Suzhou Chinese Orchestra (SUCO) is a young orchestra co-founded by Suzhou Municipal Government and Suzhou New District, with Pang Kapang, a famous conductor as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor and Zhu Changyao, a renowned Erhu soloist, as Artistic Instructor. Now it has more than 90 members, consists of experienced instrumentalists as well as top graduates from nine Chinese conservatories, including Central Conservatory of Music and Shanghai Conservatory of Music. It is also highly valued through its interaction with renowned soloists on an international level.
SUCO is inspired by traditional Chinese cultural and southern China history. It’s repertoire consists of a series of traditional classics, adaptations of traditional compositions and pieces of music representing national or regional styles, and works combining Far Eastern and Western com-positional techniques. The orchestra has performed more than 300 concerts in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Xi’an, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and 22 cities in 12 countries including the United States and Russia. Building on the heritage of traditional music from Suzhou and the Jiangsu region, the orchestra rediscovers and reinvents the musical expression of its home region. It actively contributes to cultural exchange by participating in national and international competitions of traditional music and by making guest performances worldwide.
In collaboration with Jiangsu Provincial Department of Cultural, China Cultural Centre in Sydney is holding Suzhou Chinese Orchestra online concert, presenting three large-scale theme concerts including ‘Dancing China’, ‘Charms of Chinese Music’ and ‘Beautiful Suzhou’. These three concerts are rich in content and diversified in form, showcasing the representative music styles of Jiangsu and contributing a feast of Chinese folk music to Australian people.
Charms of Chinese Music
Jiangsu folk music features varied repertoires and diverse styles. As an excellent folk orchestra in Jiangsu, the Suzhou Chinese Orchestra is known for its lively and smart playing style through boldinnovation. Its grand concert “Charms of Chinese Music” is conducted by Peng Jiapeng, an acclaimed conductor who is the orchestra’s artistic director and chief conductor, performed by Zhu Changyao, a famous Erhu performer and the orchestra’s art director and supported by more than 90 young performers.
The concert includes excellent works such as “Spring Festival Overture”, “My Motherland”, “Lyrical Variations”, and “The Second Spring Bathed in Moonlight”. The magnificent concert demonstrated the profoundness and the power of contemporary Chinese folk music.
In 2019, it was hailed by audience during the “Happy Chinese New Year” tour in 13 cities of 9 countries under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China.
“Dragon Dance” and “Dragon Bustling in the East” respectively composed by Xu Changjun and Liu Changyuan, two highly-acclaimed contemporary composers, use a large number of percussion passages to enhance the festive atmosphere of the Chinese nation.
Dancing China Grand Concert
The concert is a large-scale themed performance staged by the Suzhou Chinese Orchestra, a high-level folk music group in Jiangsu. The performance is directed by Peng Jiapeng, an acclaimed conductor who is the orchestra’s artistic director and chief conductor. The concert saw the convergence of famous masters and masterpieces. Among them, “Travel in Lhasa” was a Chinese orchestral suite composed by the famous composer Guan Naizhong to show the beautiful and mysterious natural scenery and humanistic feelings of Tibet.
Beautiful Suzhou Grand Concert
The concert is a large-scale themed performance staged by the Suzhou Chinese Orchestra, a high-level folk music group in Jiangsu. The performance is directed by Peng Jiapeng, an acclaimed conductor who is the orchestra’s artistic director and chief conductor. With the help of the international expression of symphony, it tells the true, vivid and fascinating stories of Jiangsu. This concert performed two repertoires of the orchestra, “Jasmine” and “Lyrical Variations”, and includes Chinese orchestral works “Peach Blossom Temple” and “Wu Yue Chunqiu” by contemporary composers Guo Wenjing and Li Binyang. Through musical vocabulary, they told the historical and humanistic stories of Suzhou, showing the different feelings and unique impressions Suzhou left in their respective minds.
