Yan Huichang is a Chinese music conductor of world renown. He has been with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra since June 1997. 

Yan Huichang was conferred the title of National Class One Conductor at the First Professional Appraisal of China in 1987. He has received many accolades from the governments of different lands in honour of his contribution to the development of culture, such as the ‘Cultural Medallion (Music)’ by the National Arts Council of Singapore in 2001, a Silver Bauhinia Star (SBS) by the Hong Kong SAR Government, the Overseas Award for Music at the 51st Literary and Art Works Awards in Taiwan, and Best Conductor Award at the Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music 2018 in Taiwan. He has also won conducting awards as conductor in the audio-video recordings of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, the China National Symphony of China and the Chorus of China National Opera House, the Chinese Orchestra and Chorus of the Xi’an Conservatory of Music, and the National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan. He is currently Director of Chinese National Orchestra Research Center of the He Luting Advanced Research Institute for Chinese Music of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and a supervisor on its doctoral degree programme, Honorary Fellow of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and Visiting Scholar in its School of Music, and Visiting Professor or Adjunct Professor in many conservatories, Council Member of Chinese Musicians’ Association and National Commission of China Federation of Literary and Arts Circles, Honorary Music Director of the Shaanxi Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra. Maestro Yan was appointed Music Director and Principal Guest Conductor of the National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan in 2013 with a tenure up to 2017. His contribution to nurturing conducting talents in Chinese music in Taiwan is widely recognized.

Yan has led the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra to set many milestones in Chinese music. He and the Orchestra have been frequently invited to perform in arts and music festivals in various parts of the world, with artistic accomplishments widely endorsed. He launched the Orchestra into omni-directional growth, started the system of commissioning new works, actively entered into mutually beneficial partnerships with crossover disciplines, and spearheaded instrumental reform. His visionary achievements are reflected in such innovative initiatives as the Professional Orchestra Internship Scheme jointly implemented by the HKCO and The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA); establishment of the world’s first Chinese orchestral academy, The HKCO Orchestral Academy; and organizing instrumental festivals which have achieved several Guinness World Records thanks to the keen participation of the people of Hong Kong. Yan created the Master of Music in Conducting for Chinese　Orchestras programme at the HKAPA. Also, he took the lead to organize international symposia and forums on Chinese music, and hosted the first ever ‘International Conducting Competition for Chinese Music’ in the world which was commended by Zhao Jiping, Chairman of the Chinese Musicians’ Association, as “a milestone in the history of development of Chinese music”.

After graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1983 under the tutorship of renowned conductor Xia Feiyun, and famous composers Hu Dengtiao and He Zhanhao, Yan was appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the China National Orchestra before he joined the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 1997. In addition to Chinese music conducting, Yan has also conducted Western symphony orchestras such as the China National Symphony Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra of Moscow and the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra. Yan is also actively engaged in composition, and many national awards with his works.

Currently the Resident Conductor of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. In 2011, Chew gave lectures for the HKAPA on Chinese orchestral conducting. In May 2010, he conducted the world premiere of four works by Hong Kong composers at the outdoor mass concert, ‘Cadenzas of Hong Kong’. In May 2008, Chew led the Orchestra’s young artists in a concert ‘Rising Stars of HKCO‘ which highlighted the young and energetic side of the Orchestra and put it in a refreshingly new light. In 2009, when the HKCO became a partner of the YouTube Symphony, Chew won rave response for his arrangement of Tan Dun’s Internet Symphony - Eroica for Chinese orchestra. Other notable occasions include the Opening Rally of the Hong Kong Dizi and Xiao Festival in 2005, in which more than 500 players performed his work, A Celebration of Dizi, under his baton, and the event achieved a new Guinness Book of Records as having the largest number of people playing the dizi at the same time. He was widely acclaimed when he guest conducted the Singapore Chinese Orchestra in the concert, ‘A Nanyang Musical Voyage II’, in March 2004.

