A special concert was held at the Suzhou Culture and Art Center at Sunday night to mark the two-year-old birthday of Suzhou Symphony Orchestra. Anne Queffelec, a 70-year-old French pianist, joined the Orchestra last night.
The Suzhou Symphony Orchestra was founded on Nov. 18, 2016 by Suzhou Municipal Government and Suzhou Industrial Park. It is the first professional symphony orchestra in Suzhou. As of October 31, 2018, the band had 75 outstanding musicians from 20 countries and regions, 32 from China and China’s Taiwan, and 43 from foreign countries. The average age in the orchestra is 31 years old, and more than 68% of them have a master's degree or above. Over the years, they have invited famous conductors including Lawrence Foster, Will Humburg; Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng, Chinese Soprano He Hui, and many other world-class masters. It has developed into a new force of symphony that is emerging both domestically and internationally.
Entrusted by the Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the orchestra will perform in New York (UN headquarter), and Montreal (Canada), in the spring of 2019.
