On the morning of September 15th, at the Shanghai Concert Hall, the weekly radio concert was held as scheduled. After playing the last note of the classic aria "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's opera "Turandot", the audience gave warm and lasting applause. The Nantong University Symp

It only took 4 years for

to start from the art college of a local comprehensive university, to establish a standard orchestra, and then to compete frequently in competitions last year, win many awards, and become a city card of Nantong. . And behind this "debut is the peak" and almost violent growth, there is a wonderful story.

In the words of band leader and violinist Qin Fang, the band’s current performance is “the result of the right time, right place, and right people.”

directed by Robert.

In 2020, 37-year-old Robert Fiore left the Conservatory of Music of Guizhou Normal University, where he had worked for 4 years, and became a "Northern drifter". graduated from the conducting major of the Respighi Conservatory of Music in Italy, the Conservatoire of Rome and the Conservatory of Music in Krakow, Poland; taught at the Atlantic Coast College in Porto, Portugal, and the Creves Conservatory of Music in Rome, and conducted the Milan Symphony Orchestra, Milan Nuova Cameristica Chamber Orchestra, Poland Rybnik Youth Symphony Orchestra; , an Italian who grew up in an operatic environment, has a complete resume of European professional musicians.

In 2017, with curiosity about the mysterious East, Robert began his adventure career in China. Four years of conducting and coaching experience in Guizhou allowed Robert, who loves China, to conduct daily band rehearsals and teaching in Chinese. After finishing his tenure at the school, he decided to stay in China. While drifting to Beijing, he accidentally learned from Wu Rong, the deputy dean of the School of Arts of Nantong University, that the school had the idea of ​​establishing an orchestra. Robert decided to go south again, but this time his destination was Nantong, Jiangsu.

Considering the situation at that time, establishing a student symphony orchestra in Nantong was probably a fantasy. The music major of Nantong University School of Arts not only cannot recruit teachers for all parts of orchestral music, but also because of the provincial unified recruitment rules, it is difficult to guarantee the recruitment of professional students. What kind of students who can play musical instruments can be recruited every year are basically in a state. The state of opening the blind box.

Just when Robert was feeling quite distressed, Qin Fang, the school's violin teacher, became his first friend.

Violinist Qin Fang.

Qin Fang is a legend in the Nantong music industry. Born into a musical family, he graduated from Nanjing University of the Arts with a major in violin. He has held many special concerts as a performer, and his more important identity is that he is a golden signature in Nantong violin education: many of his students have passed the Central Conservatory of Music, Shanghai Conservatory of Music and other first-class domestic schools; there are also many musicians who later studied abroad and became performers, or entered the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Shanghai Opera House to embark on a career path.

Qin Fang does not like the utilitarianism prevalent in the music education world. He always takes the trouble to say that the goal of practicing piano should not be to take exams, but to understand music, enjoy music, and then improve one's artistic accomplishments as a student. The purpose of piano. The pure love for classical music and Robert's concept hit it off. After all, in his hometown in Italy, music is a happy activity that can be started at any time on the street and inspired by feelings.

If there is a shortage of musicians, we will start with a smaller group; if the students are not capable enough, the teachers will first form a chamber music group to perform and provide samples for the students.

When there were no classes, Wu Rong and Qin Fang always took Robert to eat and drink together. Robert said that he would be depressed and homesick when he was alone, but the kindness shown to him by the teachers in this school made him stay in Nantong. It feels like home.

On the stage of Shanghai Concert Hall, Robert shook hands with Chief Qin Fang.

introduced Robert. The school’s 3+1 Sino-foreign cooperative undergraduate education project approved by the Ministry of Education in 2019 is an important background. The project opened the door to the introduction of international talents.

