The Tide Philharmonic Orchestra, billed as the first professional orchestra established by an ancient town, made its debut on the evening of 16 November in Yanguan County, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province.
Under the baton of its Chief Conductor, Yu Lu, the enlarged ensemble, bolstered by musicians from the Ningbo Symphony Orchestra, the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra and the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. They were joined by choirs from the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Central Conservatory of Music and the Lanzhou Concert Hall.
The grand debut, featuring 400 musicians travelling from at least five cities, took place at the Tides and Music Resort Art Centre with enhanced electroacoustic reverb. The orchestra was founded by the resort last year and is intended to entertain visitors with popular film scores and television soundtracks.
Following the symphony, the Tide Philharmonic offered three encores inspired by martial arts and drawn from period television dramas including Journey to the West, a declaration of the core repertoire it intends to champion in the years ahead.
