Concert
An exciting and imaginative evening of musical interpretations of Beethoven with Chinese accents, presented by world-renowned artists including bass-baritone Shenyang, pipa virtuoso Wu Man, composer/conductor Tan Dun, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, The Orchestra Now, and musicians of the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music.
Hosts Jindong Cai and Shenyang will provide commentary throughout the evening. Program details below
Ruan player Xue Miao and pianist Qi Yiduo perform Beethoven’s Andante con Variazione (WoO 44b) for Mandolin and Piano
featuring
Artistic Director, China Now Music Festival
Conductor Jindong Cai is director of the US-China Music Institute, professor of music and arts at Bard College, and associate conductor of The Orchestra Now. Over his 30-year career in the United States, Cai has established himself as an active and dynamic conductor, scholar of Western classical music in China, and leading advocate of music from across Asia. Cai founded the US-China Music Institute at the Bard Conservatory in 2017 and created the Institute’s the annual China Now Music Festival in the following year. In its first two seasons, China Now presented new works by some of the most important Chinese composers of our time, with concerts performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Bard’s Fisher Center, and Stanford University.
Dean, Bard College Conservatory of Music
The world-renowned artist and UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador Tan Dun, has made an indelible mark on the world’s music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical music, multimedia performance, and Eastern and Western traditions. A winner of today’s most prestigious honors including the Grammy Award, Oscar/Academy Award, Grawemeyer Award, Bach Prize, Shostakovich Award, and most recently Italy’s Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, Tan Dun’s music has been played throughout the world by leading orchestras, opera houses, international festivals, and on radio and television. In 2019, Tan Dun was appointed dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. As dean, Tan Dun will further demonstrate music’s extraordinary ability to transform lives and guide the Conservatory in fulfilling its mission of understanding music’s connection to history, art, culture, and society. Read more at http://tandun.com
The China Now Music Festival is thrilled to be presenting Tan Dun’s Internet Symphony No. 1 (Eroica) in the ‘Beethoven Made in China’ program on Dec 13, performed by the You Tube Symphony Orchestra.
Hailed by The New York Times as “the most powerful figure in China’s classical music scene,” the conductor and impresario Yu Long has devoted his illustrious career to steering China’s growing connection to classical music while familiarizing international audiences with the country’s most eminent musicians and composers. From north to south, Maestro Yu currently holds the top position in China’s three most prominent orchestras—Artistic Director of the China Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing and Music Director of both the Shanghai and Guangzhou symphony orchestras—as well as Principal Guest Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. He is co-director of Shanghai’s Music in the Summer Air festival and Chair of the Artistic Committee of the Beijing Music Festival, an annual autumn event that he founded in 1998 and served as Artistic Director until 2018. He is currently Vice President of the China Musicians Association and Chairman of its recently established League of China Orchestras. Read more.
For the 2020 China Now Music Festival, Maestro Yu has generously contributed numerous performances of Beethoven works by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under his baton.
Born in Beijing in 1957, composer Julian Yu studied at China’s Central Conservatory of Music, where he later taught, and at the Tokyo College of Music with Joji Yuasa and Schin-Ichiro Ikebe. Later he was a Composition Fellow at Tanglewood, where he studied with Hans Werner Henze and Oliver Knussen and was highly praised by Leonard Bernstein. He migrated to Australia in 1985.
Important commissions include Ensemble InterContemporain, the 2000 BBC Proms, and the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. In 2011 he was Theme Composer at the Suntory Hall Summer Festival in Tokyo. Awards for composition include the 1988 Koussevitzky Tanglewood Composition Prize; the inaugural and consecutive Paul Lowin Orchestral Prizes of 1991 and 1994; and the Albert H. Maggs Composition Awards of 1988 and 2015.
His work, mostly for orchestra, is frequently performed in Australia and internationally. A free-lance composer, he is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Melbourne.
Yu’s Beethoven Variations, performed by the Shanghai Symphony, will be featured in the China Now Music Festival Dec 13 event ‘Beethoven in Chinese.’
Recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso, Wu Man is a soloist, educator and composer who gives her lute-like instrument—which has a history of more than 2,000 years in China—a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. Wu Man has premiered hundreds of new works for the pipa, while spearheading multimedia projects to both preserve and create global awareness of China’s ancient musical traditions. Projects she has initiated have resulted in the pipa finding a place in new solo and quartet works, concertos, opera, chamber, electronic, and jazz music as well as in theater productions, film, dance, and collaborations with visual artists. Read more at wumanpipa.org
Wu Man is artistic advisor to the US-China Music Institute, offering master classes in Chinese music and improvisation at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. For the China Now Music Festival, she has adapted a Beethoven piece originally written for mandolin and harpsichord, which she will play on the pipa with harp accompaniment during the ‘Beethoven Made in China’ program on December 13.
