Lü Jia Lü Jia

Born into a musical family in Shanghai, Lü Jia began studying piano and cello from his parents at a very young age. He later studied conducting at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Under the instruction of renowned conductor Ms. Zheng Xiaoying, he graduated at the top of his class one year early, in 1987. Two years later, he went to Germany’s Berlin University of the Arts, where he continued his studies under Professors Hans-Martin Rabenstein and Robert Wolf.

Lü Jia was the first Chinese conductor ever to lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and to record the complete works of German composer Felix Mendelssohn. His symphonic performances, especially his interpretations of German works and those of the French Impressionists, have been praised as exemplars of "an extremely convincing musical interpretation" and "touching musical language and perfect conducting technique”.

Opera has always played a special role in Lü Jia’s career. In Italy and Germany, homelands of the European opera tradition, he has directed nearly fifty operas. As the first Asian conductor to serve as director of a nationally-recognized opera company in Italy, he was praised by one Italian music critic as “a conductor who understands Italian opera even better than Italians do”. In September of 1989, he won First Prize and the Judges’ Prize in the “Antonio Perdrotti” International Conducting Competition in Italy, his entrée into a conducting career. In 1998, he conducted Giuseppe Verdi’s classic opera La Traviata, which was recognized as the best conducting performance in Italy’s Macerata Opera Festival. In 2005, in recognition of Lü Jia’s prominent contribution to Italy’s music culture, he was awarded the President's Cup by the President of the Italian Public, Giorgio Napolitano. In 2008, the La Gazza Ladra conducted by Lü Jia was named Best Opera of the Year in the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in Italy.

At present, Mr. Lü is the Artistic Director of the Symphony Orchestra of Tenerife in Spain, the Opera Director of the China National Opera House, as well as the Honorary Dean of Dalian Arts College. Since September of 2008, he is the Musical Director and Principal Conductor of the Macao Orchestra.