This Spring Festival concert by the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra is built around festive traditions and New Year imagery, with a programme rooted in Chinese folk music. Designed as a seasonal performance, it combines orchestral and chamber works that reflect themes of celebration, renewal, and reunion. It’s an easy, family-friendly way to spend an evening during the holiday period.

On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra presents the Spring Festival concert Joyful Celebrations: Welcoming the God of Fortune. Performed on a traditional day associated with welcoming good fortune, the programme brings together a range of Shanghai-style Chinese orchestral works. From well-known Chinese classics to cross-genre pieces, the concert captures festive sounds from across China, offering New Year wishes for peace and good fortune in the year ahead.

Programme

Programme subject to change

• Chinese Orchestral Suite: Spring Festival Overture
  Composer: Li Huanzhi
• Instrumental Ensemble and Orchestra: Jiangnan
  Composer: Wang Yunfei
  Lead Performers: Chen Xiaoyan, Li Shengnan, Gao Ya
• Plucked Strings Ensemble: Winter Insect, Summer Grass
  Composer: Fang Dongqing
  Arrangement: Li Yuejin
  Performed by the Plucked Strings Section of Shanghai Chinese Orchestra
• Dizi and Orchestra: Brilliant Tango
  Composer: Chen Xinruo
  Arrangement: Wang Fujian
  Performer: Zhao Yunmeng
• Saxophone and Orchestra: Rhapsody in Blue
  Composer: George Gershwin
  Arrangement: Jiang Ying
  Performer: Hu Chenyun
• Chinese Orchestra: Ballad of the Heroes
  Composer: Zhao Jiping
• Erhu and Orchestra: Love
  Composer: Zhao Jiping
  Performer: Lu Lu
• Chinese Orchestra: Shanghai Bund
  Composer: Gu Jiahui
• Double Suona and Orchestra: Wishing You Prosperity
  Arrangement: Wang Fujian
  Performers: Yan Jinlong, Zhang Qiang
• Suona and Orchestra: Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy
  (Excerpt from the Peking Opera Taking Tiger Mountain)
  Arrangement: Xia Feiyun
  Performers: Zhu Weilong, Yan Jinlong, Zhang Qiang, Jiang Feng
• Horse Racing / Galloping Steeds
  Composers: Huang Haihuai, Gu Guanren

Conductor

Yao Shenshen is Resident Conductor of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra and Deputy Secretary-General of the Conductors Committee of the Chinese National Orchestra Association. He won Third Prize at the 2nd Hong Kong International Chinese Orchestra Conducting Competition.

Since joining the orchestra, Yao has conducted numerous original Chinese orchestral concerts and large-scale productions. He has led performances at international festivals and venues including the St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum, Thailand’s Ginastera International Music Festival, and the Kennedy Center’s Spring Festival Concert in the United States. His recent work includes conducting premieres of major original Chinese orchestral compositions and serving as music coordinator and rehearsal conductor for concert productions.

Shanghai Chinese Orchestra

Founded in 1952, the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra is one of the earliest modern large-scale Chinese orchestras in China. Over the decades, it has played an important role in the development of Chinese orchestral music.

In recent years, the orchestra has focused on presenting traditional Chinese music through contemporary perspectives and international expression. It has developed a number of original concert series that explore Shanghai-style folk music in varied themes and formats. The orchestra continues to explore new approaches to Chinese orchestral music while highlighting the cultural richness of traditional repertoire.