event photos: Chung Cheng event photos: Xu XiaoPei

The Shanghai Quartet

Over the past 40 years, the Shanghai Quartet has become one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles. The Shanghai’s elegant style, impressive technique, and emotional breadth allows the group to move seamlessly between masterpieces of Western music, traditional Chinese folk music, and cutting-edge contemporary works. Formed at the Shanghai Conservatory in 1983, soon after the end of China’s harrowing Cultural Revolution, the group came to the United States to complete its studies; since then the members have been based in the U.S. while maintaining a robust touring schedule at leading chamber-music series throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

Recent performance highlights include performances at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Freer Gallery (Washington, D.C.), and the Festival Pablo Casals in France, and Beethoven cycles for the Brevard Music Center, the Beethoven Festival in Poland, and throughout China. The Quartet also frequently performs at Wigmore Hall, the Budapest Spring Festival, Suntory Hall, and has collaborations with the NCPA and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras. Upcoming highlights include the premiere of a new work by Marcos Balter for the Quartet and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo for the Phillips Collection, return performances for Maverick Concerts and the Taos School of Music, and engagements in Los Angeles, Syracuse, Albuquerque, and Salt Lake City.

Among innumberable collaborations with eminent artists, they have performed with the Tokyo, Juilliard, and Guarneri Quartets; cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Harrell; pianists Menahem Pressler, Peter Serkin, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Yuja Wang; pipa virtuoso Wu Man; and the vocal ensemble Chanticleer. The Shanghai Quartet appears regularly at many of North America’s most prominent chamber-music festival, including annual performances for Maverick Concerts, the Brevard Music Center, and Music Mountain.

The Shanghai Quartet has a long history of championing new music, with a special interest in works that juxtapose the traditions of Eastern and Western music. The Quartet has commissioned works from an encyclopedic list of the most important composers of our time, including William Bolcom, Sebastian Currier, David Del Tredici, Tan Dun, Vivian Fung, Lowell Lieberman, Zhou Long, Marc Neikrug, Krzysztof Penderecki, Bright Sheng, Chen Yi, and Du Yun. The Quartet had a particularly close relationship with Krzysztof Penderecki; they premiered his third quartet – Leaves From an Unwritten Diary – at the composer’s 75th birthday concert and repeated it again at both his 80th and 85th birthday celebrations. Forthcoming and recent commissions include new works from Judith Weir, Tan Dun, and Wang Lei, in addition to a new work from Penderecki.

The Shanghai Quartet has an extensive discography of more than thirty recordings, ranging from Schumann and Dvorak piano quintets with Rudolf Buchbinder to Zhou Long’s Poems from Tang for string quartet and orchestra with the Singapore Symphony. The Quartet has recorded the complete Beethoven string quartets and is currently recording the complete Bartók quartets.

A diverse array of media projects run the gamut from a cameo appearance playing Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4 in Woody Allen’s film Melinda and Melinda to PBS television’s Great Performances series. Violinist Weigang Li appeared in the documentary From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China, and the family of cellist Nicholas Tzavaras was the subject of the film Music of the Heart, starring Meryl Streep.

Serving as Quartet-in-Residence at the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University since 2002, the Shanghai Quartet joined The Tianjin (China) Juilliard School in fall 2020 as resident faculty members. The Quartet also is the Ensemble-in-Residence with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and visiting guest professors of the Shanghai Conservatory and Central Conservatory in Beijing. They are proudly sponsored by Thomastik-Infeld Strings and BAM Cases.

Weigang Li 李偉綱, violin

Born into a family of well-known musicians in Shanghai, Weigang Li began studying the violin with his parents when he was 5 and went on to attend the Shanghai Conservatory Middle School at age 14. Three years later, in 1981, he was selected to go to study for one year at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music through the first cultural exchange program between the sister cities of Shanghai and San Francisco. In 1985, upon graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory, Weigang Li left China to continue his studies at Northern Illinois University and later studied and taught at The Juilliard School. Besides his parents, other important teachers have included Shmuel Ashkenasi, Tan Shu-Chen, Robert Mann and Isadore Tinkleman.

