The Cuba Tour of the China Philharmonic Orchestra, 2016

Tour Dates: 15th December - 16th December, 2016

The China Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) was founded in Beijing in May 2000. For the past fourteen years CPO has achieved an astonishing leap forward and won wide attention home and abroad.

Tour Dates
  • 15th December - 16th December, 2016

15th December 20:00 National Theater of Cuba
16 December 20:00 National Theater of Cuba

The China Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) will embark its Cuba tour on December 15, 2016. The concerts will be the debut of the orchestra in Cuba. It will also be the biggest foreign orchestra ever to perform in Cuba. Besides the Chinese violin concerto Butterfly Lovers, CPO will also collaborate in Havana with the renowned Cuba conductor Enrique Pérez-Mesa. The Cuba Tour of CPO is their third tour organized by Wu Promotion this year and the seventh since 2003.

The China Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) was founded in Beijing in May 2000. For the past fourteen years CPO has achieved an astonishing leap forward and won wide attention home and abroad. CPO sets an example for the infinite potential of Chinese cultural renewal and economic boom, as witnessed by the rest of the world.

Yet one cannot comprehend CPO’s accomplishment without perceiving its exciting and enormous social frame. A large number of artists work together to fulfill their dreams with zealous passion and determination. This makes it possible to lead the great symphonic music course in China to a better and merrier destination. ‘Spring’s command, sweet necessity (Lenzes Gebot, die susse Not)’, as put by Hans Sachs in Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. With the motto “to be the best orchestra in China, leading in Asia and renowned in the world” set at the very beginning, CPO is bound to unveil a new chapter in the symphonic music scene.

And so be it and how true is sweet necessity. In the spring of 2009, CPO was named Most Inspiring Orchestras by Gramophone online, joining the glittering array of ten fellow orchestras including Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

For that moment CPO has prepared for fourteen years with more than 500 programmes, presenting over 2,000 music pieces and attracting millions of audience. It has toured the country and the globe by more than half a million miles, an equivalent of circling the world 20 times.

China Philharmonic Orchestra was founded on the basis of China Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra and administered by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Its opening concert was held on December 16, 2000 conducted by Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Long Yu.

As one of the youngest and most dynamic symphony orchestras in China, CPO takes pride in professionalism, a role model to be followed by its Chinese peers.

In the past fourteen years CPO has presented numerous premieres that are virtually nowhere to be found elsewhere in China and forged its own style through extensive artistic involvement. On October 21st 2001 Philip Glass’ Cello Concerto, commissioned by CPO, got its world premiere at Poly Theatre in Beijing. This is the first commissioned work by an oversee composer from music establishment in China ever.

CPO is the active and frequent advocate of Chinese music in the global sphere. The orchestra is involved in a wide range of tours including Taipei, Taichung, Hsinchu and Kaohsiung in 2001, North and Latin America in 2002, a world tour in 2005 covering 22 cities and many following tours to Europe and the United States of America.

Conductor: Long Yu

As one of the most distinguished Chinese conductors with an established international reputation, Maestro Long Yu is currently Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the China Philharmonic Orchestra, Music Director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director of the Beijing Music Festival and Music in the Summer Air, MISA, as well as Principle Guest Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

Long Yu is one of the conductors who conducts the world top-class orchestras most frequently, he has appeared with a prestigious list of leading orchestras and a lot of opera companies around the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Montreal Symphony OrchestraWashington National Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg State Opera, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester Leipzig, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic and Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Program

CPO concert on 15th of December
Overture“Paradise lost” (Chen Qigang)
Violin concerto Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai
Intermission
Symphony No. 5 (Shostakovich)

CPO concert program on 16th of December
Overture “Ruslan and Lyudmila” (Mikhail Glinka)
Piano Concerto Beethoven No. 1 (Beethoven)
Intermission
The Symphony No. 9 (Dvorak)