Listen... The sound of music and the voice of singing are traveling through time to linger over the city and evoke the romantic reveries at the end of the year. This New Year's Eve, Shanghai Chinese Orchestra will invite the famous conductor Ye Cong to prepare for you a magnificent Shanghai-style Chinese music feast. Come and join us -- let's listen to the evening drum and the morning bell, stroll through the alternating seasons and experience the harmony between Chinese musical instruments and contemporary music styles in a charming new dream.

 

 

The Shanghai-born conductor, Tsung Yeh, has the distinction of being the very first conductor to ever hold simultaneous music-directorship of both a Western symphony orchestra and a Chinese orchestra. He presently serves as the Music Director of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) and Conductor Laureate of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra (SBSO).

 

As a brilliant innovator in his field, Maestro Yeh has built strong orchestras that have attracted new and old audience members alike. Since he has taken music directorship of the SCO, it has established itself as one of the finest Chinese Orchestras in the world for its unique repertoire and program. In 2005, he led the SCO on a tour through Europe, appearing at the Barbican Center in London, the Sage Gateshead, and the Budapest Spring Festival. Later in 2009, Yeh and the SCO made history by becoming the first Chinese Orchestra to perform in the opening week of the Edinburgh Festival. Yeh was awarded the Singapore Cultural Medallion in 2013, the highest Arts award given in Singapore.

 

During his 28-year tenure as the Music Director, Yeh led the rapid development of the South Bend Symphony into one of the finest regional orchestras in the central United States. In 1995, he and the SBSO were honored with the ASCAP award for Excellence in Programming and Performing. As recognition of his years of service in the community, on June 17, 2016, Yeh received the Sagamore of the Wabash Award from Indiana Governor Michael Pence.

 

 

Founded in an orchestra in China. SHCO is famous for its harmonious cooperation among the members of orchestra and its excellent mastering of all kinds of works. 1952, Shanghai Chinese Orchestra is the first big-scale modern Chinese Orchestra that plays an important role in the development of Chinese music. In the history of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, there were a number of great artists who made significant contributions to national music development, such as Zhang Ziqian, Lu Chunling, Sun Yude, Gu Guanren, Min Huifen, Yu Xunfa, Gong Yi, etc.

 

After the more than half a century development, SCHO now turns into a large-scale integrated national orchestra embracing four sections, that is, the strung, plucking, wind and percussion voice, and thus accumulated a number of classic works and projects. Moreover, SHCO also initiates its own professional performance season and recorded abundant national instrumental music. Meanwhile, by introducing numerous public performances, SHCO constantly makes efforts to popularize national music.

 

In the recent years, the SHCO, which oriented on explaining national music in modern and international ways, organized and performed a lot of themed concerts which blended our national culture, national sentiments, as well as national spirits into the music, successfully representing national music in Shanghai-style like《New Oriental Chinese Music Scene》《The Bund》《The Blooming of the Gardenias》《The Concerts of Poetry, Literature and Painting in Chinese Music》. And the New Oriental Chinese Music Scene was performed in the opening ceremony of the 18th Chinese Shanghai International Festival of Arts as well as the special performance for the 45th anniversary China-Greece relations.

 

Main Performers: Qiao Zhen (Special Guest), Wu Bixia (Special Guest), Zhou Zhengzhong (Special Guest), Hu Chenyun, Yao Xinfeng, Chen Xiaoyan, Ding Long, Chen Yunying, Lu Lu, Li Shengnan