Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra
Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SZSO) was founded in the early 1980s, bathed in the spring breeze of reform and opening up, the orchestra has grown from small to large. In 2022, the orchestra will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its founding.
After 40 years of hard work and 40 years of unremitting pursuit, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra has become a strong force in the industry at home and abroad. It has spread the voice of Shenzhen on the international stage and won the respect of its peers. SZSO is recognized as one of the outstanding professional symphony orchestras in China and has become a beautiful business card for Shenzhen.
Since 1994, the orchestra has participated in major festivals including the 4th China Art Festival, 3rd China-International Piano Competition, Opening Performance of the 1st World Buddhist Forum, China International Chorus Festival, Beijing Modern Music Festival, Beijing National Center for the Performing Arts Festival, Turkey Istanbul Music Festival, Italy Mittelfest Music Festival, Ravello Wagner Music Festival, Calatia Charity Music Festival, Bellini Music Festival in Sicily, French Dinar Music Festival and so on. They have received many praises regarding these various performances.
Throughout the years, the orchestra has cultivated long-lasting collaborations with great artists and orchestras at home and abroad. For example, the orchestra has worked with composers such as Qiming Lv, Gang Chen, Anlun Huang, Ning Wang, Xiaogang Ye, Jianping Tang, Dun Tan, Qianyi Zhang, Danhong Wang; conductors such as Delun Li, Xiaotong Huang, Xiaoying Zheng, VIadimir Fedoseev, Xieyang Chen, Günther Herbig, Lior Shambadal, Zuohuang Chen, Muhai Tang, Daniel Oren, Daniele Gatti, Guido Johannes Rumstadt, Lan Shui, Yongyan Hu, Shaojia Lv, Xincao Li, Kirill Petrenko, Edvard Tchivzhel, Michael Foster and Smart; famous performers such as Oxana Yablonskaya, Jianyu Bai, Sa Chen, Lang Lang, Fang Yuan, Zhang Zuo, Antje Weithaas, Suli Xue, Zhou Qian, Siqing Lv, Midori, Capucon, Feng Ning, Dan Zhu, Diana Tishchenko, Arto Noras, Jian Wang, Liwei Qin, and Jiapeng Nie; as well as famous singers such as Xiumei Yin, Dilber Yunus, Liping Zhang, Hui He, Bixia Wu, Lida Wang, Jia Lei, Ying Huang, Jose Carreras, Yuqiang Dai, Yijie Shi, Changyong Liao, Yang Shen, Carlow Struly, among others.
National first-level performer and violinist Bing Nie is the current president of the orchestra. His expert management thinking and benevolence and scientific management mode, showing humanistic feelings and winning the support of the orchestra. The music director is the distinguished conductor Daye Lin, who has deeply rooted and carried forward the German and Austrian classicism in the orchestra. Long Yu is the artistic advisor, German conductor Christian Ehwald is the honorary music director, and famous musician Dun Tan is the principal honorary conductor. This is the best combination and a graceful and classic elite team.
SZSO has focused on actively supporting the works of local composers. Noteworthy pieces are the premieres of the Choral Symphony “Ode to Heroes”, “My Motherland”, “Ode to Humanity”, “Harmony of the Divine Land”, and “Symphonic Folksongs, Hakka Rhyme”, which have received critical acclaim from professional musicians, audiences and the media. Among them, “Ode to Humanity” and “My Motherland” were selected as the 2017 and 2020 National Art Fund Promotion and Exchange Funding Projects respectively. “My Motherland” had been continuously selected by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China in the 2018-2019 “Symphony of the Era - Supporting Program for the Creation of Chinese Symphonic Music Works” and the 2020 “Excellent Stage Art Creation Project to Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China” (a hundred projects for a hundred years), and won the first prize of Large-scale Stage Artworks in the 14th Guangdong Art Festival by the Culture and Tourism Department of Guangdong Province.
The orchestra regularly performs the works of local composers annually, striving to “create Shenzhen a city with rich culture”. In the new season and new era, the new blueprint of the orchestra will be written: to become one of Asia’s leading orchestras with international influence.
 

