Long Yu Reveals 'Compose 20:20'

Conductor Long Yu announces 'the creation of an entire canon of new music, one of the most important projects in my life' - Compose 20:20

• Five-year project will, by the year 2020, introduce 20 new works by Chinese composers to the West, 20 new Western works to China
• An ambitious scheme to give shape and energy to the intense musical interest between the regions
• Website and social media will house composers' notes, study materials, streamed performances, CD recording will also feature

Maestro Long Yu has never been one to shy away from big ideas. Emerging from the barren years of China's Cultural Revolution, he set about founding a major orchestra, the China Philharmonic, which he still leads, alongside the Guanzhou Symphony, the Shanghai Symphony and two major music festivals - the Beijing Music Festival (which he also founded) and, his newest addition, the Shanghai MISA Festival (co-founded with Charles Dutoit). He also helped spearhead the establishment of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy, a partnership between the New York Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, with collaboration from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. And now comes an initiative which he calls, "one of the most important projects in my life". Nothing less than a grand attempt to present to China and to the West an entire canon of the other region's music. He has called it Compose 20:20.

Buoyed by the great success of new commissions such as Qigang Chen's Joie Eternelle for trumpet and orchestra at last year's London Proms, and Ye Xiaogang's "Imitation of an Old Poem: Long Autumn Night" from The Song of the Earth with the New York Philharmonic - as well as the new works he has brought to his Chinese orchestras in the past - Long Yu realised that there was a hunger on both sides for new music from across what he calls "the cultural bridge" between East and West. "More than a hunger," says Long Yu, "It is an absolute need, if we are to keep the cultural fires alive. We have seen so far a wonderful fascination in China for Western classical music, and the same coming the other way from the West. But this frenzy of energy has too often been somewhat diffuse and without shape. Now is the time that we can start using it to harness important thoughts, to explore and to experience in a curated way. New music especially needs this as it is hard for the individual work by itself to find an audience beyond its premiere these days."

And so was born the idea of Compose 20:20. Between now and the year 2020, Long Yu will present at his concerts in the West 20 new works by Chinese composers, and during that same period he will program 20 contemporary Western works in China. All the pieces selected will be by composers about whose music Long Yu is passionate.

Launching the project last night was a performance with Yo Yo Ma, Wu Tong and the New York Philharmonic of Zhao Lin's Duo. The concerto, for cello and a Chinese woodwind instrument made from bamboo pipes called a sheng (to be played by Wu Tong), took place at the Philharmonic's annual Chinese New Year's Concert and Gala, at Avery Fisher Hall, which Long Yu conducted for the fourth consecutive season.

"I am more than delighted to be starting this major project with my friends at the New York Philharmonic," says Long Yu, "This orchestra and I have worked together a great deal in recent years and for me the experience is always wonderful. As an instrument, they are nothing short of magnificent. As players, every one of them is eager to explore, eager to go on an adventure."

"Long Yu's endeavor to broadly share contemporary music between China and the West is as important as it is ambitious," said New York Philharmonic President Matthew VanBesien. "It is an evolution of the inspiring projects he has already introduced with the goal of promoting the exchange of ideas and culture between China and the West. This belief in the power of music to bridge cultures also lies behind one of the Philharmonic's own initiatives, in which Long Yu has been a key participant: our partnership with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, including the founding of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy, which has allowed us to deepen our footprint in one of the world's most exciting cities, as well as help inspire and educate future generations of orchestral musicians."

Over the five years of Compose 20:20, works by other featured composers such as Qigang Chen, Huang Ruo and Zhao Lin will be conducted by Long Yu, with additional Western Orchestras including the Dallas Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and more. And the China Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony and Guanzhou Symphony among others will play Long Yu's choice of new Western works.

Documenting the project will be a recording of some of the works, details of which will be announced at a later date. A website, www.compose2020.com, will also be a hub for conversation and interaction around the music, as well as a reference tool for those who may wish to program this music in the future. It will be supported and complemented by Long Yu's social media channels.

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