The Sydney Symphony Orchestra will tour China in summer, continuing its relationship with the mainland
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra's summer tour of China is part of its ongoing drive to promote Western classical music in the region, writes Sue Green
Hunan-born Yi Sun began learning the violin at age seven. He came from a musical home: his parents loved music and played several instrument, and his father was also an amateur composer and conductor. Yi learned fast and the talent that he showed led him to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he became a prize-winning student.
But for a young Chinese boy, it was an unusual choice. "At that time not many kids were learning the instrument," Yi recalls.
Fast-forward several decades and that boy is now associate concertmaster with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO), a position he has held since 2007. Ten years earlier, while concertmaster of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Yi moved to Australia for his master's degree, and settled there with his wife and three children.
The relationship with China is really ongoing, so it is less about parachuting the orchestra into China and then leaving
Meanwhile, his orchestra is building a long-term relationship with the mainland, and has announced this month their seven-stop China tour between June 22 and July 6.
And for young boys in China, learning the violin is not so unusual anymore. "There are 40 million people learning the violin in China; there is an enormous market for what we do," SSO managing director Rory Jeffes says.
But he is quick to emphasise that this relationship is not about the orchestra making a fast buck. "We are in this for the long term," he says. "We have some of the finest musicians in the world and we want to share them with China."
Yi agrees. "I love to go back to play in China and get to show my orchestra with such a good standard," he says.
With so much more contact between China and the West than when he began playing Western classical music, it is now a showcase for some of the world's top musicians. But Yi believes that under the baton of its new chief conductor, American David Robertson, who took up the post in February after a decade of guest appearances, Sydney's symphony deserves to be in such company.