Guangzhou Symphony Youth Orchestra

The Guangzhou Symphony Youth Orchestra (GSYO), an affiliate of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, was founded in July 2011 with the support of the Guangdong Provincial Government and the Guangzhou Municipal Government. It is the first-ever youth orchestra in China organized and administered by a professional orchestra. Since May 2012, the GSYO has been jointly run by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and the Bureau of Education of Guangzhou Municipality.

The GSYO’s current Music Director is Jing Huan, the Principal Conductor of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, who also serves as an Executive Committee Member of the Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI) and Secretary-General of the Youth Music Culture Guangdong.

The Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra (GSO) is one of the most distinguished ensembles in China today. Its multi-venue facility—where GYSO trains and rehearses, guided by GSO principal players and other veteran musicians—is one of the most comprehensive and technologically advanced in China. The GSO administers the GSYO—a free orchestral training program for all participants—following management and training guidelines of a professional ensemble.

On 13 May 2012, the GSYO appeared on stage for the first time at the Xinghai Concert Hall, and to date has performed more than 90 concerts in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macao and other cities in Guangdong Province. 

In order to sustain growth and development, the GSYO expanded in December 2014 by adding a Junior Orchestra for 10- to 14-year-old musicians, providing training for the next generation of gifted players.

The GSYO’s regular performance venue is the Xinghai Concert Hall. Beginning in September 2015, the GSYO established its own concert season, the first of its kind among China’s non-professional orchestras.

From the GSYO’s inception, many musicians have lent support to its institutional and training programs, among them Long Yu (Music Director, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra), American conductor John Nelson, Xian Zhang (Music Director, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra), Shao-Chia Lü (Music Director, Taiwan Philharmonic), Wing-sie Yip (Music Director, Hong Kong Sinfonietta), Zhang Guoyong (Principal Conductor, Shanghai Opera House), Yang Yang (Music Director, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra; Artistic Director, China National Opera House), Qigang Chen (distinguished composer) and Yun Chen (Concertmaster, China Philharmonic Orchestra). The young musicians have also benefitted from the support of internationally acclaimed pianist Lang Lang and violinist Maxim Vengerov.

In December 2013, the GSYO and the Macao Youth Symphony Orchestra took part in a cultural exchange project, leading to joint concerts held at the Xinghai Concert Hall and a “New Year’s Concert” at the Macao Cultural Centre.

The GSYO and the Hong Kong Youth Symphonic Orchestra held a joint concert at the Xinghai Concert Hall in August 2014, with the GSYO visiting Hong Kong the following month on tour.

In August 2015, the GSYO was invited by the Municipal Government of Frankfurt and the “Young Euro Classic” Festival to perform two concerts: at the Clara Schumann Hall of the Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium, Frankfurt for the Frankfurt-Guangzhou sister cities cultural exchange with internationally-renowned cellist Li-wei Qin and pianist Haochen Zhang, and the renowned Konzerthaus Berlin as part of the 16th “Young Euro Classic” Festival. The Orchestra’s superb performances were widely praised by German audiences and critics.

On 20 October 2016, leading composer and conductor Tan Dun led the GSYO for the first time at the Xinghai Concert Hall in Secret of Wind and Birds, originally composed for the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America in 2015. This performance marked the first time a Chinese orchestra performed this work. Two days later, the GSYO participated in the 19th Beijing Music Festival and performed “In Love with Shakespeare,” a special program led by Music Director Jing Huan to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. This concert was streamed live via the internet and attracted nearly 200,000 viewers worldwide.

The GSYO made its critically-acclaimed 2017 Asia-Pacific tour with cellist Jian Wang and sheng virtuoso Jia Lei. On 6 August, the GSYO performed at the Sydney Town Hall in celebration of the Guangzhou-Sydney sister cities relationship. On 11 and 13 August, the orchestra performed at the Aula Simfonia Jakarta and Singapore’s Victoria Concert Hall respectively.

At the GSO’s 60th anniversary and 2017/2018 season opening concert on 24 September 2017, GSO Music Director Long Yu led the GSYO in Chopin’s Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante with pianist Zhang Haochen, which garnered much praise. 

In October 2017, the GSYO was invited by Hong Kong’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department to join the Hong Kong Youth Symphony Orchestra and Macao Youth Orchestra in a “Music Spectacular” at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium celebrating the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region of China.

