To Carnegie Hall & Back

NYO-China’s inaugural season brought together 105 impressive young musicians, selected from a pool of over a thousand applicants, for a residency in Pennsylvania and a concert tour of the United States and China. After two weeks of rehearsals, the ensemble premiered in a sold-out concert presented by Carnegie Hall featuring Music Director of the Seattle Symphony Ludovic Morlot and acclaimed pianist Yuja Wang, before continuing on to perform in Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou with Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Gold Medalist Olga Kern.

Ludovic Morlot

Conductor

Ludovic Morlot is a bright star among a new generation of international conductors, serving as the principal conductor of the Seattle Symphony and a frequent guest conductor of the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. As Music Director of the Seattle Symphony, Morlot won the 2016 GRAMMY Award for “Best Classical Instrumental Solo” for conducting Augustin Hadelich in Dutilleux’s Violin Concerto. Prior to his tenure at the Seattle Symphony, Morlot served as the Conductor-in-Residence at the Orchestre National de Lyon (ONL) under David Robertson from 2002 to 2004 where he led ONL’s two youth orchestras. Beyond his duties at the Seattle Symphony, Morlot is also the Chair of Orchestral Conducting Studies at the University of Washington.

Yuja Wang

Soloist (New York)

Widely celebrated as the most exciting pianist working today, Yuja Wang has enraptured sold-out concert halls all around the world. Born in Beijing, Wang started playing the piano at the age of six, and only one year later, enrolled at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. In 2001, she was named a Steinway Artist, and in 2002, she began her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music as a personal student of its President Gary Graffman. Among her many accolades, Wang was awarded Artist of the Year by Gilmore Young Artist in 2006, Gramophone Classic FM in 2009, ECHO KLASSIK in 2011, and Musical America in 2017. Her impeccable technique, intelligent interpretation, and indelible star power make Yuja Wang an inspiration to countless young musicians aspiring to play onstage.

Olga Kern

Soloist (China)

Universally revered within the classical musical world, Olga Kern rapidly ascended into the highest tier of concert pianists by winning two of the instrument’s most prestigious competitions: the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (the first woman to do so in over thirty years). Since then, she has toured across the globe, with especially reliable fans in both her home country of Russia and in the United States where she currently resides. Kern's discography includes her GRAMMY-nominated recordings of Rachmaninoff’s Corelli Variations (2004), Brahms Variations (2007), and Chopin Piano Sonatas No. 2 and 3 (2010). In 2016, she launched the Olga Kern International Piano Competition for pianists aged 18 to 32.

Concert Program

Residency

The inaugural residency took place across two weeks in July on the campus of East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, several hours outside of New York City in the heart of Poconos. There, students undertook several hours of lessons and rehearsals every day, the former meant to hone the instincts and technique of each individual player, and the latter to prepare the orchestra as a whole for its upcoming tour. Apart from this curriculum, students also had the opportunity to partake in cultural excursions and performance opportunities in nearby cities, not to mention befriend and create music with fellow students from all across China.

Faculty

Without risking any threat of hyperbole, NYO-China’s inaugural faculty represented one of the most impressive collections of Chinese-speaking musicians ever assembled. Whether they were principal members of exalted international orchestras like the New York Philharmonic or professors at some of the most distinguished conservatories in the world, each faculty offered students the extraordinary opportunity to learn first-hand what skills and mindsets are necessary to become a superior technician of their particular instrument.