The Performers

LU WEI violin

Lu Wei is the Concertmaster of Deutsches Symphony Orchester Berlin, Guest Concertmaster of Berliner Philharmoniker, and the first violinist selected to join the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation.

Lu Wei began learning the violin with his father at age three, later entering the primary-middle school attached to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing where he studied with Wang Zhilong and Lin Yaoji.

Lu Wei has been praised by such worldfamous masters as Isaac Stern, Ruggiero Ricci, Itzhak Perlman, Salvatore Accardo, Igor Oistrakh, Ida Haendel, Uto Ugi, Henry Meyer and Yuri Bashmet. In 1997, after attending his performance in Beijing, Anne-Sophie Mutter sponsored Lu Wei for further studies through her foundation. After obtaining his scholarship, he studied with Franco Gulli in Indiana Bloomington, United States, and Herman Krebbers in Amsterdam, Holland, and Ingolf Turban in the Stuttgart Conservatory of Music.

Lu Wei has held concerts and recitals in the North and South Americas, Europe, Australia and Asia, performing as soloist with many world-class orchestras such

as the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scotland National Orchestra, Nuernberg Opera House, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra and China Philharmonic. He is one of few violinists in the world who has performed as soloist in concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Musikverein Wien, Philharmonie Berlin and Sydney Opera House.

Lu Wei is the only Chinese violinist who became Guest Concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic. Since 2009, he has been giving masterclasses for solo and chamber music in the Great Wall International Music Festival in Beijing and other festivals. From 2011, he played as a chamber music partner and Concertmaster of Mutter’s Virtuosi with Anne-Sophie Mutter, touring the world.

Lu Wei performs on the Italian violin “Joseph Rocca” 1843, kindly sponsored by Mr Bai Peng.

HU SHENGNAN percussion

Born in Jiangsu, China, Hu Shengnan showed an extraordinary talent in music in her early childhood. She began to play the piano at the age of five and later, the xylophone. In 1996, Hu entered the music school affiliated to the Central Music Academy of China in Beijing, where she majored in percussion instruments with Zhao Ji. In 2002, Hu enrolled in the China Central Academy of Music and in the same year, entered Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz and studied with Gerald Fromme and Ulrike Stadler. Hu was awarded the highest scholarship by the Austrian government and hailed to be one of the most promising students and percussionists of the Universität. In 2007, Hu enrolled in Hochschule fuer Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin. She studied with Li Biao, Rainer Seegers and Franz Schindlbeck, and graduated with a Performing Arts degree together with scholarship awarded by Berlin National Culture Foundation.

Hu received many awards including the coveted Gold Prize at Hummel International Percussion Instrument Competition in Munich, Silver Prize and Best Timpanist at the International Percussion Instrument Competition in Bulgaria.

Hu Shengnan can play over two hundred different percussion instruments, whether keyboard percussion instruments or drums from any part of the world. Hu’s unique stage style and interpretations have always impressed the audience. She has played with orchestras around the world, including in Europe and China. She is frequently invited to give recitals at music festivals such as BAD KISSINGEN and The Best of Berlin, Kassel Music Festival, Young Euro Classic Festival Berlin, Beijing Modern Music Festival, Linz International Percussion Music Festival and Leoben Music Festival. In 2008, Hu was invited to play at the Closing Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics 2008. She is also the founder and Artistic Director of “Cycle Percussion Berlin” 2011.

LAN SHUI conductor

Lan Shui is renowned for his abilities as an orchestral builder and for his passion in commissioning, premiering and recording new works by leading Asian composers. As Music Director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra since 1997, American Record Review noted that Shui has “turned a good regional orchestra into a world-class ensemble that plays its heart out at every concert”. Together they have made several acclaimed tours to Europe, Asia and the United States and appeared for the first time at the BBC Proms in September 2014.

Lan Shui held the position of Chief Conductor of the Copenhagen Phil from 2007 to 2015, and from 2016 he became their Conductor Laureate. He recently concluded a four-year period as Artistic Advisor of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. As a guest conductor, Shui has worked with many orchestras. In the United States he has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Baltimore and Detroit symphony orchestras. In Europe he has

performed with Deutsches Symphonie- Orchester Berlin, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Gothenburg Symphony, Tampere Philharmonic and Orchestre National de Lille. In Asia he has conducted the Hong Kong, Malaysian and Japan Philharmonic orchestras and maintains a close relationship with the China Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony.

Since 1998 Shui has recorded over 20 CDs for BIS – including a Rachmaninov series, a “Seascapes” disc and the first-ever complete cycle of Tcherepnin’s symphonies with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra – and also music by Arnold and Hindemith with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, which has received two Grammy nominations.

Lan Shui is the recipient of several international awards from the Beijing Arts Festival and the New York Tcherepnin Society, the 37th Besançon Conductors’ Competition in France and Boston

University (Distinguished Alumni Award) as well as the Cultural Medallion – Singapore’s highest accolade in the arts.

Born in Hangzhou, China, Shui studied composition at the Shanghai Conservatory and graduated from the Beijing Central Conservatory. He continued his graduate studies at Boston University while at the same time working closely with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Festival. He has worked together with David Zinman as Conducting Affiliate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as Associate Conductor to Neeme Järvi at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and with Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic and Pierre Boulez at The Cleveland Orchestra.

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Since its founding in 1979, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) has been Singapore’s flagship orchestra, touching lives through classical music and providing the heartbeat of the cultural scene in the cosmopolitan city-state. In addition to its subscription series concerts, the orchestra is well-loved for its outdoor and community appearances, and its significant role educating the young people of Singapore. The SSO has also earned an international reputation for its orchestral virtuosity, having garnered sterling reviews for its overseas tours and many successful recordings.

The SSO makes its performing home at the 1,800-seat state-of-the-art Esplanade

Concert Hall. More intimate works and all outreach and community performances take place at the 673-seat Victoria Concert Hall, the home of the SSO. The orchestra performs 100 concerts a year, and its versatile repertoire spans all-time favourites and orchestral masterpieces to exciting cutting-edge premieres. Bridging the musical traditions of East and West, Singaporean and Asian musicians and composers are regularly showcased in the concert season. This has been a core of the SSO’s programming philosophy from the very beginning under Choo Hoey, who was Music Director from 1979 to 1996.

Since Lan Shui assumed the position of Music Director in 1997, the SSO has

performed in Europe, Asia and the United States. In May 2016 the SSO was invited to perform at the Dresden Music Festival and the Prague Spring International Music Festival. This successful five‐city tour of Germany and Prague also included the SSO’s return to the Berlin Philharmonie after six years. In 2014 the SSO’s debut at the 120th BBC Proms in London received critical acclaim in the major UK newspapers The Guardian and Telegraph. The SSO has also performed in China on multiple occasions.

Notable SSO releases under BIS include a Rachmaninoff series, a “Seascapes” album, two Debussy discs “La Mer” and “Jeux”, and the first-ever cycle of Tcherepnin’s piano concertos

and symphonies. The SSO has also collaborated with such great artists as Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Neeme Järvi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Diana Damrau, Martha Argerich, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Janine Jansen, Leonidas Kavakos and Gil Shaham.

The SSO is part of the Singapore Symphony Group, which also manages the Singapore Symphony Choruses, and the Singapore National Youth Orchestra. The mission of the Group is to create memorable shared experiences with music. Through the SSO and its affiliated performing groups, we spread the love for music, nurture talent and enrich Singapore’s diverse communities.