Mr. Li was featured in the 1980 Oscar winning documentary film From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China. He made his solo debut at 17 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as soloist with the Shanghai Symphony, China Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony and Asian Youth Orchestra.

Weigang Li is a founding member and first violinist of the world-renowned Shanghai Quartet since 1983. Now in its 38th season, the Shanghai Quartet has performed nearly 3,000 concerts in 35 countries and recorded over 30 albums, including a highly acclaimed 7-disc set of complete Beethoven string quartets.

Weigang Li is currently a violin professor at The Tianjin Juilliard School, an Artist-in-Residence at Montclair State University in New Jersey and also a violin professor at Bard College Conservatory of Music. He also holds the title of guest concertmaster of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and guest professor at both the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Angelo Xiang Yu 于翔, violin

Violinist Angelo Xiang Yu, recipient of both a 2019 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2019 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, as well as First Prize in the 2010 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, has won consistent critical acclaim and enthusiastic audience response worldwide for his astonishing technique and exceptional musical maturity.

In North America, Mr. Yu recently appeared as a soloist with a number of major orchestras including the San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver, Houston, Colorado, North Carolina, San Antonio, Puerto Rico, and Charlotte Symphonies, as well as the Rochester and Calgary Philharmonic among others. Internationally, he has appeared with the New Zealand Symphony, Shanghai Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia, Norwegian Radio Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra and the Oslo Philharmonic.

An active recitalist and chamber musician, he has performed in a number of world-renowned venues such as the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Louvre in Paris, National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Victoria Theater in Singapore, Shanghai Symphony Hall, Oslo Opera House, Auckland Town Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Jordan Hall and Symphony Hall in Boston. In March 2017, Mr. Yu was chosen to be a member of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two).

Mr. Yu is also a frequent guest at major summer music festivals including the Ravinia, Aspen, Grant Park, Chamber Music Northwest, as well as at the Verbier and Bergen Festivals in Europe. He also serves as artist faculty at Music @ Menlo and the Sarasota Music Festival.

Mr. Yu joined the faculty at the New England Conservatory Preparatory in 2015, and also serves as a guest faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the fall of 2020, he became the newest member of the Shanghai Quartet. He serves as an Artist-in-Residence at the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University and as a resident faculty member at The Tianjin Juilliard School.

Born in Inner Mongolia China, Angelo Xiang Yu moved to Shanghai at the age of 11 and received his early training from violinist Qing Zheng at the Shanghai Conservatory. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master's degrees as well as the prestigious Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory where he was a student of Donald Weilerstein and Miriam Fried, and served as Mr. Weilerstein’s teaching assistant.

Mr. Yu currently performs on the 1715 “Joachim” Stradivarius violin, generously on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation. 

Honggang Li 李宏剛, viola

Honggang Li is a founding member of the Shanghai Quartet, which is now in its 38th season and has performed nearly 3,000 concerts in 35 countries and recorded over 30 albums.

Mr. Li began studying the violin with his parents at age seven. When the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing reopened in 1977 after the Cultural Revolution, Mr. Li was selected to attend from a group of over five hundred applicants. Among his teachers were Li-Na Yu and Shmuel Ashkenasi.

He co-founded the Shanghai Quartet with his brother while studying at the Shanghai Conservatory. The ensemble soon became the first Chinese quartet to win a major international chamber music competition (the London International). Mr. Li received a master’s degree from North Illinois University and served as a teaching assistant at The Juilliard School in New York. In 1987, he won the special prize (a 1757 DeCable violin) given by Elisa Pegreffi of the Quartetto Italiano at the First Paolo Borciani International Quartet Competition in Italy.

