In a bid to inject some 'youthful vitality' to its orchestra, the Shanghai Opera House has appointed 33-year-old Yu Lu as its first guest principal conductor, Zhang Kun reports.

Xu Zhong (front, left), director of Shanghai Opera House, presents a golden key to Yu Lu, the newly appointed guest principal conductor for the company. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Shanghai Opera House announced on Feb 8 the decision to appoint 33-year-old Yu Lu as its first guest principal conductor.

"I hope this outstanding young conductor can embark on a brand-new musical journey with the orchestra of Shanghai Opera House," said Xu Zhong, director of the opera house.

Every outstanding musician has his or her own perspective in the understanding of music, and different conductors will bring new color and inspiration to an orchestra.

Xu Zhong, director, Shanghai Opera House

He offered Yu a golden key, hoping it will help him to "open the gates of opera". Yu is about the same age as most of the instrumentalists, Xu said. "I believe the young conductor will find a lot in common with the members of the orchestra, and new possibilities will emerge with their collaboration."

Yu will present at least 10 concert productions with the orchestra and conduct its opera productions during the two-year contract period. Although no specific plan has been announced, Yu says that his first opera creation with Shanghai Opera House would probably be Madame Butterfly.

"I am a student of Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, and this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Japan. I think it will be a great occasion to present an opera with a Japanese theme," he explains.

Yu was born in 1989 and graduated from the China Central Conservatory of Music in 2012. When he was 19, Lu won a contest held by Ozawa, and subsequently became the renowned conductor's protege. His performance with the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy Orchestra in the Kyoto Concert Hall was praised by Ongaku no Tomo, a leading Japanese media outlet, as "the role model for all young Japanese conductors".

Since then, Yu has worked with internationally acclaimed orchestras such as the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg in Austria and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Netherlands, as well as releasing an album with the Camerata RCO of the latter.

Yu Lu (center) conducts the Shanghai Opera House orchestra while presenting Prelude to the Marriage of Figaro. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Last year, Yu collaborated with the orchestra of his hometown, Ningbo of Zhejiang province, to present a symphony marathon－playing the whole cycle of nine symphonies by Beethoven in five days－which was livestreamed on the popular video-sharing platform Bilibili.

"It was the first time in China's music history," Yu told the media. "It was like scaling Qomolangma. It took quite a lot of courage and strength for us to successfully 'make it to the top' in five days."

On May 15, Yu will conduct the Shanghai Opera House orchestra to present a concert of Beethoven's Symphony No 7 and Piano Concerto No 5.

The young conductor considers classical music as not just art, but also a product that serves people, and yet "it has a bug", he says.

"It is sometimes difficult to serve today's public with products created more than 200 years ago, so I want to try some new approaches, like livestreaming on Bilibili, a web community dominated by the younger generation."

His symphony marathon on Bilibili achieved a peak of more than 600,000 viewers, and "even if only a small number of them were truly interested, we have reached many more people than the usual number of audience members in a concert hall", he says.

Yu went on to share his new idea about a blind box music festival, where an audience would attend a show without knowing the program in advance. The young conductor hopes to try out his new ideas in the collaboration with Shanghai Opera House, because "classical music needs new audiences, and we need new ways to interact with them".

Shanghai Opera House has regularly invited guest conductors. "Every outstanding musician has his or her own perspective in the understanding of music, and different conductors will bring new color and inspiration to an orchestra," Xu says. "Yu Lu has built a brilliant career at a young age, and I hope he will bring some youthful vitality to our orchestra."

Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn