Who’s Wu?
NewsYuja Wang’s tour in China this month is organised by the Wu Promotion company, who appear to have a monopoly on incoming music tours.
They have also looked after visits by the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra, Alice Sara Ott, the Dresden Stattskapelle and more. They are especially close to Valery Gergiev, whose Mariinsky Theatre is establishing an ever-larger footprint in China.
Wu Promotion was founded in 1991 by Zezhou Wu and Jiatong Wu, who remains president of the company. They have opened a branch in Vienna, have joined the IMZ International Music + Media Centre and have received a state honour, the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art.
Watch out for their next international base.
Jiatong is Zezhou Wu’s son, and without doubt one of the most respected people working in touring today. He’s working with orchestras across Europe and further afield and it’s probably fair to say that the Chinese market would be a meagre shadow of what it is today without the work that Wu Promotion has done.
China is, of course, neutral on Russia-Ukraine, so naturally Gergiev is going to be looking east at the moment, and Chinese audiences will keep showing up for him. It’s probably worth remembering that nearly every major orchestra in the world worked with Gergiev before the war with Ukraine – in spite of his close connection to Putin and even during other Russian acts of aggression… if we shame based on associations, there wouldn’t be many of us left in the industry!
That is seriously underestimating the scale of the recent crimes of the kremlin and Gergiev’s complicity.
There was a thriving market of touring orchestras well before Wu promotions. His reputation is decidedly mixed, as are his methods.
What is clear is his allegiance to Gergiev, whom he presents regularly with all his orchestras. He also presented Currentzis in China, so his support for Russia seems to be clear.
It is difficult to understand how any European institution or orchestra working with this company can justify it given his links to Russia.
Absolutely untrue on the touring market front. There was about 5% of what happens today, and Wu is the market leader.
Western naivity on your part. Wu is independent, unlike most of the other operators who are government owned – one of them is also an arms dealer! But that independence doesn’t mean they can act out against the government by refusing to work with Russian artists or ensembles.
You write:
“But that independence doesn’t mean they can act out against the government by refusing to work with Russian artists or ensembles”
This is wrong.
If the implication is that it is not his choice to work with Gergiev and that somehow the government is forcing this on him, then you are truly the naive one because that is not the case at all.
He chooses to work and support Gergiev.