Mr. Li started his teaching career at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1984. He is currently an Artist-in-Residence and faculty member at the Montclair State University. He also is a resident faculty member at the recently opened Tianjin Juilliard School and viola professor at the Bard Conservatory. He has been a guest professor of both the Shanghai and Beijing’s Central Conservatory for the past two decades. Mr. Li has also been the guest principal violist of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra since 2009.  

Sihao He 何思昊,cello

Cellist Sihao He first came into international prominence in 2008 as a 14-year-old cellist winning first prize at the International Antonio Janigro Cello Competition in Croatia. Later that same year, he won the National Cello Competition in China. He is also the Grand Prize winner of the prestigious 3rd Gaspar Cassadó International Cello Competition in Japan, a laureate of the Queen Elizabeth International Cello Competition International and Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians. In 2019, he won 3rd prize in Munich’s ARD International Music Competition.

He has appeared in numerous concerts both as a soloist with leading orchestras and in recitals. After winning the Grand Prize at the 3rd Gaspar Cassado Competition, he performed a recital tour in Japan and China. As a soloist, He has performed with many leading orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Münchener Kammerorchester, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, Orquestra Sinfônica de Piracicaba in Brazil, and the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra in China.

As a chamber musician, he has appeared at Music@Menlo, Bravo!Vail, Meadowmount School of Music and Rome Chamber Music Festival. As a member of the Galvin Cello Quartet, he won the 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition and joined the Concert Artists Guild roster. Before coming to the US, his string quartet, Simply Quartet, won first prize at the Haydn Invitational Chamber Music Competition in Shanghai, China and was awarded “The Most Promising Young String Quartet” at the 4th Beijing International Chamber Music Competition. In March 2020, He was chosen to be a member of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two).

Born in Shanghai, China, He holds a bachelor's degree from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University where he studied with Hans Jørgen Jensen and Julie Albers, and holds a master's degree from the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. He is currently attending the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University for his D.M.A. degree under the tutelage of Hans Jørgen Jensen. He served as a faculty member at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University and is now a resident faculty at the Tianjin Juilliard School.

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
By Dr. Jannie Burdeti

Joseph Haydn:
String Quartet in G minor, Op. 74, No. 3, “Rider”
I. Allegro
II. Largo assai
III. Menuetto: Allegretto – Trio
IV. Finale: Allegro con brio

Franz Joseph Haydn—affectionally known as “Papa Haydn” even during his lifetime—has long been regarded as both “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet.” Although he did not in fact invent these genres, his vast contribution of more than 104 symphonies and 68 quartets was fundamental in shaping them into the forms we recognize today. In the realm of the string quartet, Haydn elevated the genre to a true conversation among four equals. But this evolution was the result of decades of continuous experimentation and refinement.

While string quartets at their humble beginnings were a simple form made for entertainment, resembling light divertimentos or solos for the violin with string accompaniment, under his wing, they would become sophisticated and elegant four-movement conversations. Even the cello, once confined largely to harmonic support, was liberated into a fully expressive voice capable of lyrical and virtuosic lines, marking the end of the first violin’s longstanding supremacy.

In 1793, at the time he composed his String Quartet in G minor, Op. 74, No. 3, Haydn was a celebrated composer and newly retired. For nearly three decades, he had served as Kapellmeister to the Esterházy family. He dedicated his Opp. 71 and 74 quartets (six works in total, three in each set), to Count Anton Georg Apponyi—hence their designation as the “Apponyi” quartets. His G minor quartet is the most famous of the set.

The quartet begins with an arresting unison gesture of acciaccaturas (crushed grace notes), followed by a long, charged silence before the first theme emerges. In this brief opening lies the seed of what will follow: a remarkable organic development that anticipates the structural economy later associated with Ludwig van Beethoven. While the first theme is somber and dark, beginning in the cello, the second theme offers a genial, dance-like waltz. A short development follows, leading to a dramatic climax, before the return is ushered in.

