Debra Li

    Debra_lidan@163.com

    THIS Sunday night will witness a watershed moment in the history of Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SSO) when young artists begin to take center stage.

    Conducting the opening concert of its new season will be the orchestra’s newly appointed artistic director Lin Daye. The 36-year-old Shandong native, who is also serving a teaching post at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, was a winner of the first prize at the 6th Sir Georg Solti International Conductors Competition in Frankfurt in 2012.

    Young but experienced, Lin has collaborated with many prestigious orchestras such as China Philharmonic Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and leading soloists from home and abroad, including Sarah Chang, Midori, Ryu Goto, Gary Graffman, Lang Lang and Wang Jian. Playing the piano before taking up his baton, Lin was a pupil of exiting SSO artistic director Christian Ehwald at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin.

    “Being young gives me the passion and energy to do my job, which may also compensate for less experience compared with my predecessors,” said Lin at a news briefing at SSO yesterday. Lin is the fourth and youngest artistic director of SSO since its founding.

    In the next three years, Lin said, SSO will invite more top soloists to collaborate with the orchestra and try to recruit more young talents.

    “It’s also important to serve the local citizens,” he said, adding that the orchestra will offer some 100 free concerts in the new season, up from 57 last season.

    The opening concert will also debut Zhang Jingting as SSO’s chief violinist. Zhang, 30, is the first woman to assume this position in SSO.

    Born in Keelung, Taiwan, Zhang studied under Jean-Jacques Kantorow and graduated from the National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance (CNSMDP) with all straight As. She later acquired a degree equivalent to a doctorate at the Munich Academy of Music and Theater. Before signing up with SSO, Zhang was appointed the principal second violinist at the Basel Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland last year. She has also been a guest performer at SSO concerts.

    Sunday’s program will open with symphonic poem “A Night Mooring Near Maple Bridge” by Chinese composer Xu Zhenmin, which serves as an appetizer. Inspired by a Tang Dynasty (618-906) poem by the same title, this melancholy beautiful piece depicts a lonely night on the boat. Pianist Zhang Haochen will also collaborate with SSO to present Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2,” a very popular piece widely performed and recorded and repeatedly used in the soundtrack of movies. Zhang, a pupil of Gary Graffman, won the gold medal at the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009.

    The latter half of the program will feature “Scheherazade,” a symphonic suite and the most popular work by Rimsky-Korsakov, which evokes a sense of fairy-tale adventure.

    The opening concert, along with 17 others in the “classical masters” series, provides the major allure for music fans.

    True to its name, the series will feature repertoires such as Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto No. 2,” Shostakovich’s “Violin Concerto No. 1,” “The Firebird” by Igor Stravinsky, Dvorak’s “Symphony No. 9,” Schumann’s “Piano Concerto,” and “The Piano Concerto in A Minor” by Edvard Grieg, just to name a few.

    Borodin’s “Symphony No. 2” might be not as famous, but many critics see it as an equivalent to Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 6.” Both are featured in the series. Fans will also hear works from beloved Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms as well as French composers Saint-Saens and Ravel. They will also enjoy Sibelius’ “Symphony No. 2,” Haydn’s “Cello Concerto No.1,” Elgar’s “Cello Concerto in E Minor” and Chinese composer Tan Dun’s “Hero” and Guan Xia’s folk music-style “A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix.”

    Then, there are “special presentation” series that feature individual composers or the works of Chinese contemporary composers as a group. A festival series will conjure up programs for special occasions like Christmas, New Year, Valentine’s Day and Children’s Day. Another series will feature chamber music and a “newbies’ series” will combine performance with lecturing to help audiences better appreciate the music.

    “Each concert in the new season consists of a concerto and a symphony to give a balance to the program,” said SSO spokesperson Liu Xiaoyan, adding that many guest performers have been signed up to collaborate.

    “These will include conductors Christian Ehwald, Vladimir Rylov, Mischa Damev, pianists Nelson Freier, Markus Schirmer, Zuo Zhang, Sun Yingdi, violinists Huang Mengla, Chen Xi, cellists Qin Liwei and Wang Jian, also sopranos Cui Zhengrong and Sun Xiuwei, baritone Liao Changyong, and suona player Liu Wenwen.”

    Liu said the orchestra has also signed up Renaud Capucon, one of the most sought after violinists of our age. The versatile musician plays on a Guarnerius, the “Panette” of 1737 that belonged to Isaac Stern.

    Signed up as regular guest performers, Chen Xi and Zuo Zhang will appear in quite a few SSO concerts.

    Hoping to lure more people into the concert hall, SSO offers half of their tickets at just 50 yuan (US$7.6) and 100 yuan. Students, soldiers, seniors above 60 and the disabled can enjoy a 50 percent discount while those who buy packages and SSO fan club members are also eligible to various discounts.