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Tsung Yeh (Conductor)
Tsung Yeh joined the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) as Music Director in January 2002. Under his direction, SCO expanded its repertoire with innovative works such as Marco Polo and Princess Blue — A Symphonic Epic, Instant is a Millennium – A Musical Conversation with Tan Swie Hian, The Grandeur of Tang, Thunderstorm, Admiral of the Seven Seas and Awaking. In Awaking, he melded Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu’s plays into one, elevating Chinese orchestral music to a higher level.

As Music Director of Singapore’s National Day Parade 2007, Tsung Yeh conceptualised a symphonic music structure with supreme, textured virtuosity that incensed the national pride in the air. 240 musicians from the SCO, Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO), Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Central Band, Malay and Indian ensemble, Nanyin ensemble and a chorus performed under his baton before an audience of 27,000 and millions of television viewers. His perseverance and diligence have brought SCO’s performances to new heights, both musically and technically. Between March and April 2005, he led the orchestra on a tour to Europe at Barbican Center in London, The Sage Gateshead and the Budapest Spring Festival. In October 2007, SCO performed at the Beijing Music Festival, China Shanghai International Arts Festival, Macau International Music Festival, as well as at major concert halls in Guangzhou, Zhongshan and Shenzhen. In August 2009, SCO made history by becoming the first Chinese orchestra to perform in the opening week of the Edinburgh Festival. Tsung Yeh was awarded the Cultural Medallion 2013, the highest award given in the field of the arts in Singapore.

Tsung Yeh is also the Music Director of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra in the United States. In 1995, he was honoured with the ASCAP Award together with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he has served as the Music Director of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.

As part of the Conductors’ Mentor Programme sponsored by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he worked with Music Director Daniel Barenboim and Principal Guest Conductor Pierre Boulez. In April 1991, he replaced the indisposed Barenboim at short notice. He is also the former Music Director of the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and the Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He served as Resident Conductor of Florida Orchestra and was the Principal Guest Conductor of Albany Symphony Orchestra of New York. He is the Principal Conductor of the Hua Xia Ensemble in Beijing and is one of the founders of the Shanghai New Ensemble.

Tsung Yeh started learning the piano at the age of five. He began his study of conducting at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1979, and two years later won a full scholarship to the Mannes College of Music in New York where he received the Academic Excellence Award upon graduation. In 1983, he began his post-graduate study at Yale University under Otto Werner-Mueller. He also studied conducting with Max Rudolf, Leonard Slatkin, Murry Sidlin, Sidney Harth, Han Zhong Jie, Huang Yi Jun and Cao Peng.

In May 2001, Tsung Yeh conducted the Paris-Shanghai Duplex Concert – a collaboration of the French National Symphony Orchestra and Shanghai Broadcasting Orchestra – that was broadcast via satellite to millions of viewers in Europe and Asia. His previous engagements include San Francisco, Tucson and New Haven Symphonies, Calgary and Rochester Philharmonic, and orchestras from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Taipei, Taichung, Japan, France, Poland, Russia and Czech Republic.

With his growing reputation as a conducting teacher, Tsung Yeh is currently guest professor in both the China and Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He has been one of the Artistic Directors of the Symphonic Workshop Ltd in the Czech Republic since 1992, and has also taught conducting workshops hosted by the Conductors Guild, The League of American Orchestras and the Musik Hochschule of Zurich. As a recording artist, Tsung Yeh has made various recordings under the HUGO, Delos and Naxos labels.