Prof. Lingfen WU

After graduating from the Conducting Department at the Central Conservatory of Music in the 1960s, she worked as a conductor at the Hebei Bangzi Theatre in Beijing and the Symphony Orchestra of the Beijing Opera and Dance Troupe. Later she was engaged in the Conducting Department of the Central Conservatory of Music and worked as the deputy director of the department, responsible for the teaching of score reading and orchestra conducting. In 1983, she conducted the graduating class of the Opera Department of the Central Conservatory of Music and the Central Opera House to premiere Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro" in China, which was a great success.

 

In 1986, she went to Moscow to study opera and orchestral conducting, and conducted the public performance of "The Lady of the Camellias" there. During her study in the Moscow, she began to pay attention to choral music. After returning to China, she immediately devoted herself to the teaching and research of choral conducting. She conducted a series of concerts and performances, such as "Voices of Volga", "Schubert's Works", "World Classical Choral Expo", "Choral Special of Chinese and Foreign Masterpieces", "Special of Qu Xixian's Works", "Songs of New China". During the years, she was invited to conduct orchestras and choirs from all over the world and had performed Handel's masterpiece "Messiah", Beethoven's Ninth Symphony "Ode to Joy", Mahler's "Second and Eighth "Symphonies, Prokofiev's "Alexander Nevsky", Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana", and more than 100 concerts. In 2004 and 2007, she led the Youth Philharmonic Choir of China Conservatory of Music to visit France and Austria, and performed Chinese choral works in front of European audience. She has introduced Chinese music and rehearsed Chinese choral works in international seminars in the United States, UK, Germany, and has received high praise from international colleagues.

 

In 2003, she founded the Department of Conducting in China Conservatory of Music, which is mainly teaching choral conducting, and served as the first director of the department, providing useful experience for the national teaching in choral conducting training. The students trained by the department have spread all over the country and even all over the world, becoming the backbone of the choral music.

 

In addition to her professional music and teaching work, she also serves as an adjunct professor of many educational institutions and organizations, and she works also as guest conductor of numerous music groups. She undertakes a great deal of social music education work. She has presided over and participated in the construction and training of college choirs in Beijing and in various provinces and cities, coaching these choirs to reach national and even world excellence. As a member of the expert group of the Art Education Committee of the Ministry of Education of China, she has served as an organizer and curriculum arranger for choral conductor training classes in dozens of provinces and cities across China, training a number of professional and amateur choral conductors.

 

Professor Lingfen Wu is well known in the field of music and music education in China nationwide.