Lü Jia, the internationally renowned Chinese conductor, currently the Artistic Director of Music of the National Centre for the Performing Arts and the Music Director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, led the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, and worked with the outstanding young pianist Zhang Haochen and the famous Austrian soprano singer Song Yuanming to perform the famous aria "Love's Death" from Wagner's mature work "Tristan and Iseult", as well as the "Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major" that highlights Liszt's brilliant achievements in piano art. In addition, the second half of the performance will also present Scriabin's pinnacle of orchestral music "Poem of Ecstasy" and the orchestral work "Gardening" by young composer Yao Chen.
 
Conductor: Lü Jia
Artistic Director of Music of the National Centre for the Performing Arts and the Music Director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, he was formerly the Music Director of the Teatro Verona in Italy, the Artistic Director of the Santa Cruz Tenerife Symphony Orchestra in Spain, and the Music Director of the Macau Orchestra. He has also served as the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Teatro Trieste in Italy, the Florence Symphony Orchestra, the Lazio Chamber Orchestra in Rome, and the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden.
Lu Jia has conducted nearly 2,000 operas and concerts in Europe and America. He has collaborated with world-renowned opera houses and symphony orchestras, including La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Rome Santa Cecilia Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham City Symphony Orchestra, Liverpool Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Lyon National Orchestra, etc. Opera
occupies a special place in Lu Jia's conducting career. He has conducted more than 50 operas. As the first Asian conductor to serve as director of the Italian National Opera, he was praised by Italian music critics as "a conductor who understands Italian opera better than the Italians." In 1989, he won the first prize in the Antonio Planpedrodi International Conducting Competition. In 1998, his opera "La Traviata" was rated as the best interpretation by the Macerata Opera Festival. In 2007, Italian President Napolitano awarded him the "President's Cup"; in the same year, his conducting of "The Thief Magpie" at the Rossini Opera Festival was named the "Best Opera" of the year.
 
Piano Solo: Zhang Haochen
Since becoming the first Asian to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, Zhang Haochen has won the audience's praise for his outstanding imagination, gorgeous skills and profound musical expression. In 2022, he published a collection of music essays "Beyond Performance".
In 2023, Zhang Haochen's latest album "Liszt: Twelve Transcendental Etudes" won the "Gramophone" monthly best record and became the cover character of "International Piano".
In recent years, Zhang Haochen has cooperated with famous orchestras such as the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin State Opera Orchestra, the Dresden State Orchestra, the La Scala Orchestra, and the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra.
In the 2024-25 season, Zhang Haochen's performances include a reunion with the Munich Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, a solo debut at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, and as a resident artist of the NCPA season, playing all the piano concertos of Liszt and Rachmaninov.
Zhang Haochen studied with the famous piano educator Dan Zhaoyi in his early years, and later studied with pianist Graffman.
 
Soprano: Song Yuanming
Austrian soprano singer Song Yuanming is a professor and doctoral supervisor in the vocal department of the Central Conservatory of Music. She graduated with a double master's degree in "Opera and Operetta" and "Art Song and Oratorio" from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where she studied under Professor Franz Lukasovsky and obtained the highest degree of performance in the vocal department as an "outstanding artist" above the master's degree. At the same time, she also graduated with honors from the Brenner Academy of Music in Vienna with a master's degree in flute performance.
Song Yuanming has won the first prize of the 48th Toulouse International Vocal Competition in France, the "Best Soprano" Award of the 13th Tagliavini International Vocal Competition in Austria, the first prize and the "Best Singer" double award of the 44th Dvorak International Vocal Competition in the Czech Republic, etc. She has performed on top stages including the Salzburg International Art Festival, the Royal Opera House of Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the Glass Hall of the Golden Hall, the Graz Opera House in Austria, the Seoul Arts Center, the Karlovy Vary Opera House in the Czech Republic, the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, the Buenos Aires Theater, the Santiago Theater in Chile, and the Beijing National Center for the Performing Arts, and has had impressive collaborations with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and famous conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Gergiev, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. On the opera stage, Song Yuanming starred in operas such as Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, The Bat, Turandot, The Artist's Life, Xiangzi the Camel, Sunrise, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Don Pasquale, The Merry Widow, L'elisir d'amore, and Song of Youth. In 2024, Song Yuanming sang Wagner's opera The Flying Dutchman produced by the National Grand Theater for the first time, playing the heroine Senta. In September 2024, Song Yuanming was invited to perform an art song concert at the Schoenberg Art Center in Vienna. Song Yuanming
once performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony "Chorus" as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the live performance was recorded and released by DG.
 
NCPA Orchestra
Music Director: Lü Jia | Conductor Laureate: Chen Zuohuang
NCPA Orchestra has always been committed to the highest quality music performance and dissemination with surging enthusiasm and innovative spirit, unremitting dedication and refined character. With its outstanding international vision, cultural heritage and artistic creativity, they have become a top orchestra with lofty artistic prestige and an outstanding leader in the development of music life in Beijing and China.
The orchestra presents more than 100 wonderful performances in a 48-week season every year, and joins hands with master artists from all over the world to create countless unforgettable peak scenes for nearly 200,000 audiences. They have made epoch-making contributions to the development of opera art in China and created a new height for Chinese opera art.
From international commissions to supporting young composers, they have promoted the birth of many world-class excellent new works and promoted the development of contemporary music and the exchange of Chinese and Western music. The recordings of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Egmont conducted by Lü Jia, and Wagner's Ring Without Words adapted by Lorin Maazel have been widely praised and won many awards. The performance and recording of Bruckner's complete symphony, which took three years and was completed in 2024, is a historic event in the development of the orchestra and the promotion and introduction of Bruckner in China.
They also actively participate in art education to integrate the beauty of music into life and make it accessible. In 2024, the Beijing Youth Symphony Orchestra, which is managed and operated by the orchestra, went to New York to participate in the "World Youth Orchestra Week" and performed at Carnegie Hall. Since 2020, the orchestra has launched online performances, with an average of nearly 30 million views per performance. They also completed two tours in China in 2021 and 2023; appeared in the opening film of the World Economic Forum in Davos, and took the lead in the performance and recording of the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. As cultural ambassadors, they have toured Europe, America and Asia many times. They are the first Chinese orchestra to enter the official performance season of Carnegie Hall in New York, Chicago Symphony Center, Davis Hall in San Francisco and Montreal Symphony Hall.
Lu Jia succeeded Chen Zuohuang as chief conductor in 2012 and served as music director in 2017. The current assistant conductor of the orchestra is Lai Jiajing.