“Violist Ba Tong is no stranger to performing on stage. But when the Shanghai Conservatory of Music graduate was rehearsing for a Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra concert in May as an apprentice, her excitement was palpable,” writes Alexis Alrich in Tuesday’s (8/4) South China Morning Post (Hong Kong). Ba, 28, “is among the first intakes of the newly established Shanghai Orchestra Academy…. As part of either [the Academy’s] two-year certificate or three-year MFA course, students … serve apprenticeships in world-renowned orchestras.… Last year as a part of its Global Academy educational programme, the New York Philharmonic launched a four-year ‘residency partnership’ with the SOA…. Last month, young SOA musicians were able to perform alongside the orchestra’s music director and conductor, Alan Gilbert, at the Shanghai Symphony Hall.” Other orchestras in the program include the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and in 2015-16, the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra. Says Matthew VanBesien, president of the New York Philharmonic, “China is arguably the most important classical music market right now. There has been an explosion of classical music there…. China is part of the global fabric of the music world. It’s no longer Europe-centric.’ ”
Posted August 5, 2015
Pictured: Max Zeugner, acting associate principal bass with the New York Philharmonic, gives a lesson in Shanghai. Photo by Chris Lee