Conducting aside, Chew is a renowned and award-winning composer as well. His works have characteristic features that demonstrate his Southeast Asian cultural heritage. He was second runner-up in the International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Compositions 2000 (HK) and winner of the Outstanding Composition Award in the Chinese Music Competition 2002 organized by the Council for Cultural Affairs in Taiwan. Chew received lessons in composition from Saw Boon Kiat of Malaysia and renowned composer Qian Zhaoxi of China before he went to the United States where he graduated from the Southeast Missouri State University with a double bachelor’s degree in cello performance and computer science in 1994. He went on to read a postgraduate course at the University of South Carolina, and was awarded a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting in 1996. On returning home to Malaysia, he began his career in Chinese music conducting, and was the Music Director of the Professional Cultural Center Orchestra (PCCO) of Malaysia.

Chew plays an active and diverse role that covers conducting, arrangement and instrumentation for its numerous concerts since he joined the Orchestra in June 2002. His involvement in the education and development work of the HKCO began when he became the conductor of the Hong Kong Junior Chinese Orchestra in 2003. Since then, he has also hosted many bilingual workshops to introduce Chinese music and Chinese instruments to audiences in Hong Kong and other parts of the world.

Zhang Ying is currently the Pipa Principal of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, a lecturer on the Master’s degree programme of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and is also teaching in The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Baptist University and The Education University of Hong Kong. She holds a Master’s degree from the China Conservatory of Music where she was trained under Zhao Yinan, Li Guixiang, Wu Junsheng, Ren Hong and Yang Jing. 

Zhang was the winner of the Silver Award for Pipa Specialism, Youth Section, at the 1st Chinese Instrumental Music Competition organized by the Ministry of Culture in 2002; and the First Prize in the Youth Section at the 3rd ‘Longyin Cup’ International Ethnic Instrument of China (Pipa) in 2004.

Zhang has given several solo recitals, including ‘Zhang Ying – Favourites in Pipa Music’ in October 2009 in Hong Kong; a solo recital, ‘Shining Lute –Zhang Ying in Concert’ in the Zhongshan Hall of Taipei in June 2011; and ‘Zhang Ying’s Solo Recital II – Plucking at Your Heart’s Strings’ in Hong Kong in late 2012. More recent performances include a solo recital ‘Pipa Stories – Zhang Ying’ in June 2014 and a solo concert at the Music Salon of the Zhongshan Culture and Art Centre, China, in September 2015. She was an Artist-in-Residence of RTHK Radio 4 in 2016 on which she gave prerecorded interviews and live broadcasts. In May the same year, she was invited by the Xinghai Concert Hall of Guangzhou to give a pipa concert. In 2019, she gave a piano and pipa duo recital with Linda Yim at the City Hall Theatre.

Zhang has released a solo album for pipa, Dancing in the Wind and a DVD which records her graduation concert in Beijing. Her thesis is On the Role of the Pipa in the Chinese Orchestra. A critic in the newspaper wrote, “(Zhang) showed a solid groundwork, performing with a confidence-inspiring steady hand that is, at the same time, not bereft of insight into the emotive side of the music. Marvelous control is contrasted with appropriate passions. An outstanding performance.”

Chen Yi-wei is currently Sheng Principal of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. He is a native of Taichung, Taiwan.

He was a multiple winner of sheng solo (junior and youth classes) in music competitions in Taiwan. He later graduated, respectively, from the National School of Arts (now the National Taiwan University of Arts) with a sheng major and the College of Human Ecology of the Shih Chien University in Taipei with a piano major. His teachers included many virtuosi in Chinese and Western music - Kuo Hsiu-Jung, Chang Ching-Lung, Zhu Daming and Tsai Pei-Chen.

Chen is a seasoned performing artist. In February 2013, he performed the Hong Kong premiere of Music for Gourd at the HKCO’s concert ‘Music About China VII’, which was part of the programme of the 41st Hong Kong Arts Festival. In March 2015, Chen performed the full score at the professional conducting course of the HKCO’s conducting master class. Later in November that year, he curated the first sheng ensemble concert for the HKCO, ‘Sheng Clusters’. Apart from performing the sheng himself, he also premiered several of his new compositions and arrangements to critical acclaim. In the HKCO concert ‘Music Styles of Virtuosi North and South’ held in April 2016, Chen gave the Hong Kong premiere of the Chinese orchestral arrangement of the sheng concerto, Solar Planet. He reprised the role of curator for the sheng ensemble concert, ‘Resonating Reeds – Shengs and Pipes from Around the World’ in October that year, and released several of his arrangements and original works on that occasion. In June 2017, he was a member of the sheng ensemble playing Rainbow at the concert, ‘The Lustrous Pearl - In Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Establishment of the HKSAR’. In March and September 2018, he performed the sheng concerto, Ambush on All Sides, with the HKCO at the concert ‘Liu Bang, Xiang Yu and the Terra Cotta Warrirors’, a programme of the 46th Hong Kong Arts Festival, as well as at the Singapore Tour. In October the same year, he was invited to perform the organ and sheng concerto, Reeds, at the Opening Ceremony of the WeiWuYing National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts.

