Program Notes | 2024 Lunar New Year Celebration

2024 Lunar New Year Celebration Concert

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Welcome to the Year of the Dragon! This year represents an exciting return to the full splendor of our annual Lunar New Year celebration, with a variety of exciting performances and craft demonstrations in the lobby, plus our signature blend of festive favorites by Eastern and Western composers on the Prudential Hall stage.

Conductor Yue Bao makes her New Jersey Symphony debut in this performance, bringing her own twist to this New Jersey Symphony tradition. Li Huanzhi’s Spring Festival Overture kicks off our evening as usual, the 1956 work depicting the celebration of the Spring Festival, or New Year. A compact and joyous expression of exuberance, listeners may note similarities with the folk-influenced works of Copland or Dvořák.

Next, we revel in the remarkable talents of an up-and-coming soloist, Tony Siqi Yun. Yun demonstrates his talents in two contrasting works – first, “Yellow River Boatman’s Song” from the Yellow River Concerto – one of the most famous pieces to come out of China in the 20th century. Then, he performs the sparkling first movement, “Allargamente,” from Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G.

Then, we feature the talents of the orchestra in two show pieces. Huang Ruo’s Folk Songs for Orchestra celebrates the folk songs of the composer’s native China and sets well-known Chinese folk tunes for the Western orchestra. The first song we’ll hear is “Flower Drum Song from Feng Yang,” a song that dates back to the late Ming Dynasty. Then, we’ll hear “The Girl from Da Ban City,” a song from the Xinjiang province that is sung by carriage drivers in Turpan. After this, we hear one of Antonín Dvořák’s most famous and jublient works, his Slavonic Dance No. 8 from his first set of Slavonic Dances, Op. 46.

Our beloved choral collaborators, Peking University Alumni Chorus, also share the Lunar New Year stage to delight and dazzle in traditional Chinese songs and operatic favorites. We bring the concert to a spectacular conclusion with Zhou Tian’s Gift. The title of this work comes from a poem titled “Music as a Gift of Decency” by Shen Yue from the Northern and Southern dynasties (ca. 400 CE). What a spectacular way to celebrate the gift that is the new year!

There is nothing more rewarding than celebrating our hopes and aspirations for the coming year with you, our Symphony family, by sharing music that binds us across cultures and languages. Happy New Year!

—Erin Lunsford Norton, Vice President of Artistic Planning

Artist Bios

Artist Bio: Yue Bao, conductor: Yue Bao made her subscription debut with the Houston Symphony on their opening night concert of the 2020–21 season, and has led the orchestra at their summer concert series at the Miller Theater in 2021 and in 2022. She made her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut at the 2021 Ravinia Festival and has since debuted with the San Francisco Symphony, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra.

This season, Bao makes debuts with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, and the Calgary Philharmonic.

Bao was the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Conducting Fellow at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. In 2018, she served as the David Effron Conducting Fellow at the Chautauqua Music Festival, where she returned as a guest conductor in the 2022 season.

She has worked extensively in the United States and abroad. Equally at home with both symphonic and operatic repertoire, she has conducted Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Bizet’s Carmen, Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny: Ein Songspiel and Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium.

Along with her Artist Diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music, where she was the Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow and studied with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Bao holds Bachelors of Music degrees in orchestral conducting and opera accompanying from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting from the Mannes School of Music.
Artist Bio: Tony Siqi Yun, piano: Canadian-born pianist Tony Siqi Yun, Gold Medalist at the First China International Music Competition (2019) and awarded the Rheingau Music Festival’s 2023 Lotto-Förderpreis, is quickly becoming a sought-after soloist and recitalist.

During the 2022-23 season, he made his highly acclaimed subscription debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and this season, he joins Nézet-Séguin on a US Tour with Orchestre Metropolitain, including an appearance at Carnegie Hall. Also in 2023-24, he makes debut appearances at the Colorado Music Festival, the Aspen Festival, the Vail Dance Festival and with the Hamilton (ON) Philharmonic, conducted by Gemma New.

Other engagements include Edmonton Symphony and Orchestra Lumos with Michael Stern, the Rhode Island Philharmonic with Joseph Young, and the New Jersey Symphony. Yun has also appeared with The Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

Yun regularly performs solo recitals in both Europe and North America. Recent and future highlights include his debuts at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Philharmonie Luxembourg and in North America at Stanford Live, Gilmore Rising Stars Series, and 92nd Street Y in New York, with a return visit to the Vancouver Recital Series.

He is a recipient of the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship at the Juilliard School where he studies with Professors Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio.
Artist Bio: Peking University Alumni Chorus: Peking University (PKU) Alumni Chorus was founded in 2014. It consists of former members of PKU Student Choir and seasoned singers from the Chinese community in the Greater New York area. In the past nine years, the ensemble has performed at every Chinese New Year Concert organized by the PKU Alumni Association of Greater New York, as well as making apperances on major stages in the New York area, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center. In 2019, the chorus performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with other choruses at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle and Carnegie Hall. In February 2019, the chorus appeared in the New Jersey Symphony’s first Chinese New Year concert. This year marks as the sixth consecutive year of collaboration between the chorus and the NJ Symphony.

Conductor and pianist Conrad Chu has served as PKU Alumni chorus’ conductor since 2016. He earned his master’s in orchestral conducting from Mannes School of Music. He has built a reputation as an artist equally well-versed in opera, orchestral and choral repertoire, with a strong affinity for contemporary styles.
Artist Bio: Edison Chinese School Lion Dance Team: Edison Chinese School (ECS), based in Edison, NJ, is a not-for-profit organization offering Chinese language and cultural classes to the public. ECS Lion Dance program teaches the traditional Chinese ceremonial activities with an influence of the martial arts basic training and provides students with rich experience both on- and off-campus.

Over the years, as cultural ambassadors, ECS LION DANCE TEAM has been active in community service, participating in numerous events in the local community, including Chinese American Cultural Association Annual Gala, Asian-American Heritage Month at TD Bank Ballpark, Metuchen Public Library, New Brunswick Public Library, South Amboy Public Library, Rose Mountain Care Center, Winchester Garden Senior Center, among others.

The playful lions deliver myths from China, intriguing audiences with dazzling moves and distinct personalities. Their energetic and exciting performances have received acclaimed coverage in newspapers, including World Journal.