One of the most internationally renowned Chinese conductors, LONG YU is Music Director of the China Philharmonic and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestras. In addition, he is a co-founder and the Artistic Director of the Beijing Music Festival.

Long Yu has appeared with a prestigious list of orchestras and opera companies outside China, including the Bamberg Symphony, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Hamburg State Opera, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. In North America, he has conducted the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Washington National Symphony, and the Vancouver Symphony. He has also enjoyed successful collaborations with some of the world’s most renowned soloists, including Mikhail Pletnev, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Lang Lang, and Jian Wang.

Long Yu was born in 1964 into a family of musicians in Shanghai. Musical education in his early childhood came from his grandfather Ding Shande, a composer of great renown, and he later studied at the Shanghai Conservatory and the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin.

Long Yu’s career has included both artistic and administrative appointments. In 1992, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Central Opera Theatre in Beijing, and in the same year, he was involved in the planning of the first Beijing New Year’s concert and served as its conductor for three consecutive years. He also produced operas for the Urban Council of Hong Kong for five successive 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.

In spring 2005, Long Yu undertook a major tour of North America and Europe with the China Philharmonic, and in January 2006 they took part in a 24-hour concert of Mozart’s music from Beijing’s “Forbidden City” which was broadcast worldwide to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. In July 2006 Long Yu and the China Philharmonic appeared with soloists Lang Lang and Frank Peter Zimmermann at the Bad Kissingen Festival.

Long Yu has made a number of recordings, including a disc for Naxos of Korngold’s Violin Concerto and Ding Shande’s Long March Symphony with the Slovak Radio Orchestra. In November 2000, under his baton the China Philharmonic Orchestra recorded two CDs on the Deutsche Grammophon label of western and Chinese symphonic music. In 2006 he recorded the Yellow River Concerto with Lang Lang and the China Philharmonic, also for Deutsche Grammophon.

Engagements in the 2007/08 season included visits to the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, where he conducted Turandot. 2007 also saw the 10th anniversary of the Beijing Music Festival.

Long Yu received the 2002 Montblanc Arts Patronage Award from the Montblanc Cultural Foundation, and in 2003 he was awarded the rank of “Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres” from the Government of France.