Jonathan Scott enjoys a hugely varied performing career on a diverse spectrum of keyboard instruments with the aim of bringing great music to as wide an audience as possible. In addition to his career as pianist and organist, Jonathan is well known for his arrangements and transcriptions and is a specialist in the music for the art harmonium. Jonathan also has a busy international concert schedule with his pianist brother, Tom Scott, performing as Scott Brothers Duo. This season their performances include concerts across UK as well as Germany (Berlin State Opera, European Harmonium Festival), Spain (Madrid National Auditorium), France (Toulouse Organ Festival, Evreux Cathedral, Urrugne Organ Festival), Norway (Stavanger Concert Hall), Switzerland (Fribourg International Organ Festival), Latvia (Liepāja Organ Festival), Lithuania (St. Matthias Organ Festival), Taiwan (Taipei National Concert Hall, Kaohsiung Center for the Arts), South Korea (Lotte Concert
Hall, Seoul) and Singapore (Victoria Concert Hall).

Born in Manchester, Jonathan studied piano and organ at Chetham's School of Music before gaining a scholarship to attend the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). He continued his studies in USA and Holland, won the coveted Worshipful Company of Musicians WT Best Scholarship and gold medal, and is a Freeman of The City of London. Jonathan has been a member of the keyboard staff at RNCM since 2001 and is Associate Artist of The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester where he gives a series of popular lunchtime organ recitals which attract audiences approaching 1,000.

Jonathan’s recent performances have included numerous solo recitals as pianist and organist as well as appearances at the BBC proms, broadcasts on BBC Radio 2, 3 and ClassicFM, and a live recording of Copland’s Organ Symphony with BBC Philharmonic and John Wilson for Chandos Records.

Muhai Tang is an internationally renowned Chinese conductor who currently leads the China National Symphony Orchestra and is Artistic Director of Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Tianjin Symphony Orchestra, and Harbin Symphony Orchestra.

Tang Muhai was born in Shanghai, studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1973–1977 and then was hired by a school for teaching. In 1979, he won the scholarship and participated to a master class of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, Germany, for further studies. In 1983, at the invitation of Herbert Karajan, he conducted the Berliner Philharmonic, starting his career as international conductor from the peak of a world-famous symphony orchestra. Aside from the Berlin Philharmonic, Tang also conducted a number of other celebrated orchestras worldwide, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thanks to the upbringing by his father Xiaodan Tang, a great film director, Tang developed a special love for the opera art. He has had successful collaborations with the world's greatest opera houses, such as the Teatro alla Scala di Milano in Italy, the Zurich Opera House in Switzerland, the Hungarian State Opera House, the Frankfurt Opera House and the Munich State Opera House in Germany, and many others. In 2003 and 2008, he served as Chief Conductor of Finish National Opera. During the Milan Expo in 2015, he conducted a new version of Rossini's opera Othello at the Scala Theater in Milan, Italy. With those seven performances, he became the first Chinese conductor to perform at the theatre in its 237-year history.

He has successively served as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Belgian Royal Flemish Philharmonic, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the Lisbon Orchestra Gulbenkian, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, and the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also successively cooperated with more than one hundred eminent symphony and chamber orchestras as guest conductor, giving performances across the world. In recent years, he has led a number of major European symphony orchestras to give tour performances around the world, such as the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, and others.

Many famous musicians have had successful cooperation experiences with him, including Menuhin, Stern, Rostropovich, Rampal, Fournier, Argerich, Mutter, Perlman, Knight Giacomini, and others.

The records of Muhai Tang conducting so many European orchestras have been published around the world by a number of record companies including DG and Teldec. Two operas, Le Comte Ory and Othello, sung by Cecilia Bartoli, conducted by Muhai Tang and produced by Zurich Opera House in 2014, have been published by Deeca around the world.

