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Yongyan HU

Conductor 

EOS Artistic Director & Principal Conductor

For the EOS Orchestra Academy to be able to rapidly earn international recognition as Asia's leading source for highly trained young generation classical musicians, a powerfully compelling vision has been needed. That defining vision has come from its Artistic Director, Principal Conductor and Founder, Maestro Yongyan HU. With his world-class musical training and professional experience as an in-demand conductor, Maestro HU has the realistic sense of priorities necessary to effectively guide highly gifted young musicians towards productive orchestral career choices.

Being a graduate of the Central Conservatory of Music, Maestro HU easily identifies with the struggles and aspirations of young musicians. His own career path took him from Beijing to Yale University and the Juilliard School, USA, which generally recognized as the world's premier music education institution. His distinguished international conducting career has consistently emphasized imaginative programming realized through impeccable performances. Since 1999 Maestro HU has served as the critically acclaimed Music Director and Conductor of the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, which is the resident orchestra of the Shanghai Grand Theater. His pioneering work in Shanghai has attracted top-level soloists who've significantly enhanced Shanghai's cultural atmosphere. In the United States, Maestro HU served as the Music Director and Conductor of two outstanding regional orchestras, Minnesota's Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2000 and Nebraska's Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, from 1993 to 1998.

Maestro HU's versatile, energetic style makes him in high demand as a guest conductor for leading international symphony orchestras. In recent years his baton has lead such groups as the Orchestre National de France, London's Royal Philharmonic, Germany's Hamburg Symphony, New York's Buffalo Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony, the Singapore Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the China Philharmonic and at Vienna's Wien Modern contemporary music festival. In 2004 and 2005 Maestro HU received critical acclaim for conducting at Germany's young.euro.classic as well as at the Beethoven Festival in Beethoven's hometown of Bonn, Germany. He was the featured conductor with the celebrated Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in Los Angeles for a concert broadcast around the world. A career highlight was conducting the New York Choral Society's performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as well as China's beloved Yellow River Cantata, a 2003 concert which was his Carnegie Hall debut.

Throughout his professional career Maestro HU has enjoyed fruitful collaborations with stellar recording artists. One prominent example was the highly successful April, 2002 concert tour of the Republic of Korea leading the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra in cooperation with the virtuoso Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma. He's also performed with such extraordinary artists as Itzhak Perlman, Barbara Hendricks and Pinchas Zukerman. Extending his versatile talents to pop, Maestro HU has worked with such well-known contemporary performers as Charlotte Church, Nana Mouskouri, Mark O'Connor and Doc Severinsen.

Maestro Yongyan HU devotes a high level of passionate energy towards shaping the EOS Orchestra Academy into a professional Chinese orchestra on par with its international counterparts. He views EOS rehearsals, concerts and tours as a living laboratory of musical expression, designed to thoroughly please audiences while simultaneously giving exceptionally gifted young musicians in-depth exposure to both modern and traditional repertoire. As Artistic Director, he seeks the ideal balance of musical complexity and simplicity, believing that the music-loving public will respond with enthusiasm to vibrant interpretations of attractive programs. Above all else, Maestro HU and all staff and members of the EOS Orchestra Academy are wholeheartedly committed to the philosophy of "Nothing but the Best!"