Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra

Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra is a highly professional symphony orchestra developed from the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. The former of Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra is Shanghai Film Orchestra which was established in 1954 and Shanghai Broadcasting Orchestra which was established in 1950, which had both made great contributions to the development of Chinese film and broadcasting industry.

In 1996, Shanghai Film Orchestra and Shanghai Broadcasting Orchestra consolidated to form Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra (SBSO) and it made great progress and development leading by the former Music Director Yongyan Hu.

The name of the orchestra was officially changed to the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra in April of 2004 with famous conductor Zuohuang Chen as its Music Director，adopting the world’s most prevalent system of music seasons. In January of 2008, youthful conductor Liang Zhang has assumed the position of conductor of the orchestra.. In March of 2009, the famous conductor Muhai Tang has taken over as music director of the orchestra. With several years’ efforts, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra has now become one of the very best orchestras in China.

The Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra pays a great deal of attention to the improvement of artistic taste and skill. The SPO has been involved in collaborations with quite a few renowned musicians both from home and abroad, such as Xiaotong Huang, Yongyan Hu, Zuohuang Chen, MuHai Tang, Long Yu, Yinling Huang, Lan Shui, Lihua Tan, Liang Zhang, Guoyong Zhang, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Peter-Lukas Graf, Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Jessye Norman, Joe Hisaishi, M.G. Mola, Yo-yo Ma, Támás Vásáry, Dun Tan, Lang Lang, Yundi Li, Changyong Liao, Ying Huang, Zhong Xu, and Wei Xue spanning a number of exciting concerts.

Besides the symphony concerts, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra has made appearance in operas and ballets to extend its artistic range. The SPO has produced and also performed operas such as Tosca, Madame Butterfly, La Boheme, Tea, The Barber of Siville, and so on. Furthermore, the orchestra has also cooperated with several of the world’s top ballet troupes in Shanghai, such as the Royal Ballet, Ballet de L’Opera National de Paris, Ballet of Opemhaus, Ballet of Maryinsky Theatre, the Australian National Ballet, and the Royal Ballet of Flanders in productions of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Gisele, Nutcracker, Coppelia, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cinderella, and so on.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra has made great efforts to broaden and update the style and content for the orchestra performance so as to meet the diverse and growing cultural needs of the audience. The SPO has produced a large range of performance such as concert of Chinese & foreign movies, symphonic concert of traditional Chinese operas(Peking Opera of Tang Concubines, Yue Opera of The Dream of Red Mansions and etc),Multimedia Concert of Chinese Folk songs and so on. The variety of concerts shows the powerful strength of the SPO and also is well popular with the audience.

The Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra pays much attention to the composition of Chinese music, especially for symphony works. The SPO not only do the world premiere for the music of different generation of Chinese composers such as Qiming Lv、Shuya Xu、Ganru Ge、Yuan Liu、Qiang Wang、Yi Qin, but also hold several concerts such as Ode of the Red Flag—The Concert of Music Composed by Qiming Lv, The Songful Time River----The Concert of Music Composed by Zhun Huang for Films and TV series, The Martial Arts Trilogy----Tan Dun’s work concert and 2012 Remote Mountain and Nearby Sea—by Composer Jin Fuzai and etc.The SPO spare no effort to promote and spread abroad the Chinese music composition.

The Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra has attended many international music festivals and activities. In 2005, it went toSingapore, before touringTaiwanin 2006. Its concerts atChina’s National Grand Theater during the Week of the Organ in 2008 also helped it win extensive recognition. In 2009, the orchestra touredAustraliafor the Friendly Week of “Queensland-Shanghai”. In 2010, it successfully assisted touring concerts inSwitzerland,Slovakia, andHungary. The SPO won wide praise and was acclaimed as one of the Asian orchestras with the greatest potential.

Dedicated to symphony promotion, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra has organized a variety of activities including “Neighborhood Concert” and “School Concert”. The Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra is endeavoring to make itself an all-round and widely influential orchestra, offering further contributions to the development and prosperity ofChina’s symphony field.