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Swedish Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra and its principal conductor, Lu Jia, will perform concerts tonight and tomorrow at the Beijing Music Festival.
Tonight's eye-catching soloist is Swedish-American soprano Barbara Hendricks. Swedish trumpeter Haken Hardenberger performs tomorrow. The concerts will be in Poly Theatre.
Since winning the Antonio Pedrotti International Conducting Competition in Trento, Italy in 1990, Lu has established himself as one of Asia's most-outstanding young conductors.
Now residing in Italy, Lu is a regular guest conductor with leading Italian orchestras and opera companies - including Santa Cecilia Rome, RAI Turin and the Bologna and Rome opera houses.
Lu since September 1999 has been Norrkoping orchestra's principal conductor and music adviser.
The orchestra was founded in 1912, and today it has 87 musicians.
While the orchestra continues to focus on the great romantic masters, from Beethoven to Mahler, it features 20th century classical and contemporary music.
The orchestra is also renowned for performing with jazz, rock and folk musicians, and dancers and actors.
Tonight, the orchestra will, with Hendricks, perform Strauss' "Four Last Songs" and Bruckner's "Symphony No 6."
Hendricks is one of the world's most-popular and versatile artists. She performs operas, recitals and jazz. Her recordings are sold throughout the world.
Hendricks was born in the United States and was trained at the Juilliard School of Music, where she studied with mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel.
Hendricks made her American and European opera debuts in 1974 at the San Francisco Opera and at the Glyndebourne Festival.
She has since appeared at the world's major opera houses - including the Paris Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden and La Scala.
Chinese audiences are familiar with Hendricks. She sang Liu'er in "Turandot" in the 1998 performance at the Forbidden City in Beijing. That show was conducted by Zubin Mehta and directed by Zhang Yimou.
Hendricks has been acclaimed as one of her generation's leading and most-active recitalists, and as a leading interpreter and staunch promoter of French, American and Scandinavian music.
Hendricks made her jazz debut in 1994 at the Montreux Jazz Festival. She has since performed regularly at the world's top jazz festivals.
Tomorrow, the audience will hear Lidhol's "Kontakion," Sibelius' "Symphony No 5" and Hardenberger will perform Sandstroem's "Trumpet Concerto No 2."
Hardenberger, 41, began studying trumpet at the age of 8, and continued his studies at the Paris Conservatories.
Hardenberger is considered one of his generation's most-charismatic musicians.
(China Daily October 18, 2002)
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