Conductor: Daye Lin
Daye Lin serves as the Music Director and Chief Conductor of Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, the Associate Director and Associate Professor of Composition & Conducting Department at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, a key member of First-Class Orchestra Talent Cultivation and Practical of Shanghai Innovation Team, a board member of Chinese Musicians Association as well as a member of Shanghai Youth Association. Besides, he has received the He Luting Art Achievement Award 2020, China National Arts Fund Youth Performing Artist 2020 and won the 6th Sir Georg Solti International Conductors Competition.
Daye Lin was born in 1980. He has studied conducting under the tutelage of Prof. Xin Xu at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Prof. Guoyong Zhang at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and studied at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin under the guidance of Prof. Christian Ehwald and obtained the Konzertexam certificate in Germany.
Between 2009 and 2015, Daye Lin was appointed as the Principal Conductor of Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra (GSO) and made several concert tours with the GSO at home and abroad. In 2012, Daye Lin won first prize in the 6th Sir Georg Solti International Conductors Competition which was held in Frankfurt, Germany, being the first Chinese recipient of this competition. In the same year, he was awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award by Guangdong Musician Association.
In September 2015, under the recommendations of conducting maestro Xiaotong Huang, conducting educator Guoyong Zhang and well-known conductor Long Yu, Daye Lin returned to Shanghai Conservatory of Music as the Associate Director and Associate Professor of Composition & Conducting Department.
In May 2016, Daye was officially appointed as the Music Director and Chief Conductor of Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SZSO) and was invited to conduct the Concert of Jiping Zhao's Composition Works at Shanghai Spring International Music Festival. In September, he made his first appearance as Music Director with SZSO on the international stages of the Ljubljana Festival, Emilia Romagna Festival, Merano Festival as well as RadiRo – International Radio Orchestras Festival in Romania.
Highlights of the 2017-2018 season included his appearances with Filarmonica Artura Toscanini, Nürnberg Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM in Mexico and with SZSO in the “Belt & Road” Central and Eastern Europe concert tour.
In 2019, he was invited again by the Emilia Romagna Festival, Donizetti Festival and Erlangen, Nuremburg to conduct SZSO at the Ljubljana Festival, Donizetti Festival, Festival delle Nazioni, Kammerphilharmonie dacapo München among others.
In 2020, Daye Lin led the SZSO to perform four concerts in Montreal and Ottawa, Canada and received a good review from Christophe Huss. Besides, he was also re-invited to conduct Nürnberg Symphony Orchestra. Under his baton, the commissioned work of the SZSO “My Motherland” had been successively selected by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China in the 2018-2019 “Symphony of the Era - Supporting Program for the Creation of Chinese Symphonic Music Works” and the 2020 “Excellent Stage Art Creation Project to Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China”, and was awarded first prize of the Large-scale Stage Artworks in the 14th Guangdong Art Festival by the Culture and Tourism Department of Guangdong Province.
 

Soprano: Lida Wang
Soprano Lida Wang, a national first-class performer and a doctor of art, serves as a voice professor and a master supervisor in the Central Conservatory of Music. She was the recipient of the Gold Award for Voice in the 7^th Chinese Golden Bell Award for Music, the Gold Award in the 14^th National Young Singers TV Competition, the 30^th Plum Performance Award, and the 30^th Magnolia Performance Award. She had acted as the protagonists in the operas such as The Road to Poverty Alleviation, Yimeng Mountain, The Hero, The Banks of Jinsha River, The Horn, The Song of Canal, The Wilderness and the musicals such as Mountain Songs Are Like Spring Water, Red Lanterns, Qingcheng. Her representative singing works include “Kiss the Motherland”, “Realize the Chinese Dream Together”, “Take a Rest for Your Heart” and “Lead a New Era”.
 

