In February 2024, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra celebrates The Year of the Dragon with its 11th annual Chinese New Year concert, featuring superstar Chinese soprano Hui He making her exclusive Australian debut.
Internationally acclaimed Chinese conductor Xu Zhong will lead the orchestra in his MSO debut performance. This stunning cultural highlight blends Chinese and Western masterworks to celebrate cross-cultural connections through music.
Lauded by western media as “China’s greatest gift to the world of opera”, Chinese soprano Hui Hedebuted in 1988 performing the titular role in Aida at Shanghai Grand Theater. In 2000, she won the Second Prize at Placido Domingo’s International Operalia Competition in Los Angeles, after which she was invited by Maestro Domingo to perform with him in Shanghai.
Chinese New Year 2024
- Date: Saturday 17 February, 7:30pm
- Venue: Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne
- Tickets: mso.com.au
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In the past 25 years of her international opera career, Hui He has performed on many of the world’s most prestigious stages including the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera and Teatro alla Scala in Milan. She is the only Chinese opera singer to perform heroine roles at La Scala.
Among his many international credits, conductor Xu Zhong is president of Shanghai Opera House, Chief Conductor of Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, Dean of Soochow University School of Music, Artistic Director of Haixia Symphony Orchestra, Principal Director of Fondazione Arena di Verona, and International Chair of Opera of Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
Xu Zhong was most recently in Australia in 2020 conducting Don Giovanni with Opera Australia, where he “made an impressive Opera Australia debut” (Australian Arts Review). He has actively worked with many of the world’s great orchestras, and his conducting talents have been acknowledged in the leading opera houses in Europe and worldwide.
The 2024 Chinese New Year Concert features works from Eastern composers Li: Spring Festival Overture, Qiufeng: Pamier, How Beautiful My Home Town, and Liu & Mao: Dance of the Yao Tribes. Western composers featured in the program are Leoncavallo: I Pagliacci, Qual Fiamma avea nel guardo, and the symphony voted Australia’s #1 in the ABC Classic 100, Dvořák: Symphony No.9 From the New World.
Saturday 17 February, Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne. Tickets: mso.com.au.
