Philharmonie Salzburg
The Philharmonie Salzburg was founded in 1998 by conductor Elisabeth Fuchs and has been playing in the hearts of the audience ever since. The orchestra is sure to "touch music" and succeeds in making music through an exceptionally innovative programming and the contagious joy of the performers.
 
The Philharmonie Salzburg is versatile: The Philharmonie Salzburg plays with top soloists such as Juan Diego Florez, Rolando Villazon, Olga Scheps, Nikolai Tokarev, Ferhan & Ferzan Önder, Pacho Flores, Andreas Martin Hofmeir and Benjamin Schmid, on the other hand grooving them from the world of jazz music ECHO award winners Quadro Nuevo, Per Arne Glorvigen, Henry Threadgill, Reena Winters, Maria Bill and the Klazz Brothers.
 
Every year the Philharmonie Salzburg plays over 100 orchestral concerts and regularly performs in Salzburg's concert halls - the Salzburg Festival Hall, the Felsenreitschule Salzburg, the Mozarteum's Great Hall and the Great University Hall - with a broad repertoire to critical acclaim (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Ravel to Igor Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten, ArvoPärt, Kurt Schwertsik and John Adams). The orchestra has performed several times at the Salzburg Festival, Musica Riva Festival, Wiener Musikverein, Wiener Konzerthaus, Brucknerhaus Linz, Congress Center Villach, Kurhaus Wiesbaden and Tonhalle Düsseldorf, as well as in the major cities of China. In addition to classical-romantic concert evenings, the orchestra has set itself the task of setting strong accents in the audience development area.
 
Therefore, in cooperation with the Children's Festival, the orchestra offers many children, adolescents and families an introduction to the classical world through interactive symphonic concerts and workshops. In addition, the orchestra was the initiator of the apprentices' concerts in the GroßeFestspielhaus, which now inspire 4,000 young people in Salzburg every year, and also perform in Linz, Graz and Künzelsau.
 

Elisabeth Fuchs
Austrian conductor and director Elisabeth Fuchs studied orchestra conducting, chorus conducting, clarinet, music education and mathematics at the Mozart University of Performing Arts in Salzburg and the Music Academy in Cologne. She followed the masters of Balduin Sulzer, Franz Welser-Möst, Herbert Böck, Karl Kamper, Michael Luig and Dennis Russell Davies.
 
Elisabeth founded the Philharmonie Salzburg in 1998 and served as its artistic director. Each year they have more than 100 concerts. From 2001 to 2003, she was in Heidelberg Tonart Orchester, Stuttgart Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, Belgium, Helsinki Symphony Orchestra Finland, Croatia Zagreb Philharmonie, Prague National Opera Orchestra, Linz Bruckner Symphony Orchestra and also invited to be the international music festival orchestra conductor and artistic director.
 
The operas "The Magic Flute" and "Bastian and Bastiana" which were directed and conducted by her were recorded by Deutsche Grammophon. Since then she also conducted the opera "Carmen", "AidaC", "Han Zell and Grey", "the Marriage of Figaro", "Serbia Barber", "Magic Catapult Hand", "Fidelio", "the King of Atlantis", "White Rose", "Gypsy Princess", and " Bat ".
 
Elizabeth Fuchs makes her excellent performances by her courage and help to complete a series of extraordinary large symphonies: "Seven Seals Books", "War Requiem", "Beethoven's symphony no. 9", "Brent Poetry", "Peace", 6 of the Brandenburg concertos, 7 of the Hindemith chamber music collections, and she conducted three Stravinsky's works in the same night and the score of silent film scene.
 
She became President of the Salzburg Cultural Association in 2009, becoming a leading figure in the music and art world in the state of Salzburg. In 2005 she was awarded with the Irma von Troll Borostyani Award and in 2007 with the Federal Medal of Honor for Arts, Culture and Education. In 2017 and 2018 she respectively received the Salzburg City Culture Fund Award and Salzburg City Honor Trophy.
 

Conductor: Antonio Puccio
Born in Italy, Antonio Puccio studied Piano, Composition, Orchestral and Choral Conducting, Singing, Philosophy, Psychology and Aesthetics of Music, and he is a famous Italian conductor of chorus and symphony orchestra.
 
From 2000 to 2010, he worked with Mendelssohn Orchestra, Mozart Symphony Orchestra, Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra and Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra respectively. In 2011, he was invited to conduct the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Prague Chorus. In 2012, He established L'Arco Magico Chamber Orchestra, as its conductor. This year, he was invited as the guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and led the orchestra to perform in Rome. In the same year, he performed works of Beethoven, Grieg, Berg, Mahler and other masters with the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra. Between 2014 and 2015 he led L'Arco Magico Chamber Orchestra on tour in Italy. Then in 2016, Puccio completed the first live global performance of Handel's portfolio together with L'Arco Magico Chamber Orchestra and he served as conductor of the Verdi Symphony Orchestra in Milan. Since 2017, Puccio has been the guest conductor of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra.
 

Violin: Xi Chen
Chen graduated from The Curtis Institute of Music and received a Master Degree from Yale University. Currently he joins the board member of the Violin Division of Chinese Musicians Association and the faculty member of China Central Conservatory of Music.
 
In June, 2002, seventeen year-old Chinese Violinist Xi Chen won the top prize of the 12th International Tchaikovsky Violin Competition and became the youngest top prize winner in the history of Tchaikovsky Competition.
 
