Ahead of her debut at the prestigious BBC Proms this year, New Zealand conductor Tianyi Lu returns home to lead the NZSO National Youth Orchestra for its 65th anniversary concerts in Wellington and Palmerston North.

Lu’s passion for music is matched by her burgeoning international career, from being a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, to the first female Conductor-in-Residence for the Welsh National Opera.

NYO Victory: Khachaturian & Prokofiev, presented in association with the Adam Foundation, also features one of the youngest soloists to ever perform with the NYO, acclaimed 13-year-old New Zealand pianist Shan Liu.

Liu will perform Aram Khachaturian’s sublime Piano Concerto, which first introduced the Russian composer to Western audiences.

Liu’s NYO debut follows his success in the 2023 NZSO Young Artists’ Showcase. His impressive resume includes first prizes in the Netherlands and Macao, and performing in Australia, Germany and the United States.

The concert opens with Speculations on a Rainbow, written by another homegrown talent, Jessie Leov, the 2024 NYO Composer-in-Residence.

The 85-strong NYO completes the evening with Sergei Prokofiev’s triumphant Fifth Symphony, which he began writing at the time of the D-Day landings 80 years ago.

Along with celebrating the 65th anniversary of the National Youth Orchestra, NYO Victory marks the 25th year of the visionary support of Verna and the late Denis Adam through the Adam Foundation. Their association has allowed generations of young New Zealanders to collaborate with the finest musicians from here and overseas in a full-size symphony orchestra.

NOTES:

• Thousands of musicians, including many NZSO players, have been members of the National Youth Orchestra, along with NZSO Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor Gemma New and NZSO Principal Conductor-in-Residence Hamish McKeich.
• Players in the Orchestra have ranged in age from 11 to 23.
• When the National Youth Orchestra first performed in 1959 the players included 18-year-old violinist Beatrice Tinsley (nee Hill), who went on to become the world’s leading expert on the aging and evolution of galaxies.
• In 1966 the Orchestra performed a special concert for the Queen Mother in Wellington and in 1999 played to US President Bill Clinton at the APEC Forum Leaders Dinner in Auckland.
• Distinguished conductors and soloists have worked with the National Youth Orchestra. New Zealand pianist Michael Houstoun first performed as a soloist in 1973 and later also conducted the Orchestra.
• The Orchestra has performed overseas, first with a tour of Britain, China and Japan in 1975. Other tours include the International Festival of Youth Orchestras where several players joined the International Festival Youth Orchestra. The rehearsals were overseen by conductor James Judd, who 44 years later conducted the Orchestra’s 60th anniversary concerts. In 1988 the NYO performed at the World Expo in Brisbane.

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