The New York Times: An Oratorio About Shanghai’s Jews Opens in China at a Difficult Time
“Émigré,” a new oratorio about Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany for Shanghai in the late 1930s, begins with a song by two brothers, Josef and Otto, as their steamship approaches a Chinese harbor.
“Shanghai, beacon of light on a silent shore,” they sing. “Shanghai, answer these desperate cries.”
The emigration of thousands of Central European and Eastern European Jews to China in the late 1930s and early 1940s — and their survival of the Holocaust — is one of World War II’s most dramatic but little-known chapters.
In “Émigré,” a 90-minute oratorio that premiered this month in Shanghai and will come to the New York Philharmonic in February 2024, the stories of these refugees and their attempts to build new lives in war-torn China are front and center.
The New York Times: Review: A Chinese Concerto and a Romantic Classic Gaze Back
The New York Philharmonic, under Long Yu, played works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Qigang Chen and Rachmaninoff at the Rose Theater.
Limelight: Yo-Yo Ma and The Art of Living, Youth Music Culture Guangdong
Angus McPherson speaks with Yo-Yo Ma midway through the 2020 Youth Music Culture Guangdong in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, an event presented by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and organized jointly by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Xinghai Concert Hall, bringing together young musicians from all around the world. Ma is the event’s Artistic Director and a major drawcard for the participants, who have come to the city on the Pearl River in southern China from across the country as well as from the USA, Japan, Italy and Hungary – and even one musician from Australia.
Blogcritics: Pianist Haochen Zhang on NYC Lunar New Year Concert
Blogcritics
Jon Sobel
The New York Philharmonic will present a Lunar New Year concert at Lincoln Center on January 28, 2020. Conducted by Long Yu, the program will include pieces by Chinese and Chinese-American composers, but also music by South Korean composer Texu Kim – and by George Gershwin. In his debut with the New York Philharmonic, Chinese-American pianist Haochen Zhang will be the featured soloist on Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
Washington Post: Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Debuts at Wolf Trap
With new sounds in the beginning of the concert to the tried and true of the Western canon, the Shanghai Symphony’s debut at Wolf Trap was a wonderful snapshot of its musical history and tradition.
Chicago Tribune: Shanghai Symphony Brings 140-Year Tradition to America
When the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra makes its Chicago-area debut Aug. 16 at the Ravinia Festival, no one will be prouder of the occasion than its music director, Long Yu.
Gramophone: Long Yu Cover
Keep an eye out for Maestro Long Yu on the cover of April’s issue of Gramophone! Also featured in the article is Shanghai Orchestra Academy, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Youth Music Culture Guangdong.
The New York Times: Yo-Yo Ma and Wu Man with Long Yu Play With Cinematic Sweep
“A Happy Excursion” had a fitting companion in Tchaikovsky’s emotive “Pathétique” Symphony. The [New York] Philharmonic musicians can probably play this overprogrammed piece in their sleep; in the past, it has occasionally felt as if they were doing just that. But under Mr. Yu’s baton, they summoned surprising extremes, leavened occasionally with the brisk lightness of a Tchaikovsky ballet.