He is a conductor and artistic director born in Shanghai, China to a musical family where his father is a choreographer, his mother a pianist and his grandfather is the composer Ding Shande. He began to learn the piano while young, later including conducting and studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, graduating in 1987. He took further studies in Germany at the Berlin University of the Arts.
On his return to China he became the Principal Conductor of Beijing’s Central Opera Theatre in 1992. He remained there until 1995 and for a five year period was a producer for the Urban Council of Hong Kong. In 1998 he became a founder and the first artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival.
When the new millennium arrived he was asked to take over the leadership of the China National Symphony, previously known as the China Broadcasting Symphony. He began to recruit all of the performers via audition and the orchestra’s name was changed to the China Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra went on a world tour from February to April in 2005 and appeared in 22 cities in Europe and the United States in just 40 days. It also the first orchestra to perform for Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican City and in 2014 it became the first Chinese Orchestra to appear at London’s BBC Proms.
In 2003 he was awarded the Chevalier dans L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France. That same year he took on a further appointment as the music director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and 6 years later in 2009, he took on the same position with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. The following year he was named the 2010 Person of the Year in the Arts Field and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra started the Music in the Summer Air Festival, with him sharing the position of Artistic Co-director with the conductor Charles Dutoit, and he was granted the 2013 China Arts Award and an Honorary Academician from the Central Conservatory of Music.
The Shanghai Symphony Hall was built in 2014. That same year the orchestra started the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and France further honoured him with the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur.
At the beginning of 2015 he worked with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra as the first conductor from mainland China to take the role of Principal Guest Conductor. Also in 2015 he was presented with the Global Citizen Award by the Atlantic Council in the United States. In 2016 he was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts * Sciences and later that year he was presented with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Also in 2016 the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra began the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition. In 2018 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Hong Kong Academy of the Performing Arts and that same year the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Yu Long signed an exclusive recording deal with Deutsche Grammaphon. He also announced he would be stepping down from his position as Artistic Director of the Beijing Music Festival after 20 years but remaining as the Chairman of the Artist Committee.
In the 2022-23 season he conducted a new series of Carmen with Opera Comique in Paris, France and in 2023 he stepped down as Music Director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra after 20 years in that position. He was still busy during the 2023-24 season though as continuing with his work with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra he also took on positions as a guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra.
He has performed on many recordings during his career with just a select few including Tchaikovsky: Romeo & Juliet; Strauss: Don Quixote with the China Philharmonic Orchestra, Dragon Songs with Lang Lang and the China Philharmonic Orchestra, Epics of Love with Song Zuying and the China Philharmonic Orchestra, Greatest Movie Classics with the Razumovsky Symphony Orchestra, Gateways with Maxim Vengerov and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Orff: Carmina Burana (Live from the Forbidden City) and The Song of the Earth with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Ding Shande: Long March Symphony with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra along with The Very Best of Cinema Classics and Discover the Classics Vol. 3: The Concerto and numerous others.
China Philharmonic Orchestra recordings
Yellow River Piano Concerto (Xian Xinghai/arranged by Yin Chengzong, Liu Zhuang, Chu Wanghua, Sheng Lihong, Shi Shucheng, Xu Feixing)
DG 477 6229 (CD: Dragon Songs)
Piano – Lang Lang
Conductor – Long Yu
Flute (Chinese) – Chen Shasha
Lute – Wu Yuxia
Sources:
- https://www.maestrolongyu.com/about
- https://www.gso.org.cn/en/portfolio/artist-long-yu/
- https://www.askonasholt.com/artists/long-yu/
- https://www.gso.org.cn/en/portfolio/artist-long-yu/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Long
- https://www.classical-music.com/features/artists/interview-conductor-long-yu/
- https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/artists/long-yu/biography
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/long-yu-mn0000595875/credits
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/1626338-Long-Yu