The slow movement, in E major—a key often associated with the transcendent—unfolds as an ethereal, hymn-like meditation. Its melody becomes increasingly ornamented with each return, lending the movement a reverent atmosphere. The Menuetto begins with a gentle lilt, its elegance balanced by a more serious Trio in the minor key.

The Finale is the source of the quartet’s moniker, “The Rider.” Its galloping rhythm, spread between the instruments, evokes the sound of a galloping horse. The virtuosic first violin part propels the movement forward with brilliance and drive.

Tan Dun:
Feng Ya Song (String Quartet No. 1)
I. Feng (folk song)
II. Ya (art song / court music)
III. Song (ritual song)

Hailing from Hunan, China, the affable composer Tan Dun, describes his hometown as the same city that is mentioned in Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. Having grown up during the Cultural Revolution, his early success while still a student in China came with winning a prize as the first Chinese composer in the Dresden International Weber Chamber Music Competition in 1983. The work that was awarded was his String Quartet No. 1, titled Feng Ya Song, referring to one of the oldest collections of Chinese poetry, the “Book of Songs.” Tan Dun later burst into widespread public fame through his film score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Tan Dun explains the Chinese meaning of Feng Ya Song as folk song, court music, and ritual hymn, respectively. While his award in the competition made some people from his country proud, its amalgamation of strikingly modern language with that of traditional Chinese elements at the time created quite a stir and the Chinese government viewed the work as a protest, banning it from public performances. The work is rooted in the Western tradition of the string quartet, its musical language bears the influence of indigenous Chinese music as well as that of his musical heroes Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók, and all the while, the work is composed through the filter of Taoist aesthetic ideals. Largely atonal, the quartet, according to musicologist Peter Chang, “shows a conscious attempt to modernize Chinese music and to make contemporary Chinese music compatible with its Western counterpart.”

The first movement, Feng, referring to folk music, begins with an ancient and almost primitive atmosphere. He employs techniques such as pizzicati (plucking), glissandi (sliding), and percussive bowing, to create uncommon timbres of gentleness, increased intensity, and space. The second movement, Ya, representing court music, offers a marked contrast: the music evokes refinement. Silence also plays a meaningful role here. The final movement, Song, refers to ritual music. It is visceral and contains a raw, almost primal energy. After much rhythmic interplay, the work ends in a persuasive solidarity between the four musicians.

In 2018, Feng Ya Song: String Quartet No. 1 was revised for the Shanghai Quartet. It stands as more than an early composition—it is a defining statement of Tan Dun’s artistic voice. It signals his lifelong exploration of sound, ritual, and cultural synthesis.

George Gershwin:
Lullaby

George Gershwin contributed an immense catalogue of works during his short life of thirty-eight years. Moreover, he irreversibly altered the course of American music through his remarkable synthesis of jazz, blues, popular song, and classical tradition. In fact, his unique musical style was so compelling that he was refused composition lessons by the likes of Nadia Boulanger, Arnold Schoenberg, and Maurice Ravel because they did not want to dilute his individuality.

Gershwin’s Lullaby was conceived at the age of twenty-one for his harmony and orchestration teacher, Edward Kilenyi. He shared it among his close associates, who performed it a number of times in private settings to great liking. While the Lullaby would later be repurposed in his one-act opera, “Blue Monday,” the original form of the string quartet would not be publicly performed until 1967.

Cast in ABA form, the work begins gently with harmonics in the first violin, echoed by the cello in a rocking, lullaby lilt. The melody that ensues is characteristically American with its bluesy undertones and swing. The middle section becomes more subdued before the gentle and charming melody from the opening is welcomed once again. George’s brother, Ira, wrote, “It may not be the Gershwin of Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F, and his other concert works, but I find it charming and kind.”

