On March 16, the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra announced in Beijing that conductors Sun Yifan and Lai Jiajing officially joined the orchestra as assistant conductors of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra.
Sun Yifan Lai Jiajing
Earlier this month, Lai jiajing just conducted the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, presenting two season concerts with neoclassical themes. Last week, Sun Yifan assisted music director Lu Jia in rehearsing, performing and recording Bruckner's Ninth Symphony. This also marks the imminent official appointment of the two conductors, and their work in the orchestra has begun.
▲ Lai Jiajing conducted the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra in March 2022
▲ Sun Yifan took charge of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra in October 2021
As two outstanding conductors of China's new generation, Lai Jiajing and Sun Yifan are well-known teachers, not only have a solid and outstanding command and music foundation, but also have rich international education and experience. Sun Yifan has studied with famous conductors Zhang Guoyong, Lin Daye and Christian Ayward at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Hans Eisler Conservatory in Berlin, and has also won important awards such as the Piano Gold Medal of the Asian Youth Music Competition and the Champion of the Bucharest International Conducting Competition. As a double master's degree from the Central Conservatory of Music and the Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, Lai Jiajing studied with famous conductors such as Chen Lin, Mark Gibson, and P.V. Dobrovsky, and won awards in conducting competitions such as OFUSAM in Mexico. Both conductors have successfully cooperated with the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra for many times, not only with their wonderful performances by the audience and the media, but also because of their high degree of tacit understanding and co-production with the orchestra in all aspects, recognized and loved by the orchestra and all its performers, and made the orchestra and the two conductors finally decide to get acquainted with each other.
As members of the Orchestra Conductor Team, they will be fully involved in all artistic matters, from repertoire arrangement, artistic planning to orchestra operation, with the support of the administrative team and the leadership of Music Director Lu Jia. In addition to assisting Lu Jia and many guest conductors in rehearsing and preparing for the performances of the season, they will also play an important role in the commissioning of works, the popularization of art, and the construction of orchestras. At the same time, they will also lead the orchestra independently to present a wonderful season performance. In addition, in order to welcome the opening of the Beijing City Sub-Center Theater next year, the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra is also intensively carrying out various preparations, and the expansion of personnel and performances is also being planned and promoted in an orderly manner, and the joining of the two conductors at this moment will also make the orchestra more fully prepared for this, and make the art construction and development in the next few years have a more sufficient power reserve.
▲ National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra
Regarding the joining of the two new generation assistant conductors, Lu Jia, music director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, said: "Sun Yifan and Lai Jiajing are rare young conductors, they all have the characteristics of comprehensive talent, broad vision and great potential, and they are also very representative of China's new generation of conductors. Their arrival was a deliberate but confident decision made by me and the orchestra after careful selection. Ren Xiaolong, general manager of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, said: "The relationship between the two assistant conductors and the orchestra stems from the mutual appreciation, trust and tacit understanding reached between the orchestra and them in their long-term and many cooperations, and their arrival also coincides with the important moment of Director Lu Jia's ten years of arrival in the orchestra, and will also be a new milestone on the road of the orchestra's artistic development and construction." On behalf of all the musicians of the orchestra, Li Zhe, the concerto principal, welcomed the arrival of the two conductors and expressed his belief that "they will not only inject fresh new impetus into the artistic development and construction of the orchestra, but also represent the continuous growth and refinement based on the surging youth vitality, which will forever overflow in the genes of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra." ”
Description: National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra
Performance Photo: Niu Xiaobei
Edit: Gao Jian