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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 13, 2015
Contact: Katherine E. Johnson
(212) 875-5718; [email protected]
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC TO CELEBRATE THE YEAR OF THE SHEEP WITH
FOURTH-ANNUAL CHINESE NEW YEAR CONCERT and GALA
LONG YU TO CONDUCT
Cellist YO-YO MA, Sheng Player WU TONG,
Vocalist LEI JIA, and Aijieke Player GULINAER YIMING To Perform
Free Event Open to Public on Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza To Feature
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company Performing Traditional Dragon Dance and
National Dance Institute Performing Folk-Inspired Dances, 4:30 p.m.
February 24, 2015
The New York Philharmonic, in collaboration with CAMI Music, will celebrate the Chinese
New Year for the fourth consecutive year, this time welcoming the Year of the Sheep with a
program of Chinese composers, musicians, and traditional instruments, celebrating the cultural
heritage of China and honoring the Chinese-American community, on Tuesday, February 24,
2015, at 7:30 p.m. Long Yu — music director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, artistic
director and chief conductor of the China Philharmonic Orchestra, artistic director of the
Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, and founding artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival —
will return to the Philharmonic following his January subscription debut to conduct the Chinese
New Year Concert for the fourth consecutive season.
This year’s program will feature cellist Yo-Yo Ma and sheng player Wu Tong as the soloists in the U.S.
Premiere of Zhao Lin’s Duo for cello, sheng, and orchestra, written for Mr. Ma and Mr. Wu; Wu Tong
performing Hai-Deng Yan’s Jin Diao for sheng and orchestra; a selection from Borodin’s Prince Igor;
aijieke (traditional Chinese bowed instrument) player Gulinaer Yiming performing Fantasia themes by
Mukamu for aijieke and orchestra; and vocalist Lei Jia performing traditional Chinese folk songs. The
Spring Festival Overture, Li Huanzhi’s traditional work celebrating the Chinese New Year, will once
again open the concert.
The Philharmonic’s salute to the Year of the Sheep will also include a free outdoor event the
afternoon of the concert at 4:30 p.m. on Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza featuring the
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company performing the traditional Dragon Dance, as well as public school
students from the National Dance Institute performing folk-inspired dances.
Gala events will include a pre-concert champagne reception from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., which will
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include a traditional Dragon Dance by the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company; the concert; and a
seated dinner immediately following the performance. Gala dress will be traditional Chinese
attire or black-tie. The Honorary Gala Chairmen are Mr. and Mrs. Maurice R. Greenberg,
H.E. Ambassador Liu Jieyi, Mr. and Mrs. James D. Wolfensohn, and H.E. Consul-General
Zhang Qiyue. The Gala Co-Chairmen are Angela Chen, Guoqing Chen and Ming Liu, Gary
W. Parr, Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar L. Tang, and Shirley Young. The Starr International
Foundation is the Presenting Sponsor of the Chinese New Year Gala.
Yo-Yo Ma will have also appeared with the Philharmonic and the Silk Road Ensemble the
previous week, February 19–21, in a concert celebrating that ensemble’s 15th anniversary.
As music director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Long Yu played a central role in the
establishment of that orchestra’s partnership with the New York Philharmonic to establish the
Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency, part of the New York Philharmonic Global
Academy.
Artists
Conductor Long Yu is music director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, artistic director and
chief conductor of the China Philharmonic Orchestra, artistic director of the Guangzhou
Symphony Orchestra, and founding artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival. He shares the
position of artistic co-director of the MISA Festival with Charles Dutoit, bringing classical music
to the young people of Shanghai. Long Yu was born in Shanghai in 1964 into a family of
musicians. His grandfather Ding Shande, a renowned composer, encouraged him to study at the
Shanghai Conservatory and the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. Upon returning to China Mr.
