Muhai Tang

Muhai Tang became Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Zürcher Kammer Orchester in September 2006 and his first season has been a resounding success. He assumed the title of Conductor Laureate and Artistic Advisor at The Queensland Orchestra in 2006 and from this season he will be the Laureate Conductor of the China National Symphony Orchestra.

Muhai Tang has an extraordinarily wide repertoire, ranging from J. S. Bach to composers of today, and his role as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Zürcher Kammer Orchester is an opportunity for him to explore the chamber orchestra repertoire which has always been close to his heart.

Son of a famous film director in China, Muhai Tang has always been drawn to the musical stage, and has conducted opera on several continents. He previously held the position of Chief Conductor of the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, where he conducted highly successful new productions of Die Frau ohne Schatten, Turandot, Der Rosenkavalier and Picovaya Dama, and also Madama Butterfly, Tosca, La rondine, Boris Godunov, Le nozze di Figaro, La Traviata, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Otello. His ballet performances with the company included an acclaimed Le Sacre du Printemps and a new production of Swan Lake.  In the coming season he will conduct fully-stage performances of Tan Dun's opera Tea with the Stockholm Kungliga Filharmonikerna.

This season, Muhai Tang's guest conducting engagements include concerts with the Malaysian Philharmonic, the Frankfurt HR-Sinfonieorchester, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg. Other recent and future guest conducting engagements include performances with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orquestra Gulbenkian, the National Symphony Orchestra Washington, the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, the Hamburger Symphoniker and two programmes with the Toyko Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Muhai Tang has appeared as guest conductor on four continents and at music festivals in Prague, Berlin, Edinburgh, Verona, Bergen and Beijing. He is a favourite with audiences and musicians alike, with an engaging stage presence and a graceful and natural technique. He has worked with numerous great artists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Lord Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Martha Argerich and Anne-Sophie Mutter, to name just a few.

Muhai Tang has held Principal Conductor positions with the deFilharmonie Flanders, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Queensland Orchestra Australia and the Orquestra Gulbenkian in Lisbon. He was Principal Conductor of the Orquestra Gulbenkian for 12 years, from 1987 to 2000, and enhanced the orchestra's reputation with international tours and recordings.

His international recognition began when Herbert von Karajan invited him to conduct the Berliner Philharmoniker in its 1983 subscription series. This success led to repeat appearances with the Berliner Philharmoniker and invitations from many of the world's leading orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, te Sydney Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, amongst many others.

He maintains close links with China, returning regularly to conduct in Beijing and Shanghai. In 2005 and 2006 he conducted the Shanghai Conservatory Orchestra, where he himself studied, and in Berlin as part of the Young Euro Classic Festival, in which 17 youth orchestras performed in 17 days. In August 2007 he brought students from the Shanghai Conservatory to collaborate with the German Youth Orchestra, a project that culminated in two performances at the Berlin Konzerthaus and a tour through six major cities of China. Muhai Tang became Conducting Professor and Head of the Conducting Department of the Conservatory last spring and he also works for the Shanghai Concert Hall as Artistic Director.

Amongst Muhai Tang's many recordings, the Guitar Concertos by Tan Dun and Christopher Rouse with Sharon Isbin and the Orquestra Gulbenkian, for Teldec, was awarded a Grammy in 2001.