Conductor shares Kissinger award for bridging east and west
mainThe Chinese conductor Yu Long will share the Global Citizen Award in New York on October 1 with the former secretary of state Henry Kissinger.
Kissinger, you won’t need to be reminded, took President Nixon to China.
Yu Long is being recognised ‘for his contributions to bridging the East-West gap through classical music’.
The most influential conductor in China, Yu Long, 51 is simultaneously artistic director of Beijing Music Festival and the China Philharmonic Orchestra, music director of the Shanghai and Guangzhou symphony orchestras, and co-director of the MISA Shanghai Summer Festival.
It also doesn’t hurt that he comes from an “illustrious family.” (Read: famous family with friends in high places.) I hope he has improved in musicianship and stick technique since his first European forays in the 90’s…