As the winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 2007, Shenyang was immediately propelled into the spotlight with an array of international engagements including debuts at the Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich and Washington National Opera. A decade on, this Chinese Bass-baritone has established himself as one of the finest voices of his generation, has amassed an expansive repertoire for both the opera and concert stages, and enjoys enduring relationships with a wide range of today’s pre-eminent conductors. Read more at shenyang-music.com
For the ‘Beethoven Made in China’ program on Dec 13, Shenyang will perform traditional Chinese ‘school songs’ which were composed using tunes from Beethoven during the early 20th Century. Shenyang will also serve as the evening’s co-host. Shenyang also performs during the Dec 15 program ‘Shanghai Symphony: Night of Beethoven.’
Young ruan performer Xue Miao began her musical education studying piano at the age of four years old. A great admirer of Chinese traditional culture, she has specialized in ruan performance since the age of nine, studying with Zhang Xinhua and Xu Yang, a professor at the Central Conservatory of Music. Xue has won the first prize in major competitions such as the Wenhua Prize, the Youth National Instrumental Music Competition, the fourth International Chinese instrumental Music Competition in Hong Kong, and the Singapore International Huale Competition, among others.
Xue has held eight individual solo concerts and published five CD and DVD albums. She is currently the youngest ruan performer in cooperation with professional orchestras in China, including the Chinese Philharmonic Orchestra, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and more.
Xue Miao will be performing a piece by Beethoven originally written for the mandolin, which has been especially adapted to be performed on the traditional Chinese ruan for the 2020 China Now Music Festival. Her elegant performance will be featured in the Dec 13 program ‘Beethoven Made in China.’
Daniella Travaglione, age 13, of Rhinebeck, New York, is a student of Bard College Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division. Daniella has been studying piano since age six and voice since age seven. She has consistently been selected by judges of Bard Preparatory Division for the biennial Honors Recitals for both piano and voice. In 2019, Daniella was selected to perform as the child vocal soloist at the world premiere of Men of Iron and Golden Spikes by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Zhou Long at Carnegie Hall. She was a second-prize winner of American Protege Competition for piano four-hands and performed in the winners recital at Carnegie Hall. In addition, Daniella has performed numerous times at Steinway Hall. As a member of the Bard Preparatory Division Chorus, she participated in the Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 concert at Fisher Center.
Daniella is home-schooled. Her favorite subjects are History and English. During her free time, Daniella enjoys reading, cooking, tennis, golfing and watching old-time movies.
Daniella again graces the stage of the China Now Music Festival, this year performing two ‘school songs’ in Chinese, set to Beethoven’s classic melodies in the Dec 13 program ‘Beethoven Made in Chinese.’
Julie Smith Phillips, appointed Principal Harpist of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra in 2007, is one of the most prominent American harpists today, performing as both an orchestral musician and concert artist. Internationally recognized for her performing style and diverse repertoire, Ms. Phillips’ playing has been described as “precise” and “luminous” (American Record Guide), “musically polished” (Hartford Courant) with “spectacular results” (San Diego Story). Equally experienced as a chamber and orchestral musician, Ms. Phillips collaborates with renowned musicians across the country. Prior to her post in San Diego, she served as Acting Principal Harpist of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (2006-07) and Principal Harpist for the New World Symphony Orchestra (2004-06).
Ms. Phillips performs with pipa virtuoso Wu Man in the China Now Music Festival program ‘Beethoven Made in China’ on Dec 13, in a piece originally written for mandolin and harpsichord and adapted for the festival to be played on pipa and harp.
Qi Yiduo is a first-year graduate student of Piano at China’s prestigious Central Conservatory of Music. He studies with Professor Wei Danwen, and previously studied under Professor Zhang Jin and Professor Wang Chun. In recent years he has won high honors at the "Little Admiralty" Piano Competition, the Beijing International Music Festival piano competition, the 5th Shenzhen Open and the 12th Central Conservatory of Music "College Cup" Piano Concerto Competition, among others. He has performed at the National Center for the Performing Arts, Zhongshan Music Hall, Shenzhen Concert Hall, Taipei Normal University, Beijing People's University, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Central Conservatory of Music and many others. He has also played piano concertos with conductors Chen Lin and Zhu Qiyuan.
