinese orchestras. He has performed to acclaim in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls in more than forty countries and territories throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. Siqing has collaborated with many of the world’s esteemed conductors and musicians.

As a renowned artist, he has another identity as well: artistic director. Not only is he the Artistic Director of the Siqing Lu Shenzhen Futian International String Festival which he founded in 2016, but also he is invited again to be the artistic director of the China NCPA May Festival this year.

Soprano: SONG Yuanming

SONG Yuanming obtained Graduate Artist Diploma and Double Master’s Degree in "Opera and Light Opera" and "Art Songs and Cantata" at University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna under the tutelage of Professor Franz Lukasovsky.

She has starred operas including Don Giovanni, La Bohème, Turandot, Die Fledermaus, Guglielmo Tell, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Lustige Witwe, La Traviata, L’elisir d’amore and Il Trovatore.

Tenor: WANG Chong

Tenor WANG Chong is one of the resident singers of the National Center for Performing Arts. He has performed several main roles at the NCPA, like Rodolf in La boheme, Macduff in Macbeth with Plácido Domingo, and Walther in Tannhäuser. He performed a number of title roles in original productions like “Long March”, “The rickshaw boy”, “Fang Zhimin”. He also performed main roles in other productions like “Lucia di Lammermoor”, “La Gioconda”, “Die Meistersinger”, “Il Trovatore”, “Norma” etc.