As a prominent master of conducting, Tang has always been concerned about the development of the music cause in China. He has successively served as permanent conductor of the Central Philharmonic Orchestra, chief conductor and artistic director of the China National Symphony Orchestra, dean and professor of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, honorary professor of the Central Conservatory of Music, and artistic director of the Shanghai Concert Hall.

Tang has repeatedly led the orchestras of China to give tour performances around the world, and introduced first-class symphony orchestras overseas to the Chinese stage. Within two years from 2015 to 2016, the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra under his baton successfully performed the complete series of Beethoven’s and Mahler’s symphonies, which took the music world by storm. In 2016 and 2017, he led the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra and the Beijing Symphony Orchestra to pay visits to North America, receiving unanimous appraises from the cultural and political circles.

In addition, he has conducted the premieres of Debussy's Pelléas and Mélisande and Britten's The Turn of The Screw and the Rape of Lucretia in China. In recent years, he has also premiered several original Chinese national operas created by Guan Xia and other Chinese composers, such as Cai Wenji, A River of Spring Water, A Dream of Red Chamber, and others.

Bai Miao is a first-rate national musician and erhu soloist at the China National Opera & Dance Drama Theater. In 2008 he was appointed as “outstanding artist” by the Chinese cultural ministry. Bai Miao is the favorite student of Chinese huqin grandmaster Liu Mingyuan. He also masters the banhu, erhu, gaohu and zhonghu. In various opera and dance dramas he acted a solo artist. His technique and experience with stringed instruments are an asset for any concert. With his play he enthralls both critics and audience.

Lei Dianyun is a guzheng solist in the China National Opera and Dance Theatre’s Chinese Traditional Orchestra and Committee Member in the Youth Association of the Cultural Ministry. She is member of the Chinese Musicians Association, board member of the guzheng society and the China Nationalities Orchestra Society.

Lei Dianyun enthralls the audience with her art, be it in China or abroad. She has represented China in concerts in dozens of countries and regions in Europe, North and South America, Australia and Asia, as well as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Lei Dianyun has won the first prize at a competition for solists of traditional Chinese instruments at the Central Conservatory of music as well as the excellence award for young musicians at the National Guzheng Competition’s East Asia Cup. At the ninth international music festival “melodies of the orient” in Uzbekistan she has won the high prize for instrumentalists.

She collaborated in the recording Guzheng Masters and Masterpieces and wrote guzheng coursebooks like Beginner Guzheng Course, New and Trending Guzheng Performance or Classic and Trending Guzheng Performance and recorded the CDs for them. As a jury member she was invited to many guzheng competitions in China and abroad, e.g. to the “Wenhua” competition organized by the cultural ministry, to the “Golden Lusheng” competition for traditional Chinese instruments of the Chinese Musicians Association and to the 65th Hong Kong Music Festival.

At the 10th Asia Arts Festival 2018 she premiered Dianran Danqing, a piece for calligraphers and painters by Liu Wenjin. She also performed the guzheng composition Shanshui jian by Zhao Dongsheng which was commissioned for the great concert of traditional music “Golden Melody”.

Lei Dianyu’s clear, subtle and delicate guzheng style leaves a lasting impression. Thanks to her extensive artistic training and stage experience she has a deep understanding for traditional Chinese music and always aims at its perfection. For her natural and modest performances she is famous on stages in China and abroad.

Lin Gan is a young erhu player and first-rate national musician. She is solist and chief erhu player in the China National Opera and Dancer Theater’s Chinese Traditional Orchestra. She graduated from her erhu studies at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with a master’s degree. Lin Gan is member of the Chinese Musicians Association and board member of the Erhu Society at the Chinese Musicians Association. On top of that, she is member of the China Nationalities Orchestra Society and board member of the huqin expert committee at the China Nationalities Orchestra Society.

Lin Gan won the first prize at the “Tianhua Cup”, a competition for young erhu professionals. Recently, she performed in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan as well as in many countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America. She performed various solo concert, held lectures in all of China and published the album The Spirit of Autumn: Huqin Performances by Lin Gan. Her authentic style combines strength and tenderness and addresses the audience in a very direct manner.

