Photo: Courtesy of SSO

German baritone Matthias Georne will take part in the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's (SSO) Artist in Residence program for the 2024-25 season for two concerts, the orchestra noted when announcing the new projects for the season on Tuesday.   

Goerne's first performance as Artist in Residence is set for a celebratory concert marking the SSO's 145th anniversary, during which he will perform the final movement of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde under the baton of conductor Long Yu on September 6. Goerne performs another Mahler work - Rückert Lieder - later in the season on April 19, 2025.

In terms of world premieres, the orchestra will continue to commission and perform new music with two world premiere performances this season. 

The first is Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Zhou Long's Nine Odes, which is a concerto for erhu and orchestra on November 2. Jointly commissioned by SSO, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and the Beijing Music Festival Arts Foundation, the piece will be performed by the SSO as a world premiere with conductor Huang Yi and soloists Lu Yiwen (erhu) and Feng Tianshi (flute). The second world premiere is Elliot Leung's Chinese Kitchen, commissioned by SSO and conducted by the Orchestra's Conductor in Residence Zhang Jiemin on November 23. Leung is a 28 year-old composer who has composed for a number of major films, including Operation Red Sea and The Battle at Lake Changjin.

The upcoming season will celebrate the SSO's 145th anniversary and the 10th anniversary of the Shanghai Symphony Hall. The concert on September 6 is set to feature four conductors, Yu Long, Chen Xieyang, Cao Peng and Hou Runyu, with soloists Hilary Hahn, Qin Liwei and Matthias Goerne performing a program that blends music from the East and West together and celebrates composers such as Mahler, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Ma Sicong and Huang Yijun.

Yu, also SSO music director, will return for seven concerts alongside Hilary Hahn in addition to performances from Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Esther Yoo, Frank Huang, Frank Peter Zimmermann and Gerhard Oppitz. The closing concert of the season, conducted by Long Yu, will feature Augustin Hadelich performing Beethoven's "Violin Concerto in D."

Other highlights include an all-Italian program to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Puccini, a concert in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ravel and a Mozart Piano Concerto with pianist Li Jian and conductor Jong-Jie Yin.