As one of most internationally renowned Chinese conductors, Long Yu is Music Director of the China Philharmonic and the Guangzhou Symphony. He has guest conducted in such countries as Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Portugal, Slovakia, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Macao. Among the orchestras and opera companies he has conducted are Hamburg State Opera, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig, the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, Budapest Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, Le Théâtre de Nice, and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
Long Yu has enjoyed successful collaborations with many of the most world-renowned musicians, including Mikhail Pletnev, Frank Peter Zimmerman, Matt Haimovitz, Charles Neidich and Tiziana Fabbricini. While displaying special strength in opera productions such as La Traviata, Turandot, Aida, Carmen, Lucia di Lammermoor, Romeo and Juliet, and Don Pasquale, Mr. Yu has, over the years, developed a wide-ranging repertoire. He has also produced operas for The Urban Council of Hong Kong for five successive years.
Long Yu was born in 1964 into a family of musicians in Shanghai. Early childhood music education from his grandfather Ding Shande, a composer of great renown, prepared him for the rigorous formal music education he was to receive at Shanghai Conservatory and then at the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin.
Long Yu’s professional experience and achievements in China are twofold, both administrative and artistic. In 1992, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Central Opera Theatre in Beijing. In the same year, he was involved in the initiation of the Beijing New Year’s concert and served as its conductor for three consecutive years. In 1998, he led the creation of the Beijing Music Festival and was its Founding Artistic Director - this Festival has now become one of the most significant music events in China and in the world.
The year 2000 witnessed another milestone in Long Yu’s professional career, when he became Founding Music Director of the China Philharmonic Orchestra. Since its inception, this orchestra has performed a regular subscription season in Beijing, as well as undertaking special projects for the Beijing Music Festival.
Recent highlights for Long Yu include concerts with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Norrkoping Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Verona Opera, Singapore Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, the National Opera in Warsaw and the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire.
He undertook a major tour of North America and Europe with the China Philharmonic in Spring 2005, and made debuts with the Vancouver Symphony, the Bamberg Symphony and the Orchestre Régional de Cannes in the 2005/2006 season.
Other achievements include the NAXOS production of Korngold’s Violin Concerto and Ding Shande’s Long March Symphony by the Slovak Radio Orchestra. In November 2000, under his baton, the China Philharmonic Orchestra recorded two CDs on the Deutsche Gramophon label: Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture and Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G Minor (adapted by Arnold Schoenberg) on one, and highlights of Chinese symphonic music on the other.
Long Yu received the 2002 Montblanc Arts Patronage Award from the Montblanc Cultural Foundation, and in 2003 was awarded Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (The Honor of Chevalier of French Art and Culture) from the Government of France.