Liu Xizhan is a young souna player in the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theatre’s Chinese Traditional Orchestra. He is member of the Chinese Musicians Association and the China Nationalities Orchestra Society. In 2008, he passed the admission exam for the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts and was accepted into the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater’s traditional Chinese orchestra in 2013. He developed his own nuanced and fluent suona style which is modest but elegant. On top of that he plays further traditional Chinese instruments such as Chuixi, Kaxi and Koudi.

Young Wenna is a young erhu-player and member of the Chinese Musicians Association, the Chinese Musicians Association Erhu Society and the China Nationalities Orchestra Society. Currently, she is soloist and main zhonghu-player in the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater’s Chinese Traditional Orchestra. On top of that, she is erhu-soloist in the Asian Orchestra consisting of Japanese, Korean and Chinese musicians.

At the age of seven she started to play erhu under the guidance of her father Yang Quanxi. In 1991 she joined the music school in the province of Anhui and trained under Tong Wenzhong. In 1994 she was accepted into the department for Chinese instruments at the China Conservatory of Music where she studied with Professor Zhan Zunlian. During that time, she also studied Banhu and Gaohu with Professor Shen Cheng. In 2011 she started her Master’s program at the Central Conservatory of Music where she studied with her mentor Xue Ke. During her Master studies she was also guided by the celebrated erhu-players Xu Jiangde and Deng Jiangdong. In 2014 she completed her studies with a Master’s degree.

After her Bachelor’s Degree in 1998 she was admitted into the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater and participated in many opera and dance-performances like The Girl with White Hair, Liu Hulan, Xiao Erhei Marries, Jiang Jie and Dou E. suffers a miscarriage of justice. She participated in important national performances such as the great traditional concerts The Years Like Song, Ten Famous Works of Chinese Music and the great concert Beijing Olympics Major Cultural Event.

Since the concert at the inauguration of Lee Myng-bak in 2008 which was very much appreciated by the former South Korean president she represents China when the famous erhu play Two Springs Reflect the Moon is to be performed.

2008 and 2009 she was invited to perform with the Asian Orchestra at the ninth and tenth Asia Arts Festival in Japan and Korea where she played several solo pieces for the erhu. In 2009 Yang Wenna participated in the third International Huqin Art Festival Concert in the Golden Hall of the Wiener Musikverein. In the same years the famous South Korean composer Park Bum-hoon invited her to play his erhu concert Fragrance in Japan.

In 2011 she was invited by the North Korean Ministry of Culture and sent by the Chinese Ministry of Culture as an advisor for the performance of the great opera Butterfly Lovers by the North Korean Sea of Blood Theatrical Troupe in Pyongyang. Both the North Korean and the Chinese embassy applauded her.

In February 2012 she premiered the erhu-piece Wine Song by Liu Wenjin at a concert assembling works by the two celebrated composers Liu Wenjin and Liu Xijin at the Beijing Poly Theater. She often is invited to play Liu Wenjin’s concerts in China and abroad, those include Great Wall Capriccio and Theater’s Fire and Colors.

In 2014 Yang Wenna was invited to North Korea once again. At the great Korean concert “The Silk Road” with an international cast she was the only soloist representing China. Her performance of the erhu-concert fragrance enjoyed great popularity.

In August 2013 she was invited by the cultural ministry to participate in the ninth international music festival “Melodies of the Orient” in Uzbekistan, where she won the second prize (the highest award given to instrumentalists.) In 2013 and 2014 she performed manifold erhu-solo concerts in Beijing.

She took part in many recordings for educational and performance purposes, e.g. Famous Erhu Works Accompaniment and Appreciation of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Publishing Corporation as well as: Wine Song: Yang Wenna Erhu Solo Concert published by Beijing Global Audio-Visual Publishing House.

Yang has performed in many countries and regions such as Canada, Russia, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Sweden, Finland, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan and has been cooperating with numerous international artists.

A critic described her work as follows: “Her performances in their rampant intensity sometimes remind us of horses, that career through the grasslands and in their originality sometimes of a clear lake at the bottom of a snowcapped mountain.” Music Life published an extensive interview with her titling hymn “Strings that Sing a Hymn to Life: An Interview with the Young Erhu-Musician Yang Wenna.” In media circles she is also known as an influential young erhu-instrumentalist.