On 6 December 2017, the GSYO was invited to perform at the opening ceremony of the 2017 Fortune Global Forum in Guangzhou, receiving much acclaim.

On 29 July 2018, the GSYO performed at Lyon’s Ancient Theatre of Fourvière to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Guangzhou and Lyon as sister cities. On 1 August, the GSYO appeared at the famed Rudolfinum in Prague to mark the fifth anniversary of Guangzhou and Prague as friendship cities, part of the larger China and Central and Eastern European Countries initiative. On 4 August, the GSYO was invited by the Musica Riva Festival at Lago di Guarda for their final orchestral presentation. This tour featured two special guest soloists: cellist Jian Wang and violinist Gao Can. The committed performances of the GSYO received much enthusiastic praise.

The GSYO is dedicated to discovering and creating a working model for non-professional youth orchestras. It has now become the most outstanding youth orchestra in China, shouldering the mantle of international cultural exchange and representing Guangzhou’s own culture by displaying the energetic spirit and artistic achievements of China’s youth to the world.

Conductor: Jing Huan

2018/2019 marks Jian Huan’s second season as the Principal Conductor of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. She also serves as Music Director of the Guangzhou Symphony Youth Orchestra, an affiliate orchestra of the GSO.

Jing Huan graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing under the tutelage of Professor Xu Xin. She obtained her Master’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) in 2009, where she was awarded a full scholarship to continue her doctoral studies and concurrently served as the Conductor Assistant of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, including the CSO’s May Festival (2011–2013). During the same period, Jing Huan was also Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Artaria Chamber Orchestra. In June 2012, Jing Huan was one of two prizewinners at the inaugural Li Delun National Conducting Competition held in Qingdao, China. In the same year, she participated in the Campos do Jordão International Festival in São Paulo, Brazil, where her outstanding performance led to an invitation by Maestra Marin Alsop to serve as Assistant Conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony’s 2013 music season.

In December 2013, Jing Huan made her critically-acclaimed debut concert with the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra conducting Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with soloist Maxim Vengerov. Since then, she had received invitations and collaborated with many orchestras around China such as the China Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, Hangzhou Philharmonic, Qingdao Symphony, Shaanxi Philharmonic, Xinjiang Symphony and Kunming Nie Er Symphony during their music seasons. She had also collaborated with renowned soloists such as Lang Lang, Chen Sa, Zhang Haochen, Robert Blocker, Lü Siqing, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Jian Wang, Li-Wei Qin, Warren Mok, Liao Changyong, Ning Liang and Ying Huang. During the 2018/2019 season, Jing Huan conducts pianist Rudolf Buchbinder and violinists Vadim Repin and Gil Shaham for the first time in the GSO’s subscription concerts.

In 2014, Jing Huan was appointed as Music Director of the Guangzhou Symphony Youth Orchestra (GSYO). Under her leadership, the orchestra charted remarkable progress and made their first tour in July 2015 to Europe, appearing at the Berlin Philharmonie under the auspices of Young Euro Classic. Jing Huan’s achievements at the helm of the GSYO attracted the attention of Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI), and she was elected to serve on JMI’s Board in July 2016.

In October 2016, Jing Huan presented a concert entitled “In Love with Shakespeare” to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death at the Beijing Music Festival. In January 2017, she assisted Maestro Long Yu and Yo-Yo Ma in their music collaboration, Youth Music Culture Guangzhou (YMCG), a music festival for young people around Asia, in which she conducted the opening concert. In May 2017, Jing Huan conducted the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra on their European tour to Italy and the United Kingdom. Three months later, she led the GSYO on their Asia tour to Sydney, Jakarta and Singapore for cultural exchange. In late July 2018, Jing Huan returned with the GSYO to Europe, performing in Lyon (France), Prague (Czech Republic) and the Musica Riva Festival, Lago di Garda (Italy).

Violinist: Siqing Lu

One of the most prominent and influential Chinese violinists today, Siqing Lu (pronounced See- Ching Lyu) performs regularly with major international and Chinese orchestras, in recitals and with the China Trio which he founded with Pianist Yingdi.Sun and Cellist Li-Wei Qin in 2011.

