Lü Jia

During the 2007-2008 season, he was appointed ‘Artistic Director and Chief Conductor’ of the Symphony Orchestra of Tenerife, with which he had collaborated, as principal guest conductor, during the previous season.

Thanks to his great talent, Lü Jia has become one the most appreciated conductors of his generation worldwide. Born in Shanghai in 1964, he graduated from the Beijing Conservatory, and later studied with Hans Martin Rabenstein in Berlin. He moved to Italy in 1990, and won the Trento ‘Concorso Pedrotti’ that year.

He is greatly appreciated in that country and, between 1991 and 1995, he was the principal conductor at the Verdi Theatre in Trieste, where he conducted both symphonic works and operas, including A. v. Zemlinsky’s Der Geburtstag der Infantin, Die Zauberflöte, L’elisir d’amore and Lucia di Lammermoor.

Between 1993 and 1999, he was the principal conductor of the Orchestra Regionale Toscana and took the baton at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI and the Orchestra Verdi di Milano.

Between 1999 and 2005, he was the principal conductor of the Swedish Norrköpings Symfoniorkester, with which he recorded several CDs for the record labels BIS, Phone Suecia, NMA and Caprice. Worth mentioning amongst these albums are those devoted to the music of J. Brahms and A. Schönberg, and the complete orchestral works of M. Lindholm, one of the most important contemporary Swedish artists.

His increasing prestige in the world of opera led Lü Jia to conduct productions of D. Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, as well as Le nozze di Figaro, Turandot and L’elisir d’amore at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, La clemenza di Tito at the Opera of Ferrara and Lausanne, and Ch. Gounod’s Faust and Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

In August 2005, he made an outstanding debut at the Arena of Verona, where he conducted Turandot. The Arena Foundation of Verona appointed him music director for the 2006-2007 season. In Verona, he successfully conducted productions of Cavalleria rusticana, I pagliacci, Carmen (2006) and La bohème (2007).

Lü Jia has been a regular guest of such important European orchestras as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra of Manchester, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken, Oslo-Filharmonien, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Bamberger Symphoniker, Orchestre National de Lyon, NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg and Radion Sinfoniaorkesteri of Finland. In 1995, he made his debut in the United States, conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival, and, in 1996, he appeared for the first time in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Sidney Symphony Orchestra, and, later, during the 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 seasons, conducting the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

Lü Jia has collaborated with artists such as Viktoria Mullova, Natalia Gutman, Gil Shaham, Krystian Zimerman, Midori, Barbara Hendricks and Christian Lindberg.

His most recent great successes include Anna Bolena at the Verona Philharmonic Theatre, La gazza ladra at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, Turandot at the Tenerife Opera Festival and G. Verdi’s Requiem at the Verona Philharmonic Theatre.

In China, his native country, he has conducted the Philharmonic Orchestra of China, the Symphony Orchestra of China and the Symphony Orchestra of Shanghai. He recently conducted a production of La clemenza di Tito at the Beijing Opera, in addition to the prestigious New Year’s Eve Concert of Shanghai in 2006. During the past season, 2008-2009, Lü Jia was apponited musical and artistic director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Macao.