Long Yu

The Chinese conductor Long Yu, who was born in 1964 in Shanghai, received his earliest musical training from his grandfather, the composer Ding Shande. He later studied piano and conducting at the Shanghai Conservatory; after graduating in 1987, he continued his studies at the University of the Arts in Berlin. In 1992 he returned from Europe and was named Principal Conductor at the Central Opera Theatre in Beijing, and in 1998 he founded the Beijing Music Festival, which presents both operas and concerts and has since come to be regarded as the leading music festival in the Eastern Hemisphere. He was in charge there for 20 years, until 2018. Long Yu also led the initiative to found the China Philharmonic Orchestra in 2000, and he remains closely associated with that orchestra as its Chief Conductor. He was named head of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra in 2003 and has served as Music Director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra since 2009 and as Principal Guest Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra since 2015. He has performed at the Vatican with the China Philharmonic and has toured through Europe and the United States with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, leading the New York Times to acclaim him “China’s Herbert von Ka-
rajan.” As a guest conductor, Long Yu has worked with such renowned ensembles as the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia and Philharmonia Orchestras, the Orchestre de Paris, the Munich Philharmonic, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In addition to the classical repertoire, he is dedicated to contemporary music, conducting works by Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Glass, Tan Dun, Unsuk Chin, and Qigang Chen. He recently recorded Chen’s Wu Xing for his inaugural release on Deutsche Grammophon, which signed him in 2018 as an exclusive artist.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 20 August 2017, conducting the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in a program of works by Avshalomov, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich.

Juli 2019