Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra

The Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra (“XPO”) is based in the coastal city of Xiamen, Fujian province, in southeastern China. It is the only non-state-owned and self-financing symphony orchestra in China. Its founder, artistic director, and principal conductor is Professor Zheng XiaoYing, China’s first female conductor. Since its debut performance in 1998 at the Music Island Philharmonic Hall, XPO has held regular weekend concerts and music education programs.

Under the dynamic directorship of Maestro Zheng, XPO has been enthusiastically received both at home and abroad. In collaboration with over 350 guest musicians, the orchestra has given more than 800 concerts during the past ten seasons. With an 180-plus repertoire that includes both Chinese and Western musical selections, XPO has toured throughout China and given captivating performances in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, France, Germany, Austria and Italy. Most recently, Maestro Fu RenChang, principal conductor of Das Sinfonie Orchester Berlin, has joined XPO as associate artistic director.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of XPO is its commitment to weave elements of the indigenous local cultures of Fujian into its performances. Its award-winning symphonic epic, Fujian Tulou: Echoes of Tradition and Ingenuity, exemplifies this unique genre of musical expression.

The eighty-plus members of the XPO hail from all over China. Their collective vision is to transform the beautiful city of Xiamen into an "Island Paradise of Music and the Arts."

ZHENG Xiaoying, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the XPO

Professor Zheng XiaoYing is China’s first female conductor and one of the country’s preeminent conductors of world renown. During her distinguished career, she has conducted over 2,000 operatic and symphonic performances worldwide and has been accorded numerous national and international awards and accolades.

A former director of the Conducting Department at China Central Conservatory of Music, Professor Zheng is currently the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra. After graduating from China Central Conservatory of Music, China’s most prestigious institution of music training, Professor Zheng pursued advanced studies in conducting for operas and symphonies under N. Anosov and G. Roshgestvensky at the Moscow National Conservatory in the 1960’s. She became the Principal Conductor of China Central Opera Theatre in the 1980’s.

A true maestro, Professor Zheng has trained many of China’s younger generation of conductors. She has always been an enthusiastic advocate of grass-roots level music education and has given thousands of music lectures across China. In appreciation of her wide-ranging civic contributions, Professor Zheng has received recognition on multiple levels. In 2008, she was selected as a torch-runner for the city of Xiamen during the Olympic Games.

Tulou and Fujian Tulou

Tulou is a broadly descriptive label for a centuries-old building type that represents a vernacular architecture found in several southeastern Chinese provinces, most notably Fujian. Over twenty thousand of these extraordinary clan dwellings still stand today, a handful of which are over 600 years old.

After the migration of the Hakka (an ethnic subgroup of Han Chinese) and other peoples from central China to southeastern China centuries ago, many were forced to settle in the mountainous and less fertile regions where they built tower-like communal houses that were large enough to house a whole clan and to provide protection against outlaws. The older examples of this style of construction consist of interior buildings enclosed by huge peripheral ones holding hundreds of rooms including ancestral halls, bedrooms, and storage rooms. Organized around a large central court, most tulou were encircled by thick earthen walls, with only a single heavy door leading to the outside world.

A unique feature of the tulou is the echo effect that reverberates around the building. While some tulou were made of earthen material, others were constructed from stone, bamboo, wood, or cut granite; some even had substantial walls of fired brick. Most large-scale tulou seen today were built of a composite mixture of earth, sand, and lime. Tulou vary in size and design, and can be circular, rectangular, triangular, pentagonal or octagonal, among other shapes. Many tulou were well-lit, well-ventilated, and windproof buildings that were warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

As the most representative and best preserved examples of the tulou building type, Fujian Tulou comprise a small and specialized subgroup of tulou that are known for their unique shape, large scale, and ingenious structure. In 2008, UNESCO designated 46 Fujian Tulou in south-west Fujian province as a World Heritage site.

Fujian Tulou: Echoes of Tradition and Ingenuity

This symphonic epic in five movements is a celebration of the pioneering spirit of the Hakka people. It is a passionate masterpiece blending Western symphonic elements with traditional Chinese musical features.