In the 2020 China Now Music Festival, Qi will accompany ruan player Xu Miao in an adaptation of one of Beethoven’s compositions for mandolin and piano, as part of the Dec 13 program ‘Beethoven Made in China.’
Artistic Director: Yu Long
Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is one of the earliest and best-known orchestral ensembles of its kind in Asia. Originally known as the Shanghai Public Band, it was renamed the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra in 1922. Notably under the baton of the Italian conductor Mario Paci, the orchestra promoted Western music and trained Chinese young talents very early on in China, and was the first to introduce the first Chinese orchestral music to the public. With a long history of 141 years, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is synonymous with the history of China's symphonic music development. Spanning three different centuries, the Shanghai Symphony has now embraced a new era. The orchestra created a series of musical products, including: the Concert Season, the Shanghai New Year’s Concert, the Spring Festival Concert, and Music in the Summer Air. These performances have not only fostered cultural exchange but have also built a bridge between people, orchestras and nations. Read more at shsymphony.com
The China Now Music Festival is honored to have fostered a close partnership with the Shanghai Symphony for this year’s festival, ‘China and Beethoven.’ Their performance of composer Yu Jingjun’s Beethoven Variations will be featured in the Dec 13 program ‘Beethoven Made in China,’ and on Dec 15 the festival will devote an evening to recent performances by the orchestra in ‘Shanghai Symphony: a Night of Beethoven.’
Music Director: Leon Botstein
The Orchestra Now (TŌN) is a group of vibrant young musicians from across the globe who are making orchestral music relevant to 21st-century audiences by sharing their unique personal insights in a welcoming environment. Hand-picked from the world’s leading conservatories—including The Juilliard School, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Royal Conservatory of Brussels, and the Curtis Institute of Music—the members of TŌN are enlightening curious minds by giving on-stage introductions and demonstrations, writing concert notes from the musicians’ perspective, and having one-on-one discussions with patrons during intermissions. Conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein founded TŌN in 2015 as a graduate program at Bard College, where he is also president. The orchestra’s home base is the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center at Bard, where they perform multiple concerts each season and take part in the annual Bard Music Festival. Learn more at theorchestranow.org
Having performed major new works by Chinese composers in the first two seasons of the China Now Music Festival, TŌN makes a special contribution this year in the Dec 11 opening event, with a historic representation of the 17-member Peking University Orchestra, active in the 1920’s and the first Chinese orchestra to play Beethoven symphonies.
Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director
Tan Dun, Conductor
The YouTube Symphony Orchestra (www.YouTube.com/Symphony) is the world’s first orchestra selected entirely through auditions online. The project is a collaboration between YouTube, the London Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Grammy Award -winning conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, Academy Award -winning and Olympics composer Tan Dun, world-renowned pianist Lang Lang, and many other classical musicians and leading institutions.
The China Now Music Festival program ‘Beethoven Made in China on Dec 13 presents the orchestra’s performance of Tan Dun’s Internet Symphony No. 1 (Eroica), recorded at Carnegie Hall in 2009.
PROGRAM
Commentary
Jindong Cai, Artistic Director, China Now Music Festival
Shenyang, bass-baritone
Musical Performances
Tan Dun (b. 1957)
Internet Symphony No. 1, “Eroica”
You Tube Symphony Orchestra
Tan Dun, conductor
Li Shutong (1880-1942), orch. arr. Samuel Mutter
众生 “All Living Creatures”
乞命 “Compassion”
-- 学堂乐歌 (Chinese "School Songs")
Shenyang, bass-baritone
Konstantinos Valianatos, Piano
The Orchestra Now (Festival Ensemble)
Andres Rivas, conductor
Daniella Travaglione, child singer
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), arr. Wu Man
Sonatine for mandolin and fortepiano in C major, WoO 43a (arr. for pipa and harp)
Wu Man, pipa
Julie Smith Phillips, harp
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), arr. Xu Yang
Andante & Variations for mandolin and fortepiano in D Major, WoO 44b (arr. for ruan and piano)
Xue Miao, ruan
Qi Yiduo, piano
Julian Yu (b. 1957)
Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Beethoven (Homage to Beethoven) for Orchestra
Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
Yu Long, conductor
Program will run approximately 1 hour 20 minutes.
special thanks to the following festival partners
- Posted in Concert