SICHUAN SYMPHONY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR CHAMPIONS MUSIC BY YOUNG CHINESE COMPOSERS

Artistic Director of the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra Darrell Ang is in Germany this week to conduct at the renowned IMPULS-Festival in the old city of Halle, birthplace of the composer George Frideric Handel. The IMPULS-Festival is an annual music festival taking place in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, and is dedicated to the music of today. The festival showcases some of the best-known composers and performers in the world today, and also dedicates itself to discovering new talent. Darrell Ang will conduct an impressive programme featuring two large compositions from his musical and spiritual home of Russia, as well as China - what he proudly calls his new home where he spends a lot of his time tending to the nurturing and development of the Sichuan Symphony. The concerts will take place with the Staatskapelle Halle (one of Europe's oldest orchestras, formed in 1852) on 21 and 22 October at the George-Frideric-Handel Concert Hall.

Darrell Ang was approached by the festival to conduct the massive composition for solo viola, chorus and orchestra by the Georgian composer Giya Kancheli, called 'Styx'. In Greek mythology, it is the River Styx that must be crossed when voyaging from the land of the living to the land of the dead, and the ferryman that carries the hopeless souls in his boat is named 'Charon'. In Kancheli's 'Styx', the solo viola acts as Charon, ferrying what belongs to the present toward what belongs to the past, to memory. It "mediates" between the dead and the living, and it also acts as a go-between for the orchestra and the chorus. The piece was written in 1997, and revised ten years later. Maestro Ang was present at the revision's world premiere as a student in St. Petersburg, at the famous Mariinsky Theatre performed by legendary violist Yuri Bashmet and the great conductor Valery Gergiev - who is Ang's mentor. The music made such a great impression on the young Darrell Ang that he remembers that night vividly until today.

The music was so immediately powerful", Ang recalls, "and I was so affected by it that I couldn't sleep for nights after. I wanted to hear it again and again, I wanted to be a part of it. It had a timeless appeal, and the impact it made on me was something that I could only call lifechanging." Obviously, with this association, the festival was convinced that Maestro Ang would be the right person to conduct this work. Then, when they asked Ang if he would also conduct a piece by a young contemporary composer, he immediately decided on premiering a new work by a young Chinese composer - preferably one that was studying in Germany. With the help of the IMPULS-Festival, Maestro Ang became acquainted with the music of the young Shenzhen-born Zhang Tianyang, who - after initial studies at the Shanghai Conservatory - went on to Hamburg to pursue his compositional career. The last piece on the programme is the grand Tenth Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich, which is best known for its furious second movement that describes the violent acts carried out under Stalin's orders.

Maestro Ang reveals in an interview for German radio that his activities as a conductor involves strong support for young composers working today; and he feels it is his responsibility - as a Singaporean-chinese working in China - to promote the music written by China's top young talents. "As a performer who also composes, I am of course passionate about contemporary music and the many interesting composers and styles in the world today. But more important is my mission to conduct the music of young composers who have a "voice" - a gift for telling stories in sound, especially in a manner which is unique to them. When I first heard the music of Zhang Tianyang I was convinced that his was a special talent - always looking for new ways and new colours to express his emotions and deepest thoughts. I am proud to be conducting Tianyang's new work "Charon",which will receive its world premiere under my direction this weekend."

Maestro Ang is an ardent champion of contemporary composers around the world: only recently did he conduct in his hometown of Singapore (with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra) world premieres by two of Singapore's most brilliant young talents: a violin concerto written by Chen Zhangyi and an orchestral prelude by Syafiqah Adha Sallehin, and last week while on tour in France he conducted a recently-composed cello concerto by renowned Turkish composer Fazil Say. His zealous support of young Chinese composers continues next month in Chengdu with his own Sichuan Symphony: he has programmed the world premiere of Juilliard-trained Wang Delong's "The Kangxi Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour", and will also conduct an entire programme of recent compositions by more established Chinese composers like Guo Wenjing and Ye Xiaogang.