Antonín Dvořák:
String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96 “American”
I. Allegro ma non troppo
II. Lento
III. Molto vivace
IV. Finale: Vivace ma non troppo

“When I look back on my thirty-five years as president of the American National Conservatory of Music, there is nothing I would be more proud of than the fact that I succeeded in bringing Dr. Dvořák to America.” -Jeanette Thurber

Born near Prague, Antonín Dvořák was, by the late twentieth century, widely considered as the most successful composer in Europe after Johannes Brahms. Through the vision and patronage of philanthropist Jeanette Thurber, he was invited to America in 1892, shortly after his fiftieth birthday. She offered him the directorship of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, with the stipulation that he help develop a new style of serious art music that expressed

American nationalism—an especially apt request, given Dvořák’s own role in shaping a distinctly Czech musical voice in Europe.

Despite suffering from agoraphobia, the reasons that led him to accept this position are varied and speculative. One factor, however, was undoubtedly Thurber’s extraordinary offer of a salary no less than twenty-five times what he earned in Prague, along with travel expenses for his entire family. With six children to provide for, his wife ultimately convinced him to accept the opportunity. Dvořák remained in the United States for three years (1892–1895), during which he composed some of his most beloved works, including the Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”), the String Quartet in F major (“American”), the String Quartet in E-flat major, the Sonatina for Violin and Piano, and the Cello Concerto in B minor.

Throughout his tenure, the urban environment of New York brought Dvořák much anxiety, often driving him to seek relief in the countryside. In the summer of 1893, during a holiday in Spillville, Iowa—a Bohemian settlement—he found both the familiarity of home and the restorative power of nature. After the stress of his first year in New York, he thoroughly enjoyed the rural bliss of the town, which proved deeply stimulating for his creativity.

Dvořák’s String Quartet in F major, Op. 96 (“American”) emerged from his creative consciousness in a mere three days and was completed in less than two weeks. Set in the key of F major—long associated with the pastoral since the Baroque era—the work exudes his joy at being immersed once again in nature. He even remarked that Spillville was the first time he had heard birdsong after months in the “concrete jungle.”

The work opens with a murmuring texture before a bucolic, pentatonic melody emerges in the viola—Dvořák’s primary instrument. This theme bears traces of Native American and African American musical idioms, the very music he was enjoying, studying, and absorbing during his time in the United States. The second theme offers a more flowing, lyrical contrast, while the brief development incorporates fugal writing, revealing Dvořák’s roots in European musical training.

The extraordinary slow movement is imbued with a melancholic spirit. Its melodies are redolently Schubertian—songful and of “heavenly lengths.” After more passionate writing in the violins, the cello brings the movement to a close with a quiet, almost funereal lament.

While composing the third movement, Dvořák is said to have become fascinated with the birdsong of what was long thought to be a scarlet tanager (though this has since been disputed). He incorporates this distinctly American bird into the first violin part. The Trio provides contrast, offering a lighter, more dance-like character.

A celebratory Finale follows, pulsating with the relief and cheerfulness of being in nature. The movement seems to buzz with the sounds of the natural world. A central section echoes the hymn-like music of the local church that Dvořák likely heard on Sundays, where he and his wife were active participants, while also recalling the lyrical character of the slow movement.

Dvořák later wrote: “When I wrote this quartet in the Czech community of Spillville in 1893, I wanted to write something that was very melodious and straightforward, and dear Papa Haydn kept appearing before my eyes, and that is why it all turned out so simply. And it is good that it did.”

