The Northern Rivers Symphony Orchestra welcomes back guest conductor Chen Yang for their final concert of the year, Forgotten Dreams, to be presented at Tweed Civic Centre on Sunday 25th October at 2.30 p.m.
Born in Taiwan, schooled in Malaysia and Singapore, violinist, musician and conductor Chen Yang immigrated to Australia with his parents in 1975. His love for the violin was influenced by the many Heifetz recordings his grandmother used to listen to. He attended Brisbane State High School and joined the Queensland Youth Orchestra (QYO) at this time. He is a graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music with distinction in violin performance. Chen gained experience as concertmaster of the Queensland Youth Orchestra (QYO) and later on as conductor of the QYO3 and QYO Junior String Ensemble.
After a brief period as concertmaster of the Queensland Theatre Orchestra, Chen joined the first violin section of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in 1981. In 1989, he took the opportunity for a change of scenery and moved to Dunk Island (North Qld) where he led a string quartet and performed as a cabaret violinist. He has also been part of the many music theatre productions at QPAC in the early 1990’s.
Chen is in great demand in the music community as a player, educater and conductor. Presently, he is leader of Orchestra Corda Spiritus of Brisbane and Sinfonia of St Andrews where he is also resident conductor. He has conducted The Brisbane Philharmonic and performs with many string ensembles including the Badinerie Players, a Baroque string group of many years. He is also Head of Strings at St Hilda’s School, a position he has held since 1994.
When asked about his interests outside of music, ‘I haven’t got much time for anything else….’ says Chen, but loves gardening, food and cooking.
He has put together a wide and varied program for this concert which includes Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Suite, Sibelius’ Finlandia, the gentle, haunting Cinema Paradiso by Morricone and much much more including Leroy Anderson’s Forgotten Dreams. We hope you can join us there at the Tweed Civic Centre on Sunday 25th October at 2.30 p.m.
You can book online at www.nrso.com.au or at Murwillumbah Music on 02 6672 5404.
The Box Office at the Tweed Civic Centre will be open 10am-3pm from 19th-23rd October (Cash only).