Xi Chen studied violin at the age of 3 with his father, presented his solo recital at the age of 12 and started performing with Chinese and foreign top symphony orchestras at the age of 13. As a talented violinist and child protégé, Xi Chen has won many national and foreign competitions since his young age. In 1999 he followed Professor Yaoji Lin, a renowned violin educator in the world. In 2003 he entered The Curtis Institute of Music under the tutelage of famous violin soloist Joseph Silverstein, the former concertmaster and associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2008 Chen entered Yale University and studied with celebrated educator Xiao Jiang.
 
During the recent years, Xi Chen has regularly appeared on stage, both nationally and internationally. As a soloist, he has performed with famous orchestras and held masterclasses in the United State, Canada, Russia, France, Turkey, Italy, Japan, South Korea, amongst others. The orchestras Chen has performed with include China Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Kammerorchester, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, and KBS Symphony Orchestra. He has played concerts in Vancouver, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Buffalo, Cincinnati, and Washington D.C. As well as in Zankel Hall of Carnegie Hall New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall Los Angles, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Auditorium du Louvre Paris, National Centre for the Performing Arts, etc.
 
In 2005 Xi Chen became the first violinist to perform at the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City. In May 2007, Chen was chosen as the representative of the People’s Republic of China Government to perform at the welcome concert for the United Nation Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In 2016/17 season, Chen was invited as the resident artist and toured with Director Daye Lin, as well as Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra in Europe. They performed in significant festivals such as Merano Festival, Emilia Romagna Festival and Ljubljana Festival. Apart from violin recital, he is experienced in chamber music performance. He has collaborated with famous cello virtuoso Jian Wang, pianists Yujia Wang and Haochen Zhang, violin masters Oliveira and Kavacos, violist Laurence Dutton in numerous international music festivals and music concerts. Since 2013 Xi Chen has been the Musical Director of Easton Music Festival Summer Camp.
 

Piano: Jieni Wan
Jieni Wan was born in Germany on February, 1995. At the age of four, she received her first piano lessons and moved with her parents back to China three years later. At the age of eleven, she was admitted to the Conservatory of Music in Shanghai and began her professional training in piano under the guidance of the famous Chinese Professor. Minduo Li. Two years later, she continued her studies at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with the Professor. Dan Shao. On Jun, 2010, Jieni passed the entrance examination at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich with excellent marks and has been intensifying her piano studies under Professor. Gitti Pirner, before joining Professor. Antti Siirala’s class on Oct, 2013. Currently she is enrolled in Yale School of Music, under the tutelage of Professor. Robert Blocker.
 
Recently, Jieni has performed as a soloist with many Chinese and Western well-known orchestras, she has given piano recitals and piano concertos with leading orchestras both in China and abroad, especially in Germany, Italy, Israel, Great Britain, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan and Mainland, China. She performs in many leading venues, including Munich Herkulessaal, Berlin Konzerthaus in Europe. In the meanwhile, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, Beijing Concert Hall, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, Shenzhen Concert Hall, Guangzhou Xinghai Concert Hall and many other Concert Halls and Grand Theatres in Mainland, China.
 
Jieni has appeared with major orchestras under the direction of such eminent conductors as Lihua Tan (2014 China Tour with Beijing Symphony Orchestra), Fuad Ibrahimov (2014 & 2015 China Tour with Neue Philharmonie Muenchen), Xu Zhong (2016 Shanghai with Orchestra del Maggio Musicale, 2016 Israel Haifa with Haifa Symphony Orchestra), Maestro Christoph Eschenbach (2016 China Tour with World Master Orchestra), Lü Jia (2016 Beijing with the NCPA Orchestra, Apr, 2017 Shenzhen with Macao Orchestra), Long Yu (April, 2017 Guangzhou with Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra). In the 2016/17 Season, the engagements of Jieni included with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra which she has performed Edward Grieg Piano Concerto in a minor under the baton of Maestro Zubin Mehta on Jun, 2017. Maurice Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major with China Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of French Conductor Pascal Rophé on May, 2017.
 
The 2017/18 Season, Jieni has debuted with Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Maestro Gilbert Varga in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland on Sep, 2017. In the meanwhile, she has cooperated with Auckland Philharmonia and Chinese conductor Xincao Li which was her New Zealand debut. In early January and late February 2018, Jieni has just debuted with Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Sa Li in their China Tour.
 

Cello: Jiapeng Nie
Cellist Jiapeng Nie was born in 1989 and brought up in a musical family in Shenzhen, China. In 2005, Nie was enrolled at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music of the National University of Singapore. Due to his exceptional achievements, Nie was accepted by the distinguished Cello Professor Liwei Qin. While in Singapore, he received high praises, including reviews from the “Straits Times”: “Young cellist Nie Jiapeng was the star in the concert. Jiapeng’s excellent interplay with the orchestra made for a perfect performance.” In 2010, Nie was accepted by the Hochschule für Music und Theater Hamburg to pursue a Master’s Degree and the Konzertexamen Degree, where he studied with Professor Arto Noras. Nie completed his Master’s Degree and Konzertexamen Degree respectively in 2013 and 2016. Currently he has joined the faculty member of Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou.
 
As a cellist, Nie has been invited as a soloist to collaborated with many orchestras and music festivals, including BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Brevard Philharmonic Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Nürnberg Symphony Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic, Bogota Philharmonic, Orchestra UniMi, Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, Qingdao Symphony Orchestra, Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra, Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, Ljubljana Music Festival, Carniarmonie Festival and Emilia Romagna Festival, Ravello Festival.