Shanghai Quartet celebrate 40^th anniversary on Friday, April 10, 2026, 8pm
新聞稿: 上海四重奏將於2026年4月10日（星期5）晚8點重返喬丹音樂廳, 慶祝40週年

中華表演藝術基金會第37屆音樂季第4場音樂會，將於 2026 年4月10日週5晚上八時，邀請上海四重奏 (The Shanghai Quartet) 重返新英格蘭音樂學院的喬丹音樂廳 (Jordan Hall), 舉辦慶祝40週年的音樂會。

上海四重奏已成為世界最頂尖的室內樂團之一。四十多年來一直是亞洲弦樂四重奏演奏的標竿。 《紐約時報》盛贊其為「極其崇高而卓越」 。

樂團於1983年成立於上海音樂學院，其後成員赴美深造，自此一直以美國為基地，同時在北美、歐洲及亞洲的重要室內樂系列音樂會中保持活躍的巡演行程。上海四重奏優雅的風格、令人讚嘆的技巧，以及廣闊的情感表達，使樂團能在西方音樂名作、傳統中國民間音樂與最前沿的當代作品之間自由穿梭。

近期的演出亮點包括卡內基音樂廳、大都會藝術博物館、佛瑞爾(Freer Gallery)藝廊（華盛頓特區）、法國巴布羅．卡薩爾斯 (Pablo Casals) 音樂節，以及在布里瓦德 (Brevard) 音樂中心、波蘭貝多芬音樂節及中國各地的《貝多芬全集》系列。他們也經常在維格摩爾 (Wigmore) 音樂廳、布達佩斯 (Budapest) 春季藝術節、三得利 (Suntory) 音樂廳演出，並與中國國家大劇院及上海交響樂團合作。

在無數與頂尖藝術家的合作中，上海四重奏曾與東京、茱莉亞及瓜奈里 (Guarneri) 四重奏合作；與大提琴家馬友友、林恩．哈瑞爾 (Lynn Harrell),鋼琴家梅納赫姆．普萊斯勒 (Menahem Pressler)、彼得．塞金 (Peter Serkin)、尚—伊夫．蒂博戴 (Jean-Yves Thibaudet)、王羽佳；琵琶演奏家吳蠻, 等共同演出。也經常受邀參與北美最具聲望的室內樂音樂節。

上海四重奏長期致力於推廣新音樂，特別關注將東西方音樂傳統並置的創作。樂團擁有超過三十張錄音作品，從與魯道夫．布赫賓德 (Rudolf Buchbinder) 合作的舒曼與德弗札克 (Dvorak) 鋼琴五重奏，到與新加坡交響樂團合作、周龍的《唐詩》弦樂四重奏與樂團作品，皆涵蓋其中。

上海四重奏自 2002 年起擔任蒙特克萊 (Montclair) 州立大學音樂學院的駐團四重奏後，上海四重奏於 2020 年秋季加入茱莉亞天津學院，擔任駐校教師。樂團同時也是上海交響樂團的常駐合奏團，並擔任上海音樂學院與北京中央音樂學院的客座教授。

上海四重奏的創始成員是小提琴家李偉綱與中提琴家李宏剛兄弟二人。小提琴家于翔於 2020 年加入，大提琴家何思昊於 2024 年加入。于翔曾就讀於新英格蘭音樂學院，獲得學士（BA）、碩士（MM）以及享有盛譽的藝術家文憑（Artist Diploma），師從 Donald Weilerstein 和 Miriam Fried，並曾擔任 Weilerstein 教授的助教。他在波士頓地區廣為人知，深受學生與樂迷的喜愛。

2026年4月10日（週五） 在 新英格蘭音樂學院喬丹音樂廳舉行的音樂會,是他們成立40週年紀念巡演的一部分。

演出曲目包括：

• 海頓：G小調弦樂四重奏，作品74第3號《騎士》

• 譚盾：《風雅頌》（第一弦樂四重奏）

• 葛什溫：《搖籃曲》

• 德弗札克：F大調第12弦樂四重奏，作品96《美國》作品96《美国》

音樂會票價為 $20 (7- 13 歲)、$40、$60。提供14歲以上學生免費票，及非學生贈送卷。需事前預訂。6歲以下兒童請勿入場。詳情請在中華表演藝術基金會的官網查詢.

線上售票4月10日下午3時將關閉。現場沒有免費票贈送。門票為10美元，僅限現金支付。