The Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra Performed Side by Side Tuesday Evening in a Special Chinese New Year's Concert

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, January 29, 2019, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO) joined the Philadelphia Orchestra for a special Chinese New Year's concert at the Kimmel Performing Arts Center in Philadelphia. Liang Zhang, Resident Conductor of the SPO, shared the podium with Kensho Watanabe, Assistant Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, leading members of both orchestras in a side-by-side concert featuring the world premiere of the newly revised version of Peng-Peng Gong's Symphony No. 10 (Peking Fantasy), a work co-commissioned by the two orchestras.

To launch this first side-by-side New Year's Concert in Philadelphia, the two orchestras jointly proposed a distinctive East-meets-West program. Under the baton of Liang Zhang, the joint orchestra opened the concert with Li Huanzhi's iconic Spring Festival Overture, followed by two showpieces, Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol and Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien. In the second half of the concert, Maestro Watanabe conducted the world premiere of Peng-Peng Gong's Symphony No. 10 (Peking Fantasy).

Peng-Peng Gong's Symphony No. 10 is inspired by the artistic power of Peking Opera, the crowning heritage of traditional Chinese performance art, and is scored for a large orchestra of over 100 players. The work incorporates numerous styles to capture different emotions and atmospheres, and draws its material from Peking Opera staples such as The Chancellor and the Advisor (lit. Cao Cao and Yang Xiu), In Pursuit of the General (lit. Xiao He Chasing Han Xin in a Night Ride), The Drunken Beauty and Farewell My Concubine. On April 28, 2018, the work was premiered at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center as part of the 35th Shanghai Spring International Music Festival. Members of the Philadelphia Orchestra participated in the performance under the direction of Liang Zhang. The composer revised the work for its international premiere at the Chinese New Year's concert last night.

A distinguished list of VIPs were in attendance at last night's pre-concert reception. Remarks were delivered by Matías Tarnopolsky, President and CEO, Philadelphia Orchestra; Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney; Teng Junjie, Chairman of Supervisory Board, Shanghai Media Group; Walter Douglas, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State; and Ambassador Huang Ping, Consul General of the People's Republic of China in New York.

An Historic East-West Collaboration

The Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra developed out of the Shanghai Film and Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestras, taking its current name in 2014. In January of 2018, conductor Yi Zhang became the new Artistic Director of the orchestra. The SPO has been involved in collaborations with many renowned musicians both from home and abroad, and is known for specializing in Chinese symphonic works of different generations of Chinese composers with a special interest in promoting Chinese music abroad. Along with attendance at many international music festivals, the orchestras have toured extensively with trips to  Australia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Hungary, Korea, Kazakhstan, Thailand and Japan. The Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, part of the Shanghai Media Group's Performing Arts Division, is a long-term strategic partner of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Shanghai Oriental Art Center and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Philadelphia and SPO ensembles have worked together since 2016 to advance cultural exchange between the United States and the People's Republic of China. 

Founded in 1900, The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, renowned for its distinctive sound. Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the United States.

The Philadelphia Orchestra was the first American orchestra to make a historic visit and perform in the People's Republic of China in 1973. In May-June 2013 the Orchestra triumphantly returned for its Residency and Fortieth Anniversary Tour of China—with over 50 activities in 15 days. In recent years, it pays regular visits to Shanghai and has established strategic partnerships with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra. The two orchestras' joint performance of the co-commissioned work on this special occasion also to celebrates the 40^th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-US diplomatic ties

At the press reception prior to the concert, The Philadelphia Orchestra announced plans to return to China May 16-28, 2019 for a tour celebrating 40 years of U.S.-China Diplomatic Relations. The tour will include performances in 5 cities, residency activities encouraging a people-to-people exchange of culture and ideas, as well as a concert at the first-ever China International Music Competition.

About the composer
Born in 1992, Chinese composer and pianist Peng-Peng Gong (龚天鹏) has completed ten symphonies as of 2018 and is currently in his fourth season as Resident Composer for the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra after graduating from the Juilliard School in 2014. He began his professional life as a piano wunderkind while studying at The Juilliard School's Pre-College Division with pianist Yoheved Kaplinsky and composer Andrew Thomas after winning national competitions in China. He went on to study in Juilliard's composition department with Samuel Adler, won eight consecutive ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, and was appointed Composer-in-Residence for the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra in 2014, producing new works for every season to popular and critical acclaim. He made his film-scoring debut with Someone to Talk To (2015), the screen adaptation of Liu Zhenyun's renowned story.

Following the performance, composer Peng-Peng Gong welcomed Shang Changrong, the legendary Peking Opera singer from China, to the stage to share some inspirational remarks about how music has helped to forge a long-lasting friendship between the two countries. He saluted the musicians warmly and said, "May this partnership endure forever!"

About the conductor
Conductor Liang Zhang (b.1979) is currently the Deputy Director and Chief Conductor for the Shanghai Philharmonic. As an active performer, he was a long-time pianist for flutist Peter Lukas Graf, and concertized extensively in Germany, Austria, France, Mexico, Spain, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the PRC. He became Principal Conductor for the Shanghai Opera in 2003, and in 2009 he was appointed to his position with the Shanghai Philharmonic, leading the orchestra's first performance at the Beijing National Theatre. Zhang has conducted the Vienna Ambassade Orchestra, the Vienna Webern Orchestra, the Czech National Symphony, the Macao Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony, the Shanghai Philharmonic, the Guangzhou Symphony, and the orchestras of the Beijing Central and Shanghai Operas, He is especially noted for his interpretations of works from the Late Austro-German Romantic period. He is currently on the conducting faculty at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the East China University of Political Science and Law.

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SOURCE Shanghai Media Group