On the way to becoming a new international conductor, Qian Junping, a "post-90s generation", has experienced a long and persistent journey of self-exploration.
From the first time he watched the Vienna New Year's Concert on TV as a child, imitating the conductor's movements and performing the whole concert, he made his debut on stage to conduct the choir at the age of 10, then went to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in the United States, where he switched from viola to conducting major, and he continued Winning awards in international conducting competitions...Qian Junping still can't give a definite answer to what exactly it takes to become a conductor. He believes that desire is also a kind of talent, which means unlimited motivation, pushing him all the way to the podium.
This year, Qian Junping has started his tight performance schedule in China. He has conducted the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the China Symphony Orchestra. On May 17, he conducted the National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra to perform Brahms' "Symphony No. 1 in C minor" and collaborated with sheng player Wu Wei on "Phenomena" composed by German composer Bernd Richard Deutsch. . This is the last concert of the National Center for the Performing Artsâ âBrahms 190â series. Previous conductors on stage were Daniel Getty, Zheng Mingxun and Lu Jia. Next, Qian Junping will also conduct the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Chengdu Symphony Orchestra.
Qian Junping settled in Berlin and spent more and more time performing in China.
"Compared with China, the Western classical music market is definitely more sound and more professional. But the Chinese classical music market is developing rapidly, and there will be more room for work." Qian Junping said that for people like him The younger generation of musicians, after receiving education and training in the West, will choose to return to China to display their abilities. âWe will have more of a sense of participating in construction, because the entire Chinese classical music is moving towards increments and higher levels. Letâs go. How to bring the domestic orchestra to an international level is the first step we have to take.â
Put down the viola and step onto the podium
Qian Junping grew up in a military compound, both his parents and himself. I never thought that one day I would make music my career.
html learned violin at the age of 05. At that time, his parentsâ idea was to let this hyperactive boy calm down for a while. He still remembers the experience of being beaten for not practicing the piano when he was naughty as a child. He also remembers his obsession with practicing ten hours a day after immersing himself in the world of music.There are many children learning violin, but he is tall and has big hands. The teacher suggested that he change from violin to viola, which has fewer people. He was admitted to the viola major of the High School Affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Two years later, he received a full scholarship to enter the Asian Youth Orchestra and was elected as the concertmaster. In the same year, he went to Washington, USA to participate in the Johnson International Youth String Players Competition and won second place.
While winning competitions and winning awards everywhere, he discovered that he didnât like the timbre of the viola that much. âI respect people who are good at playing the viola very much, because I know how difficult it is. I prefer the surging and more tense timbre. , and the timbre of the viola is gentle and restrained, even internal, which doesn't suit my personality. "
At the age of 18, he was admitted to the world's top prestigious school, Curtis Institute of Music, as a viola major, but he had doubts about choosing the viola. Determination and wandering are becoming more and more obvious. He often went to see performances by the Philadelphia Orchestra and quietly studied the movements of chief conductor Charles Dutoit. "I had one goal in life at that time, to transfer to the conducting department."
His mentor at the time was Dean Roberto Diaz, who soon discovered that the boy from China was gradually losing interest in playing the piano. In an in-depth chat, Qian Junping said that he wanted to be a conductor. That day, Diaz paced back and forth in the room thinking, and finally invited a teacher to provide Qian Junping with additional courses such as score reading, conducting, counterpoint, etc., and asked him to study under the conductor Otto Varner. Mueller studied.
After Muller retired from the Conservatory of Music, Qian Junping became his close disciple and went to his home to take classes. Muller talked about conducting techniques and taught him all the common sense about conducting. He told him that the most important thing in conducting is the understanding of music, the ability to communicate with people and the ability to express himself.
He learned from Muller how to listen to the positions of different parts of the orchestra in the repertoire, and how to immediately understand which part or passage was more important after getting the score.
Wherever there is a need, I will go there
A student majoring in viola, even though he has taken courses in the conducting department, he still has no chance to lead a group on stage. He strives for opportunities everywhere, even if it is a community band, and even if he does not take any money, he still creates various opportunities to hone himself.
In July 2012, Qian Junping finally made his European debut as a conductor at the Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland. To occupy a place in the classical music world where there are many European conductors is an even more difficult journey for a young Chinese who is just starting out.
After graduating from Curtis, he was admitted to the conducting department of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, but he did not feel the professional atmosphere he yearned for. At that time, he happened to see that the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra was recruiting violinists. The orchestra's music director was the popular British conductor Daniel Harding. He submitted his resume to the conducting genius Harding, with a very clear goal: to experience the life of a professional musician in Europe while learning conducting from Harding.
He directly told Harding that he was a conductor by training. During rehearsals, he often asked Harding for advice on his conducting experience, such as how, as a young conductor, he could make the old members obey him. From Harding, he saw the talent of a conductor. The stretch, precision and smoothness of Harding's movements, as well as the tension, aesthetics and elegant taste of music, strengthened his belief.
After staying in the orchestra for a year and a half, Qian Junping was admitted to the Hanns Eisler Conservatoire in Berlin to study conducting. In 2017, he won the championship of the International Conducting Competition in Bucharest, Romania, and finally stepped onto the steps to the European podium.
html For more than 0 years, he has collaborated with different European orchestras as a guest conductor. Orchestras from different countries can give him a sense of freshness and train him to communicate with the orchestra in different ways.Orchestras he has conducted include the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, the Orchester de Paris, the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, the Rome Symphony Orchestra, the Paris Cologne Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, etc. The conductor Dutoit, whom he once imitated, praised him after hearing his concert, saying that he "has a natural commanding talent."
As a young Chinese conductor, how do you convince European orchestras? Qian Junping has his own experience, "You have to make the orchestra believe that you are the composer's 'spokesperson'. You have to give your basis and explanation to make people believe that your handling is correct."
He believes that, A conductor is much like a director, and a composer's score is like a script. The conductor gets the score, just like the director gets the script. By considering the composer's creative background, he extracts the patterns in the work and interprets the hidden information behind the score in different ways.
As an Asian conductor, he will try his best to add a wide range of diverse repertoire to his concerts. In 2024, Qian Junping was invited to conduct the Minnesota Orchestra's Lunar New Year concert for the third time, and included many repertoire from China, Vietnam and other Asian countries.
The longer he works in Europe, the more he feels about the problem of Eurocentrism. Europe's conservatism will also lead to the entire classical market being in a state of neither good nor bad, standing still. When he was in Scotland, an orchestra told him that they would not perform contemporary works like BartĂłk because there would be no box office.
He can also see that the European and American classical music market is shrinking. The "old money" in the United States who listens to classical music has been iterated. The new generation of audiences don't like to listen to classical music, and there is almost nothing they can do. In 2011, the Centennial Philadelphia Orchestra filed for bankruptcy, sounding the alarm in the American classical music market. In Europe, classical music, as a traditional culture, still has an audience, but it is becoming more and more solid, and there are always gray-haired people in the audience.
In contrast, China's performance market is booming. The construction of theaters across the country, the increase in the number of symphony orchestras, and the younger audience group have become a rare situation in the world's classical music market. In this sense, classical musicians like Qian Junping who choose to return to China are also following the trend of the times.
"There are so many orchestras in China that it is time to establish a foundation and move towards international standards." Qian Junping said that when he returned to China to conduct, it was more like he was exerting his due energy. "Wherever the concert needs me, I will do it." Where to go.â
(This article comes from China Business News)
