Long Yu is currently artistic director and chief conductor of the China Philharmonic Orchestra, music director of the Shanghai and Guanzhou Symphony Orchestras, and artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival. In addition to their regular season concerts, all three ensembles tour regularly in China and abroad under the direction of Long Yu. He has appeared with many leading European, American, and Asian orchestras and opera companies, including the Orchestre de Paris, Hamburg Staatsoper, Florence’s Maggio Musicale Festival, Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, and the Chicago Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestras, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, and Singapore Symphony orchestras. In the coming season he will make his debuts with the Munich Philharmonic, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

In the summer of 2010 Long Yu led the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra on the Great Lawn of Central Park, featuring Lang Lang as one of the soloists, appearing on the same concert as the New York Philharmonic in celebration of that year’s World Expo in China. Later that year he brought cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinists Midori and Sarah Chang, and others to Guangzhou for the premiere Canton Asian Music Festival in connection with the XVI Asian Games.

Long Yu was born into a family of musicians in 1964 in Shanghai. He received his early musical education from his grandfather, Ding Shande, and went on to study at the Shanghai Conservatory and the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin. His career has included both artistic and administrative appointments. In 1992 he was named principal conductor of the Central Opera Theatre in Beijing, and was involved in the planning of the first Beijing New Year’s Concert, serving as its conductor for three consecutive years. He also produced operas for The Urban Council of Hong Kong for five successive years. In 1998 he was the founding artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival, which plays an active role in commissioning new works from today’s prominent composers, including Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Glass, Guo Wenjing, and Ye Xiaogang.

In 2000 Long Yu co-founded the China Philharmonic Orchestra and became its artistic director and principal conductor. In 2003 he became music director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. Deutsche Grammophon has released his recordings of Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture, Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G minor in Arnold Schoenberg’s orchestration, and a wide range of Chinese orchestral music, including Yellow River Concerto with Lang Lang. His recordings on Naxos include the Korngold and Goldmark Violin Concertos with Vera Tsu as soloist, as well as Ding Shande’s Long March Symphony.

Ying Huang has appeared in operas at The Metropolitan Opera, Brussels' Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Royal Danish Opera, Cologne Opera House, and China National Center of Performing Arts. She has performed major roles in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, and Don Giovanni; Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore; Verdi's Rigoletto and Falstaff; Massenet's Werther; and Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. She became the first Chinese vocalist to star in an opera movie when she played Cio-Cio San in Frédéric Mitterrand's 1995 film of Puccini's Madame Butterfly. In December 2006 she starred in The Magic Flute at The Metropolitan Opera, the first in the globally broadcast "Met HD Live" series. In 2009 she was selected for the "Wall of Fame" in the Met's 125th Anniversary celebration.

Equally devoted to Chinese contemporary opera, Ms. Huang worked with Tan Dun to prepare the opera The First Emperor and starred in his Peony Pavilion, Guo Wenjing's The Poet Li Po, and others. In 2011 she played the title role in the premiere production of Zhou Long's Madame White Snake, which won the Pulitzer Prize.

On the concert stage, Ying Huang has appeared regularly with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and SWR Radio Orchestra. She has sung at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Goldener Saal in Vienna's Musikverein. Her festival engagements have included the Mostly Mozart Festival, Festival d'Automne à Paris, Vienna's Festwochen, Cincinnati Music Festival, Beijing International Music Festival, and Shanghai's Music in the Summer Air.

A recording artist for Sony Classical, Ying Huang has recorded Roger Waters's Ça Ira with Bryn Terfel and Paul Groves, arias with James Conlon and the London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Danielpour's Sonnets to Orpheus, and Bitter Love, a concise version of Peony Pavilion composed and conducted by Tan Dun.

A 2012 Richard Tucker Career Grant and Opera Index Winner and a 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant Recipient, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano joined The Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera in 2008 and made her Met debut in 2009-10. As First Prize winner of the 2009 Young Concert Artist International Auditions, she was awarded the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and Princeton University Prizes, and has given acclaimed recital debuts at Merkin Concert Hall and the Kennedy Center, and in Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, and Chicago.

In addition to her continued relationship with The Metropolitan Opera, Ms. Cano has appeared with orchestras including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Orchestra of St. Luke's. She toured with Musicians from Marlboro singing Respighi's Il Tramonto and Cuckson's Der gayst funem shture, recorded live and released by the Marlboro Recording Society. A live recording of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with tenor Paul Groves was released by The Orchestra of St. Luke's in September 2012, as was a DVD set devoted to Robert LePage's Ring cycle for The Metropolitan Opera in which Ms. Cano portrays the Rhinemaiden Wellgunde. Ms. Cano has been part of the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute, and received a 2009 Sullivan Foundation Award. Jennifer Johnson Cano is particularly honored to have been invited to sing the Anderson/Weill standard "September Song" at the private funeral for American icon and astronaut Neil Armstrong at the request of Mrs. Carol Armstrong.