Under repeated planning with the Cooperation and Exchange Office of Nantong University, Tongda Art College has set a strategy to further expand the team of foreign teachers and foreign aid. On the one hand, through Robert's international relationships and connections, more professional foreign talents are recruited; on the other hand, Nantong is used to take advantage of its location in the Yangtze River Delta to run schools through cooperation with professional academies such as the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, inviting Experts in the industry come to Nantong every week to teach students.

Robert is with the foreign teachers.

is so comprehensive. In the following two years, the School of Art successively introduced a number of foreign teachers, which not only enriched the teaching team, but also laid the foundation for the establishment of a comprehensive symphony orchestra. Currently, the Nantong University Symphony Orchestra has 9 foreign teachers, covering all string parts, as well as flute, bassoon, oboe, and piano.

Orchestra's foreign bassoon teacher Jamshid Shotbayev was the former bassoon principal of Uzbekistan Symphony Orchestra.

The first teachers who arrived were like seeds, attracting friends and constantly expanding the band’s international circle of friends; as for the school, as long as they are international talents with professional resumes that meet the requirements, they will also work hard to promote the recruitment of teachers at the school. matters.

Foreign cello teacher Ivo Martinej is a professional performer and a big internet celebrity active on Chinese online platforms such as Bilibili.

Among these foreign teachers, there are professional cellists from Italy who have collaborated with ema record company to record multiple CD albums; there are first prize winners in Russia and many international piano competitions; there are also students from the Uzbekistan National Symphony Orchestra. Principal and deputy principal of violin, viola, double bass and bassoon.

Viola foreign teacher Artem Grebennikov, he was the principal viola of the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan and the National Musical Comedy Theater of Uzbekistan.

Regarding the joining of these foreign teachers, Qin Fang said: "They are all professional performers with years of stage experience. With their level, they can definitely be admitted to any top orchestra in China."

Foreign violin teacher Lilia ·Sebakova. She once served as the concertmaster of the Uzbekistan National Symphony Orchestra. In 2018, she was awarded the "Shukhrat" Medal personally awarded by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev for her outstanding performance and professionalism.

As for why foreign musicians are willing to settle down in Nantong, a small city by the river and the sea, Wu Rong has her own understanding: “We offer foreign teachers a salary of associate professor level, which is competitive in the industry; but more The most important thing is to exchange hearts with each other. We have continued the tradition of regular work dinners with Robert. We often organize gatherings at our own expense, so that foreign teachers can express frankly the problems and confusions they encounter in work and life. The band manager can respond and solve the teachers' ideas in a targeted manner. Slowly, the band becomes a big family that no one can live without. "

From a quartet to an octet, To a small orchestra, under the leadership of foreign teachers, the student band of Nantong University grew rapidly.At the same time, the orchestra's shortcomings in lack of wind instrument talents have become increasingly obvious. After all, the quality of an orchestra is often determined by its wind instruments - the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam can sometimes even surpass the Berlin Philharmonic in international rankings, precisely because its wind instrument lineup has unrivaled performance in the industry.

In order to solve the shortcomings of wind music, the Academy of Art has further formulated a "talent attraction strategy": they have set their sights on young Chinese musicians who have embarked on a professional path and graduated from first-class international institutions. Zhang Chaoyue, who has a Ph.D. in flute performance in the United States, Ph.D. in clarinet performance in Russia, Wang Yuepeng, and has a Ph.D. in trumpet performance in Europe. Yang Jiazheng, these professional musicians with shining academic experience have finally made this student band step by step. It has grown into an orchestra that can perform large-scale symphony performances.

flute teacher Zhang Chaoyue. She has long-term overseas study and performance experience, and will release a personal flute performance album in 2022.

In June this year, a small instrumental ensemble composed of 11 student members in the orchestra participated in the 7th National College Student Art Exhibition organized by the Ministry of Education. Through competitive selection from the province to the country, he finally won the national first prize in the instrumental music category. The outstanding results have attracted the attention of Nanjing University of the Arts, Suzhou University and other traditional art schools in the province.