Yu was appointed principal conductor of the Central Opera Theatre in Beijing. He has been
named a Chevalier dans L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and received the Montblanc Cultural
Foundation’s 2002 Arts Patronage Award and the title of L’onorificenza di commendatore from
the Italian government in 2005. In 2014 Mr. Yu and the China Philharmonic became the first
Chinese conductor and the first Chinese orchestra to play at the BBC Proms with a televised
performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall viewed by millions of people across the U.K. He
performs regularly with ensembles and opera companies including the Orchestre de Paris; BBC,
Chicago, Singapore, and Sydney symphony orchestras; Hamburg State Opera; Maggio Musicale
Fiorentino; The Philadelphia Orchestra; and Los Angeles, Munich, and Hong Kong
Philharmonic orchestras. Long Yu played a leading role in establishing the Shanghai Orchestra
Academy, a partnership between the New York Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony
Orchestra, with collaboration from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 2014 the
Philharmonic named Long Yu an honorary member of the International Advisory Board, a
network of advocates and ambassadors connecting with individuals and institutions in their home
countries to cultivate the Philharmonic’s long-term reach and influence worldwide. Mr. Yu’s
first appearance with the Philharmonic was leading the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra on a New
York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks program on Central Park’s Great Lawn in 2010, and he
first led the Orchestra in January 2012, conducting the inaugural Chinese New Year Concert. He
most recently led the Orchestra in the February 2014 Chinese New Year Concert and Gala, and
is scheduled to lead the Orchestra with soloist Maxim Vengerov January 22–24, 2015.
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The many-faceted career of cellist Yo-Yo Ma is testament to his continual search for new ways
to communicate with audiences and to his personal desire for artistic growth and renewal. Mr.
Ma maintains a balance between his engagements as soloist with orchestras worldwide and his
recital and chamber music activities. His discography includes more than 90 albums, including
more than 17 Grammy Award winners. Mr. Ma serves as the artistic director of Silkroad, an
organization he founded to promote cross-cultural performance and collaboration at the edge
where education, business, and the arts come together to transform the world. More than 80
works have been commissioned specifically for the Silk Road Ensemble, which tours annually,
including a January 2015 appearance with the New York Philharmonic. Mr. Ma also serves as
the Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s
Negaunee Music Institute. His work focuses on the transformative power music can have in
individuals’ lives, and on increasing the number and variety of opportunities audiences have to
experience music in their communities. Mr. Ma was born in Paris to Chinese parents who later
moved the family to New York. He began to study cello at the age of four, attended The Juilliard
School, and in 1976 graduated from Harvard University. He has received numerous awards,
among them the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the National Medal of Arts (2001), and the
Presidential Medal of Freedom (2010). In 2011 Mr. Ma was recognized as a Kennedy Center
Honoree. He has a very strong interest in the importance of culture in society and the ways in
which it can produce positive social change, and currently serves as a UN Messenger of Peace
and as a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts & the Humanities. Most recently, Mr.
Ma has joined the Aspen Institute Board of Trustees. He has performed for eight American
presidents, most recently at the invitation of President Obama on the occasion of the 56th
Inaugural Ceremony. Mr. Ma made his Philharmonic debut in 1978 during the Music in May
festival, performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto alongside Shlomo Mintz and Yefim Bronfman
conducted by Alexander Schneider; he most recently performed Osvaldo Golijov’s Azul, led by
Alan Gilbert, during the 2013–14 season’s Opening Gala Concert, and will have appeared with
Mr. Gilbert, the Silk Road Ensembles, and the New York Philharmonic, February 19–21, 2015.
Wu Tong, a National Class One Performer of the Central Nationalities Song and Dance Troupe,
began studying sheng and suona at age five with his father, and entered the primary school
affiliated to the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music in 1983. He graduated in 1994 from the
conservatory’s college division, where he trained in Chinese wind instruments. After meeting
Yo-Yo Ma in 2000 at Tanglewood, Wu became a founding member of the Silk Road Ensemble,
and has since participated in all of its recordings. He is also the founding vocalist of the Beijingbased metal band Lunhui (Again), the first rock band to appear on Chinese Central Television.
Wu has performed as soloist with an array orchestras including the London Sinfonietta, Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and Hong Kong Philharmonic; made his
operatic debut in 2008 playing two roles in Stewart Wallace’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter at San
Francisco Opera; and appeared on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman. Wu developed a
looping technology for a new electronic sheng, giving the Chinese traditional wind instrument a
new lease on life, and he wrote and arranged the sound track for Wong Kar Wai’s film Ashes of
Time Redux, featuring Mr. Ma; the film was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 and
was featured in that year’s New York Film Festival. Wu Tong’s 2011 solo album was nominated
for Taiwan’s Golden Melody Award for Best Crossover Album, and he was named the 2012
Musician of the Year by the China Institute in New York. His collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma on
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“Kuai Le,” featured in Yo-Yo Ma and Friends: Songs of Joy and Peace, won the Grammy Award
for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2010. In November 2013 Wu Tong joined Mr. Ma in the
World Premiere of Duo, a double concerto written specifically for them by Chinese composer
Zhao Lin. Wu Tong made his New York Philharmonic debut in the World Premiere of Bright
Sheng’s The Song of Dance and Tears, conducted by David Zinman in March 2003.
