Yang Yang

Born into a musical family, she began studying piano at an early age under the tutelage of the renowned piano educator Professor Li Qifang. She later studied conducting with the celebrated maestros Xu Xin and Professor Wu Lingfen, and, upon achieving outstanding results, was admitted to the Conducting Department of the Central Conservatory of Music, where she studied under Professor Yu Feng—President of the Central Conservatory of Music, Vice Chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and a distinguished conductor.

In November 2006, at the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition held in Greece, Yang Yang delivered an outstanding performance and secured first place with an undeniable lead, becoming the first Chinese conductor to win this prestigious international competition.

As one of China’s most active conductors, Yang Yang maintains close collaborative relationships with all of the country’s leading symphony orchestras and opera houses. He has also left his mark on numerous international ensembles and venues, including Germany’s Deutsche Symphonie‑Orchester Berlin, the Cologne Philharmonic, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Dortmund Philharmonic, the Rhine National Philharmonic, and the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic; Italy’s Teatro Filarmonico di Verona, the Teatro Regio di Torino, and the Rome Symphony Orchestra; France’s Cannes Symphony Orchestra and the Bordeaux Symphony Orchestra; Spain’s Valencia Symphony Orchestra; Greece’s National Symphony Orchestra and the Athens Chamber Orchestra; Japan’s Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra; and South Korea’s Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

World-renowned cellists such as Rainer Honeck, Alain Meunier, Wang Jian, and Natalia Gutman; violinists including Maxim Vengerov, Gidon Kremer, Vadim Repin, Midori, Sarah Chang, Augustin Dumay, Renaud Capuçon, and Cho-Liang Lin; pianists like Gary Graffman, Lang Lang, Rudolf Buchbinder, Barry Douglas, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Byung-woo Park, and Jun‑Pak Kim; soprano Sumi Jo; baritone Thomas Hampson; clarinetists Sabine Meyer and Wenzel Fuchs; horn players Radovan Vlatković and Stefan Dohr—along with virtually all of China’s leading musicians—have all enjoyed close, collaborative partnerships with him.

Thanks to the keen insight of maestro Yu Long, Yang Yang successfully launched his professional conducting career at the inaugural Beijing International Music Festival in 1998 and went on to lead operas and concerts at the festival for eight consecutive editions. From 2000 to 2016, he served as assistant conductor and later as principal conductor of the China Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2006, he traveled to South Korea to attend a masterclass led by the renowned maestro Myung-Whun Chung. In 2009, he founded the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 2017, he established the Hangzhou International Music Festival. Since 2009, under Yang Yang’s leadership, the Hangzhou Philharmonic has entered its fifteenth season. Over the past fourteen years, the orchestra has graced prestigious European festivals such as the Mecklenburg‑Vorpommern Festival, the Schleswig‑Holstein Festival, the Ravello Festival, the Emilia Festival, the Taormina Festival, and the Ljubljana Festival, while also embarking on tours to Russia and Estonia. In 2018, conducting the Hangzhou Philharmonic on a tour spanning five Belt and Road countries—Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Hungary—as well as Japan, South Korea, and Thailand, Yang Yang earned rousing applause from audiences across Europe and Asia, along with high praise and widespread attention from both domestic and international music circles.

From the outset of his conducting career to his tenure at the National Centre for the Performing Arts Opera Company, Yang Yang has led the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Centre for the Performing Arts Opera Company, and the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra in masterful performances of such world‑renowned operas as The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Turandot, Madama Butterfly, La Bohème, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and Carmen. He has also given the Chinese premieres of Night Banquet and A Madman’s Diary, and the world premieres of Red Army Never Fears Long March, The Red Detachment of Women, Manas, and Fate, among other Chinese operas. His direction of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Opera Company’s productions of Turandot, Madama Butterfly, and Red Army Never Fears Long March on highly successful tours at the Puccini Festival in Switzerland and Italy further underscores his exceptional talent in the operatic realm.

Yang Yang currently serves as the Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Central Opera House; the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra; the Music Director of the Hangzhou International Music Festival; and the Artistic Director of the Central Conservatory of Music Youth Symphony Orchestra.