Mezzo-soprano: Hongyao Wang
Hongyao Wang serves as an associate professor in the Voice and Opera Department of the Xinghai Conservatory of Music, the Deputy Director of the Opera Center, the signed artist with the National Center for the Performing Arts and the state-sponsored visiting scholar in New York University. Hongyao won third place in the China International Vocal Competition, first place in the World Chinese Vocal Competition and was the winner of Outstanding Award in the INTERNAZIONALE CONCORSO VOCI VERDIANE CITTA’ DI BUSSETO. In addition, she has been selected in the Guangdong Outstanding Young Teachers Training Project and the Guangdong Young Talents Project. Hongyao appears actively in the National Center for the Performing Arts and acts as protagonists of more than ten operas. At the invitation, she has cooperated with Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, and Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, among others.
 

Ballet: Sisi Qiu
Sisi Qiu, “an oriental swan princess who dances with her flexible and expressive force body like the violin string” highly acclaimed by the press media, is a prima ballerina, choreographer and art producer. She joined the famed Bayerisches Staatsballett in 2002 and showed a high talent in her career including producing and performing “L'amour en Pointe” and Ballet “Chopin en Pointe”. She created the first ballet piece at the 2013 New Year's Concert with Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta at the Great Hall of the People. She has performed with worldwide acclaimed orchestras and artists, including China National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Andrea Bocelli, Richard Clayderman, Zhongguo Sheng, Siqing Lv, Yibin Zhu. Liwei Qin, among others.
 

Violin: Qian Wu
Qian Wu was admitted to the Universität der Künste Berlin with a mark of distinction in 2014, studying under the guidance of the renowned violinist Peter Rainer. Since 2016, Qian Wu has participated in the seasons and recording programs of the Potsdam Chamber Orchestra. In 2017, she performed for the Presidents of China and Germany as well as their wives in the Palace Bellevue to critical acclaim. In 2018, Qian Wu was employed by Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra shortly after receiving a master’s degree with distinction from the Universität der Künste Berlin. Qian Wu has successfully held recitals and chamber music concerts and served as the soloist in the seasons of the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra.
 

Cello: Karen Kocharyan
Karen Kocharyan, the principal cello of Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, is one of the founding members of the Khachatyryan Trio. He was the first solo cellist of the Armenian Chamber Players (ACP), and the principal of cello with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2016, he was awarded the Gold Award by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia.
 

Clarinet: Cheng Yi
Cheng Yi, the principal clarinet of Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra and holder of the Clarinet Konzertexam Certificate of Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, Germany, is serving as a guest professor of Shenzhen University and Buffet Crampon’s artist. He is the recipient of Guangdong Province Best Top Ten Stage Newcomers.

 
Program
 
Johann Strauss II: Die Fledermaus Overture
Bela Kovács: Sholem Alekhem, Rov Feidman! (Clarinet: Cheng Yi)
Astor Piazzolla: Le Grand Tango (Cello: Karen Kocharyan)
Qigang Chen: You and Me (Cello: Karen Kocharyan)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Act II. Scene Moderato from Swan Lake Ballet Suite, Op.20 (Ballet: Sisi Qiu, Siyi Hu)
Dmitri Shostakovich: Waltz No.2 (Ballet: Sisi Qiu, Siyi Hu)
Richard Hayman: Pops Hoe-Down
 
Intermission
 
Arturo Márquez: Danzón No.2
Maurice Ravel: Tzigane (Violin: Qian Wu)
Arturo Márquez: Conga del Fuego
Alberto Ginestera: Malambo
Lyric by Xu Shuhua, Music by Biguang Tang&Liqi Zhu: Liuyang River (Soprano: Lida Wang)
Lyric by Taiqi Zhang, Music by Yougui Wang: Mt Yimeng My Motherland (Soprano: Lida Wang)
Ottorino Respighi: The Pines of Rome
 
(Please check program updates at the concert.)