As the first Asian violinist to win the prestigious International Paganini Violin Competition, Siqing has performed to acclaim in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls in more than forty countries and territories worldwide, including the Musikverein in Vienna, Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Southam Hall at National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Maison Symphonique and Place des Arts in Montreal, Barbican Centre, Royal Opera House and Wigmore Hall in London, Theatre Des Champs Elysees and Louis XIV Opera House at Palace of Versailles in Paris, the Great Hall in Moscow, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Hamer Hall at the Arts Centre in Melbourne, Sydney Opera House, the Esplanade in Singapore, Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

Siqing Lu has collaborated with many of the world’s esteemed musicians, including Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Leonard Slatkin, Edo de Waart, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lawrence Foster, Jaap van Zweden, Osmo Vänskä, Bocelli, as well as leading Chinese musicians such as Long Yu, Lang Lang, Jia Lu, Muhai Tang, Shao-Jia Lu, Wen-Bin Jian, Chao-Liang Lin, Yujia Wang, Jian Wang, Yi Zhang, Xincao Li, Yang Yang, the Shanghai Quartet and Oscar award winner composer/conductor Tan Dun, with whom Siqing gave the world premiere of his violin concerto “Hero” in Poland in 2011.

Cooperated with many well-known Chinese and foreign orchestras, including Royal Philharmonic , Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the Rhine National Symphony Orchestra of Germany, Hallé Orchestra, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, Berner Symphonieorchester , Salzburg Chamber Orchestra, Nürnberger Symphoniker and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. Hollywood Bowl Theatre Orchestra, Washington Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Marrinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra of Japan, Hong Kong Orchestra, China National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra(China NCPA Orchestra), China Philharmonic, China National Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, etc.

Highlights for the past year includes a nationwide recital tour of more than fifty cities in China, a series of concerts at the NCPA in Beijing, concert with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra conducted by Xian Zhang at Lincoln Centre, with the London Symphony Orchestra and Tan Dun at the Barbican Centre, the 2018 Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chinese New Year’s Concert. Siqing was also invite as guest soloist on tour with many orchestras, such as as the soloist with the NCPA Orchestra at the Abu Dhabi Music Festival, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra at the

Bangkok International Dance and Music Festival, the China National Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House, as well as the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra on their historic first ever South America tour.

Siqing appears regularly at many of the top music festivals and prestigious music events around the world. He is the Artistic Director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts May Festival in Beijing, and is on the Jury of several prestigious international competitions such as the Menuhin Competition and the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition. In fall of 2016, he founded the Siqing Lu Shenzhen Futian International String Festival, of which he is the Artistic Director.The 2nd festival had been held in 2018.

Siqing Lu has released more than 20 CDs and video recordings for Philips, Naxos, Marco Polo, and BIS. His five recordings of the “Butterfly Lovers” violin concerto, the most famous work among the Chinese violin repertoire, has sold millions of copies worldwide. His interpretation of this piece is widely considered the best and he has thrilled audiences in more than twenty countries worldwide performing this violin concerto. His latest recording of the Mendelssohn and Bruch violin concertos as well as Tan Dun's violin concerto Out of Beijing Opera with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was released worldwide by ABC Classics, Australia’s largest and most influential record company, to acclaim in March 2018.

Over the past decades, Siqing Lu has received numerous honors worldwide for his outstanding artistic achievement and social contributions, including Honorary Certificate from the United States House of Representatives, New Jersey Outstanding Achievement in Arts Award for Asian, California Senate Honorary Certificate, Honorary Certificate from the California Executive Committee of the House on multiple occasions, the Montblanc Outstanding Artist Award, China Youth Magazine's “The 100 Most Influential Young People of the 21st Century in China” award. On September 16th of 2006, the City of Millbrae, California passed a legislation to have the date proclaimed as “Siqing Lu Day” in honor of Siqing’s achievements.

Siqing Lu was born in 1969 in Qingdao, China. He began to study violin at the age of four. As an eight-year-old child, he became the youngest student ever to be admitted by the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing as a special talented student and studied with Prof. Zhenshan Wang. At the age of eleven, the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin chose Siqing to study at his school in London. In 1984, he returned to China for advanced studies at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Five years later, he went to the Juilliard School and studied with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang.

Siqing Lu plays on a 1734 ex-Ricci Guarneri del Gesu violin, which is graciously loaned to him by his close friend Mr. J Zhou, a passionate music lover, collector and successful entrepreneur.