Ms. Cano is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, and earned her bachelor's degree in music from Webster University and her master's degree from Rice University. She appears with The New York Philharmonic for this concert courtesy of The Metropolitan Opera.

The Snow Lotus Trio is an ethnic music ensemble consisting of three sisters from Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in China: Rhywosi-man, Hasi-man, and Kersi-man. The trio was created in 2002 and came to instant prominence following its debut with the China Film Philharmonic. Since then it has performed on the nation’s most prestigious stages and appeared in several China Central Television documentaries exploring China’s musical traditions. In 2007 the Snow Lotus Trio’s performance was the highlight of the closing ceremony of the Shanghai Special Olympics. The sisters bring the minority cultural heritage to the global stage with their compelling performances featuring traditional costumes, dancing, and singing as they blend the timelessness of the beautiful Tibetan countryside with a contemporary aesthetic. The Snow Lotus Trio’s unique style has attracted millions of fans across China and is generating growing recognition abroad.

Twenty-nine-year-old pianist Lang Lang plays sold-out recitals and concerts in every major city in the world. He appeared in the 2009 Time 100 — Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2008 more than four billion people viewed his performance in Beijing’s opening ceremony for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. His status has inspired more than 40 million Chinese children to learn to play classical piano, and in 2008 The Recording Academy named him its Cultural Ambassador to China. Most recently, Lang Lang was chosen as an official worldwide ambassador to the 2010 Shanghai Expo, where he played at the opening ceremony.

Lang Lang has made it his mission to broaden the reach of classical music around the world, with a focus on children. In 2004 he was appointed an International Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF). In 2008 he established the Lang Lang International Music Foundation with the mission of inspiring the next generation of classical music lovers and performers by cultivating tomorrow’s top pianists, championing music education at the forefront of technology, and building a young audience through live music experiences. In 2011 the Lang Lang Music World was launched to share Lang Lang’s global view, experiences, and knowledge in piano education to nurture and provide exclusive opportunities for young talent.

Lang Lang, who began playing the piano at the age of three, gained widespread acclaim at age 17 when he was called upon as a last-minute substitution at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s “Gala of the Century.” In February 2010 he joined Sony Music Entertainment as an exclusive recording artist; his first album with Sony features a live recording of his 2010 recital at Vienna’s Musikverein. He recently released his new CD, Liszt, My Piano Hero, and the DVD, Liszt, Now!, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the great Hungarian composer. Lang Lang last appeared with the New York Philharmonic on January 23, 2012, performing in the Philharmonic's Chinese New Year Celebration.

Tang Jun Qiao plays Chinese Dizi (Chinese traditional flute). She began to learn Dizi as a teenager and made her debut recital at the age of 16. In 1992 she entered the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and subsequently joined the Shanghai Ensemble of Chinese Traditional Instruments as principal flutist. She has won numerous awards, and in 2004 and 2005 and was named one of the Top Ten Artists of Shanghai. She has given recitals in Asia and Europe, and in music festivals around the world, and she was invited by composer Tan Dun to play and record music for the Oscar-winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which she subsequently performed with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. She has also recorded new music by leading contemporary Chinese composers. Tang Jun Qiao is now professor of Dizi at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, a member of the All-China Musician Association, director of the All-China Traditional Instrumental Ensemble, and artistic director and music consultant of the Macao Youth Ensemble of traditional Chinese instruments. She made her New York Philharmonic debut in the 2011-12 season.

Quintessenso Children’s Choir is a chorus of 37 children, ages five to 12. They come from the far end of Northeast China in the area of the world-renowned Hulun Buir Grassland, where children draw musical inspiration from the mystic forests, rivers, and lakes, and inherit their cultural heritage from the same Mongolian spring that brought up Genghis Khan. The children of five ancient Hulun Buir grassland tribes — Oroqen, Ewenke, Daghur, Buryat, and Baerhu — formed the Quintesseno Choir, and under the teaching and guidance of Burenbayaer and Wurina, China’s famous grassland singers, they sing traditional Hulun Buir folk songs and nursery rhymes. They perform more than 40 songs, five are in their own national languages. Two thirds of the children live in the pastureland, farming areas, and forest regions. The 2011-12 season's Chinese New Year Celebration marked the ensemble’s New York Philharmonic debut.