Lei Jia — coloratura soprano, Chinese vocalist, Chinese National Class-A performer, and
advocate and ambassador for the New National Style — is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the
China Conservatory of Music. Her folk, bel canto, and theatrical performances have earned her
numerous industry awards — including gold honors at the Golden Bell Awards and National
Young Singers TV Competition — and her songs have earned top honors at the People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) Arts & Literature Performance Awards, Five One Project honors from
the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, and three PLA Third-Class Merit
Awards. In 2008 Ms. Lei was featured on the album The Songs of the 56 Chinese Nationalities,
chosen as a national gift for dignitaries and diplomatic envoys during the 2008 Beijing Olympic
Games. In 2009 she performed The Ballad of Mulan in Japan and Russia, and received the
Outstanding Artist Award from Valery Gergiev. She has also performed the original folk opera
Ballad of the Canals, the opera Leaving Cambridge, the Northern Shaanxi Opera The Ladies of
Mizhi, the Men of Suide, the Qinghai flower drama Snow White Doves, and the historical opera
Qu Yuan. In 2011 she appeared in solo performances in Xiamen and Beijing to promote the
traditional culture of China’s ethnic groups. In 2014 Ms. Lei attended the fourth AsiaInfo Forum
for Arts and Literature Gala, sang the anthem and the song Dreams Everlasting at the second
Summer Youth Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, and sang Indigo Woad Blooms at the APEC
Arts & Literature Gala. Passionate about the welfare of her community and society, she has been
named China Fire Safety Promotions Ambassador, Youth Climate Ambassador, Ambassador for
the Care of Rural Migrant Children, and Ambassador for Caring for the Handicapped, and has
been given the individual award for Green China Public Welfare. This concert marks her New
York Philharmonic debut.
Aijieke player Gulinaer Yiming was born in Ürümchi, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous
Region. Gulinaer is a State First-Class artist and vice-concertmaster in The National Music
Ensemble of Xinjiang Art Theatre, and is known throughout China for her performances on the
traditional Uighur stringed instruments aijeke and hushtar, and for her work as a theatrical
musician. After graduating from Xinjiang Arts Institute in 1982, she became a member of the
Xinjiang Ensemble of Songs and Dances (the original name of The National Music Ensemble of
Xinjiang Art Theatre). That same year she also participated in the Ürümchi city–conducted
Autonomous Region’s National Instrumental Solo Competition — becoming the first musician
to earn praise on the hushtar since the re-discovery of the instrument — and was awarded first
prize at Jinan’s National Ethnic Instrumental Solo Competition. For more than 25 years she has
performed across China’s various regions, and has been awarded numerous first prizes not only
in Xinjiang, but also across China. Gulinaer Yiming has performed for factory and mine workers
as part of the Cultural Artistic Troupe for Countryside, and has contributed to spreading Uighur
music in China and worldwide. She has appeared in more than 20 countries, including in Chinese
embassies and in programs fostering communication between cultural groups around the world.
This concert marks her New York Philharmonic debut.
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The Starr International Foundation is the Presenting Sponsor of the Chinese New Year Gala.
***
Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural
Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the
New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the
New York State Legislature.
Tickets
Tickets for these concerts start at $55. Tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by
calling (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday; 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Saturday; and noon to 5:00 p.m. Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher
Hall Box Office. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on
Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour after performance time;
other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic’s
Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. [Ticket prices subject to change.]
For press tickets, call Lanore Carr in the New York Philharmonic Marketing and
Communications Department at (212) 875-5714, or e-mail her at [email protected].
For information about purchasing tables or tickets to the Gala (including pre-concert
reception, concert, and post-concert dinner with
the artists), please contact Jennifer Levine at
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[email protected], or 212-875-5757.
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New York Philharmonic
Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center
Chinese New Year Concert
Tuesday, February 24, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
Long Yu, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Wu Tong, sheng
Lei Jia*, vocalist
Gulinaer Yiming*, aijieke
LI Huanzhi
Hai-Deng YAN/Arr. Ye Zou
BORODIN
TRADITIONAL/ Arr. Ye Zou
TRADITIONAL
ZHAO Lin
Spring Festival Overture
Jin Diao for sheng and orchestra
Selection from Prince Igor
Fantasia themes by Mukamu for aijieke and orchestra
Chinese folk songs
Duo for cello, sheng, and orchestra (U.S. Premiere)
*denotes New York Philharmonic debut
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