China NCPA Orchestra
2017 US Tour

SOLOISTS

Haochen Zhang, Piano Wu Man,
Pipa
Gautier Capuçon, Cello Ning Feng,
Violin

Since winning the gold medal at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, 
27-year-old Chinese pianist  Haochen Zhang - appearing with the  NCPAO on October 30 (New York/Carnegie Hall) has captivated audiences in the United States, Europe, and Asia with a unique combination of deep musical sensitivity, fearless imagination, and spectacular virtuosity. Highlights of the 16/17 season include a new recital CD, released on the BIS label; extensive recital and concerto tours in Asia with performances in China, Hong Kong and Japan; return engagements with Philadelphia Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra; and winning a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Additionally, he will make his debuts with the RTV Slovenia and Asturias Symphony Orchestras, and will tour Europe with the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, having been their resident artist in the previous season. Haochen is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied under Gary Graffman. He was previously trained at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Shenzhen Arts School, where he was admitted in 2001 at the age of 11 to study with Professor Dan Zhaoyi.

Wu Man-appearing with the NCPA on October 28 (Chicago/Symphony Center), November 5 (San Francisco/Davies Symphony Hall) and November 7 (Hill Auditorium/Ann Arbor) is one of today's leading pipa players and composers. Trained in Pudong-style pipa performance at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, she is known for playing in a broad range of musical styles and introducing the pipa and its Chinese heritage into Western genres. She has performed and recorded extensively with Kronos Quartet and Silk Road Ensemble, and has premiered works by Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, Zhao Jiping, and Long Zhou, among many others. She has recorded and appeared on over 40 albums, five of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards. In 2013, she was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America, becoming the first performer of a non-Western instrument to receive this award. She is the first artist from China to perform at the White House and she also received The United States Artist Award in 2008. Born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Wu Man is a master of pipa performance who studied Pudong-style under Lin Shicheng, Kuang Yuzhong, Chen Zemin, and Liu Deha.

Gautier Capuçon 
- appearing with the NCPA on November 1 (Philadelphia/Kimmel Center) and on November 2 (Chapel Hill/Memorial Hall) is a true 21st century ambassador for the cello. Performing each season with many of the world's foremost conductors and instrumentalists, he is also founder and leader of the Classe d'Excellence de Violoncelle at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, which is based in the stunning new auditorium designed by Frank Gehry. Capuçon records exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics) and has won multiple ECHO Klassik awards. He is acclaimed internationally for his deeply expressive musicianship and exuberant virtuosity, as well as for the glorious sonority of his 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello. Gautier Capuçon continues to work regularly with conductors such as  Charles Dutoit, Semyon Bychkov, Valery Gergiev, Gustavo Dudamel, Lionel Bringuier, Andris Nelsons, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and collaborates with contemporary composers including, amongst others, Lera Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Jerome Ducros, Henry Dutilleux, Thierry Escaich, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Krzysztof Penderecki, Wolfgang Rihm and Jörg Widmann.
 
Considered to be one of China's most preeminent musicians, violinist  Feng Ning,  appearing with the NCPA on November 1 (Philadelphia/Kimmel Center) and November 2 (Chapel Hill/Memorial Hall) performs regularly in his native country with major international and local orchestras and in recital with the Dragon Quartet, which he founded in 2012. Now based in Berlin and enjoying a global career, Feng has developed an international reputation as an artist of great lyricism and emotional transparency, displaying tremendous bravura and awe-inspiring technical accomplishment. Born in Chengdu, China, Feng studied at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, the Hanns Eisler School of Music (Berlin) with Antje Weithaas and the Royal Academy of Music (London) with Hu Kun. The recipient of prizes at the Hanover International, Queen Elisabeth and Yehudi Menuhin International violin competitions, Feng was First Prize winner of the 2005 Michael Hill International Violin Competition (New Zealand), and in 2006, won first prize in the International Paganini Competition. Feng plays a 1721 Stradivari violin, known as the 'MacMillan', on private loan, kindly arranged by Premiere Performances of Hong Kong, and plays on strings by Thomastik-Infeld, Vienna.