Lan Shui is a Chinese-American conductor and currently holds the post as Music Director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra is a 96 members professional symphony orchestra. Its main performing venue is the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore although it has also toured widely in Asia, Europe and the United States...

, Principal Conductor of Copenhagen Philharmonic and Principal Guest Conductor of Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

's Aalborg Symphony.

Early life and career

Born in China, Shui started as a violinist and eventually studied conducting at Boston University in the mid-1980s, first with Michael Charry and later with David Hoose. He made his professional conducting debut with the Central Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing in 1986 and was later appointed Conductor of the Beijing Symphony. In 1990 he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Summer Festival, where he came to the attention of David Zinman who invited him to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as Conducting Affiliate in 1992. From 1994 to 1997, he was Associate Conductor to Neeme Jarvi and the Detroit Symphony. In the same period he assisted Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic and conducted the Cleveland Orchestra in Paris as part of Boulez's young conductors' project.

Orchestras he has conducted include the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a professional American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland.In September 2007, Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s twelfth music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.The BSO Board...

, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra

Berlin Symphony Orchestra

The Konzerthausorchester Berlin is a symphony orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. The orchestra is resident at the Konzerthaus Berlin, designed by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel...

, the Calgary Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...

, the Gothenburg Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Los Angeles Philharmonic

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...

, the Malm・Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra

Munich Chamber Orchestra

The Munich Chamber Orchestra is a professional chamber orchestra in Munich, Germany, known for programming contemporary music along with the classical repertory.-History:...

, the Tampere Philharmonic, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony

Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra

The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Stuttgart in Germany. The ensemble was founded in 1945 by American occupation authorities as the orchestra for Radio Stuttgart, under the name Sinfonieorchester von Radio Stuttgart...

, the North German Radio Symphony (NDR, Hamburg), the Frankfurter Museumsorchester

Frankfurter Museumsorchester

The Frankfurter Museumsorchester is the resident orchestra of the Frankfurt am Main City Opera House, Germany. Its somewhat peculiar name is derived from the series of "Museum Concerts", organized by the Frankfurter Museumsgesellschaft since 1808. The orchestra is ranked as an "A-list" ensemble...

, the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony, the Bern Symphony, the Bamberg Symphony, the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Komische Oper Orchestra, and the Thessaloniki Symphony.

Shui has also worked with violinists Pinchas Zukerman

Pinchas Zukerman

Pinchas Zukerman is a world-renowned violinist, violist, and conductor. He is considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and his ongoing 45-year career has seen him perform with the world's best-known orchestras and record over 100 works...

, Gil Shaham

Gil Shaham

-Biography:Gil Shaham was born in Urbana, Illinois, while his parents, Israeli scientists, were on an academic fellowship at the University of Illinois. His father Jacob was an astrophysicist, and his mother, Meira Diskin, was a cytogeneticist. His sister is the pianist Orli Shaham. He is a...

, Maxim Vengerov

Maxim Vengerov

Maxim Alexandrovich Vengerov is a violinist, violist, and conductor who was born in the Soviet Union.-Youth:Born on 20 August 1974 in Novosibirsk, Russia, to a family with musical tradition....

, Hilary Hahn

Hilary Hahn

Hilary Hahn is an American violinist.Hahn was born in Lexington, Virginia. Beginning her studies when she was three years old at Baltimore's Peabody Institute, she was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia at age ten, and in 1991, made her major orchestral debut with the...

, Lynnette Seah

Lynnette Seah

Lynnette Seah Mei Tsing is an internationally acclaimed Singaporean violinist serving as co-leader of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra as the only musician to have performed full-time with the SSO since 1979 - a position she is holding on at the Symphony together with Alexander Souptel.She is...

, cellist Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...

, pianists Elisabeth Leonskaja

Elisabeth Leonskaja

Elisabeth Leonskaja is a noted Georgian pianist and teacher. She was born on November 23, 1945 to a Russian family living in Tbilisi, then the capital of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic....

, Gerhard Oppitz

Gerhard Oppitz

Gerhard Oppitz is a German classical pianist.He studied with Paul Buck, Hugo Steurer and Wilhelm Kempff. In 1981 he was appointed professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München - the youngest in the history of the institute - where he still teaches. As a soloist he has appeared with...

, Yefim Bronfman

Yefim Bronfman

Yefim "Fima" Naumovich Bronfman is a Soviet-born Israeli-American pianist.-Biography:He was born in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, and emigrated to Israel at the age of 15...

 and Rudolf Buchbinder

Rudolf Buchbinder

Rudolf Buchbinder is an Austrian classical pianist.-Biography:Buchbinder studied with Bruno Seidlhofer at the Vienna Academy of Music. In 1965 he made a tour of North and South America. In 1966 he won a special prize awarded at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition...

.

Shui has performed at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Bravo! Vail Valley, Round Top, Eastern Music, National Orchestra Institute, and Casals Festival.

Since he joined the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 1997, the Orchestra has signed an exclusive recording contract with the international label BIS. Shui has led the Orchestra on several successful tours. In support of Asian-influenced works, Lan Shui is also passionate about premiering and commissioning new works. The Singaporean composer Bernard Tan

Bernard Tan

Bernard Tan Tiong Gie was educated at the Anglo-Chinese School, Singapore, the University of Singapore and Oxford University...

's Violin Concerto

Violin Concerto (Bernard Tan)

Bernard Tan's Violin Concerto was premiered on 7 January 2006 by acclaimed Singaporean violinist Lynnette Seah, with conductor Lan Shui and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The soloist received the score only two months before the premiere....

 was premiered in January 2006 with Lynnette Seah

Lynnette Seah

Lynnette Seah Mei Tsing is an internationally acclaimed Singaporean violinist serving as co-leader of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra as the only musician to have performed full-time with the SSO since 1979 - a position she is holding on at the Symphony together with Alexander Souptel.She is...

 as soloist.

Awards

Shui is the recipient of several international awards, amongst them kudos from the Beijing Arts Festival, New York Tcherepnin Society, 37th Besançon Conductors Competition in France and Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

's Distinguished Alumni Award. He also received the Cultural Medallion

Cultural Medallion

The Cultural Medallion is a Singapore cultural award conferred to those who have achieved artistic excellence in dance, theatre, literature, music, photography, art and film....

 in 2009 in recognition of his work for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

External links