Music gets new meaning

For conductor and music educator Hu Yongyan, his latest project is something he has wanted to do for a long time. reports.

His grandfather taught him to play the violin and his parents both played in the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

Hu graduated from China’s prestigious Central Conservatory of Music, then studied at YaleUniversity and then at the Juilliard School in New York, where he received a master’s degree.

The60-year-old served as the music director and conductor of the Lincoln (Nebraska) Symphony Orchestra from 1993 to 1998, and with the Duluth (Minnesota) Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2000.

After returning to China in 2000, he served as music director and principal conductor of the Shanghai Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and China National Symphony Orchestra.

In 2009, he took the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra on a US tour, which included Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.

Last year, he was named the principal guest conductor of the Norddeutschen Philharmonie Rostock in Germany.

As for reactions from the parents of other students in the project, Wei Lina, a 38-year-old full-time mother from Beijing, whose son, Liu Yinji, 10, has been learning cello for three years, says: “This is my son’s first summer camp and we chose it because of Hu’s reputation.

“Usually we travel abroad during his summer vacation. I hope this summer camp will be an enjoyable experience for him.”

As for Hu, he hopes that Orchestra Kids will become a regular project and his goal is to have 10,000 children, who play in 50 orchestras.

“For me, Orchestra Kids is my most down-to-earth project and I hope it grows into something like ping-pong in China.”

Speaking of ping-pong, he says it was a national sport in his youth. Then, nearly every park or school in the country had a ping-pong table and players were very competitive and skillful, though they were not professional athletes.

But while he hopes that learning music will become like ping-pong, he says: “It’s a collective effort to play in an orchestra.”