So far in 2024, the orchestra has completed 4 special concert performances at the Nantong Grand Theater, "Haobin Summer Night" city stage, school theater and other stages. From school to society, and then to Shanghai, the orchestra has grown rapidly.

The orchestra’s gradually growing reputation has also brought direct dividends to the School of Art’s enrollment. In previous years, most of the students allocated from the province were mainly folk music and vocal music; in the past two years, more and more students majoring in orchestral instruments have noticed Nantong University, and many of them have applied for the exam just to join the orchestra. School. The new situation, in turn, gave the band the hope of increasing the number of vocals currently lacking.

The sincere love for music from the school administrators to all teachers and students has formed a synergy for the growth of the band. After getting the opportunity to perform a special performance at the Shanghai Concert Hall, the whole group entered an intense "preparation mode."

The band's rehearsal lasted until half an hour before the performance, when the audience entered the venue.

Throughout the past semester, teachers of each voice part went through small classes one by one, carefully correcting the students' intonation, position, phrases, and timbre processing. Two months before the performance, the whole troupe, under the leadership of Robert, practiced together day and night. Until the day before the performance, just before boarding the bus, everyone was still practicing the ensemble in the rehearsal hall.

Italian opera works are romantic, complex, and rich in musical color; the music selections for the concert are all from the overtures, interludes, and finales of the operas. They are all pieces that highlight the composer's orchestral writing ability and ideas, and challenge the individual performance of the musicians. Ability also tests the conductor’s understanding of the work.

On the stage of the Shanghai Concert Hall, Roberto’s Italian musical genes were clearly presented in the concert, which won unanimous praise from the industry insiders and the audience. This young orchestra finally took the step to enter Shanghai. The success of the

concert proves that the two paths that the Nantong University Symphony Orchestra has taken are exactly what the title implies.

First, practice is promoted through drills, and learning is promoted through practice. Through large-scale and difficult works, students can quickly improve their performance abilities and subtly help students understand how to play in a band. The current classical music education system has always focused on solos. Even in first-class music schools, there is a bottleneck in cultivating band talents. The establishment of university symphony orchestras can face this realistic teaching dilemma.

The second is the combined force of teaching, learning and social forces.While establishing a performance model in which teachers lead students, the orchestra will still open its doors to outstanding graduates from the past as long as they stay in Nantong to work and live. This can effectively offset the impact of student mobility on the stability of the orchestra's performance. Many violinists in the

band are past graduates of Nantong University.

Although for the musicians, the economic benefits of rehearsals and performances are better than nothing at the moment, the professional background of the teachers. This determines their need and pursuit to perform professionally on large stages; on the other hand, after graduates take up their jobs, some serve as music teachers in primary and secondary schools, and some teach in social education institutions. They lack the ability to pass Practice in the band to improve your business literacy. The existence of the school band provides a valuable stage for everyone.

As the two roads were opened step by step, the Nantong University Student Symphony Orchestra changed its name to the current Nantong University Symphony Orchestra. In the future, they plan to change their name again to Nantong University International Symphony Orchestra to highlight its unique international background and professional standards among domestic universities.

Before the performance, old colleagues from Uzbekistan National Symphony Orchestra could not hide their excitement to return to the big stage and took a group photo.

Qin Fang and the students were waiting backstage.

After the performance at the Shanghai Concert Hall, he watched the students excitedly lift the cello teacher from Italy above their heads, laughing and making trouble, and he was reluctant to leave again: "When I can perform "Bedo" with this orchestra, "Symphony No. 9", I really quit."

Wu Rong sat in the audience and watched the musicians' performance.

Wu Rong also has her own dream: "I want to strive for a bigger stage for everyone. Our surrounding cities, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Wuxi, all have their own city symphony orchestras, but Nantong does not. This one grew up from the university If the orchestra one day becomes a city symphony orchestra belonging to Nantong and a city's cultural calling card, it will truly have a firm foothold and can go far.”