Yan Huichang    Artistic Director and Principal Conductor

In 2009, Yan was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the HKAPA. He was also appointed a Visiting Scholar of the HKAPA’s School of Music and conducted master classes in Conducting.

In 2008, Yan won the Jurors’ Award for Conducting at the 6th China Gold Record Awards – Multi Arts Category.



Yan Huichang was conferred the title of National Class One Conductor at the First Professional Appraisal of China in 1987. He was appointed Music Director of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in June 1997, and was involved in the development of the Orchestra through its incorporation and in preparation for its Silver Jubilee season. Yan was awarded the ‘Cultural Medallion (Music)’ by the National Arts Council of Singapore in September 2001. He was re-titled Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in October 2003, and the following year was awarded a Bronze Bauhinia Star (BBS) by the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in recognition of his remarkable achievements in Chinese music as well as his efforts in promoting Chinese music.

After graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1983, Yan was appointed Principal Conductor-cum-Artistic Director of the Chinese National Orchestra of China. As a conductor who has worked with all professional Chinese orchestras in Beijing, Shanghai, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, Yan has won the acclaim of the music circles in China and abroad for his artistic and conducting talents. Apart from conducting on the concert stage, Yan is also actively engaged in composition and has won numerous awards. His representative works include the symphonic poem The Sound of Water, Nostalgia for pipa solo, an erhu concerto Illusion, a sanxian concerto Nuo, two zheng concerti The Clouds and the Water of Rivers Xiao and Xiang and Ode to the Strings, Buddhist music The Weiyang Sect, Qing Lian Yu Yue (‘Cyan Lotus under the Moon’) and Chuan Deng Xu Ming (‘The Passing of the Light’). In the early years of his career, Yan had been the composer and producer of digital music for record releases. The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra’s audio and video releases over the years have been made under his baton.

In recent years, Yan has been appointed visiting professor by several music institutions, a position that allows him to promote Chinese music for the continuation of its heritage. He has given lectures and talks at the Central Conservatory of Music and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China, and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in Hong Kong. He was instrumental in proposing and the subsequent implementation of the Professional Orchestra Internship scheme through collaboration between the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra.

Led by Yan, the Orchestra has seen omni-direction growth in the last decade, and is a driving force behind the promotion of Chinese music culture in China as well as other parts of the world.

 

Yan Huichang conducting