Perry So formally begins his new responsibility as Music Director of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra this coming July 1, for an initial period of three seasons until June 30, 2027. His presentation as the new Music Director of the NHSO took place last Saturday, June 15, within the orchestra’s annual collaboration with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, ARTIDEA, which was held on the open-air stage of the New Haven Green. Perry will combine this new responsibility with his position as Music and Artistic Director of the Navarra Symphony Orchestra, which he has been holding since the 2022/23 season. With a contract in force until the end of the 2024/25 season, the orchestra recently announced its renewal after August 2025..
The New Haven Symphony Orchestra is the fourth oldest orchestra in the United States, its performances and accessible educational programs reach more than 40,000 regular audiences and 20,000 students each year. Innovative programming and dedication to promoting new work commissions inspire more engaged audience participation and meaningful artistic and educational collaborations. Through the nationally acclaimed Harmony Fellowship program, as well as numerous award-winning educational and community engagement programs, the Symphony strives to be a leader in racial equity in the arts.
Perry So was born in Hong Kong in 1982, where he received early musical training in piano, organ, violin, viola and composition. He later graduated in Comparative Literature from Yale University with a specialization in 20th-century Central European music and literature. He served as Associate Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Conducting Fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Artistic Collaborator of the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Spain, and on the conducting faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. As a student at Yale University he founded an orchestra and led the undergraduate opera company. He received his training as a conductor initially under James Sinclair and subsequently with Gustav Meier at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore and received First and Special Prizes at the International Prokofiev Conducting Competition in St Petersburg, Russia.
Christian Vásquez begins a tour to China with the Juan José Landaeta Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, of which he has been Music Director since 2010, when its official name was still Teresa Carreño Youth Symphony Orchestra. Christian was also recently appointed Associate Director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, an appointment that sanctions his long and close relationship with the orchestra in particular, and with the Children’s and Youth Orchestra System in general, within which he was trained and of which he never really left, as he was also named musical director of the José Félix Ribas Youth Symphony in 2006, still during his student days. He recently led the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra on another China tour. In the meantime, Christian also became Music Director of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of the 2013/14 season, a position he held until 2019, and was Principal Guest Conductor of the Gävle Orchestra in Sweden and Arnhem Orchestra in The Netherlands.
An extract from the El Sistema press release: “The Juan José Landaeta Symphony Orchestra (OSJJL) will thus undertake its first international tour. During its stay in the Chinese capital, the group will offer three concerts in addition to participating in the creation of a binational orchestra together with local musicians, in a meeting that aims to be a bridge between the two cultures through the universal language of music. This tour is part of the celebration of 50 years of diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the Republic of China. The OSJJL was created in 2018 at the initiative of Eduardo Méndez, executive director of El Sistema, as a tribute to the first orchestra founded by Maestro José Antonio Abreu in 1975. The current group debuted in the preamble to the celebration of the 43rd anniversary of El Sistema. This group has reached a solid musical level thanks to its associate conductors Christian Vásquez and Jesús Uzcátegui together with the meticulous work of an outstanding group of Venezuelan conductors, among whom are Enluis Montes Olivar, Rodolfo Saglimbeni, Joshua Dos Santos and Pablo Castellanos, who have contributed with their talent and experience to the training of this exceptional group, which in turn has become an important source of opportunities for young Venezuelan soloists”.
The great debut of the Juan José Landaeta Symphony Orchestra in Asia will be led by the Chinese National Orchestra in a binational concert – on Monday, June 17 – that will be conducted by Christian Vásquez and Liu Zheng. The imposing Beijing Concert Hall theater will be the stage for a repertoire that combines masterpieces from China and Venezuela and celebrates the richness and diversity of music worldwide. The Spring Festival Overture by Li Huanzhi; Dance of Yao People by Liu Tieshan and Mao Yuan; Dance of Golden Snake by Er Nie; and Jasmine Flowers, one of the best-known Chinese compositions in the world, are the Chinese works that will be performed. On the other hand, Margariteña by Inocente Carreño, Santa Cruz de Pacairigua by Evencio Castellanos, Venezuela by Pablo Herrero and José Luis Armenteros, and Alma Llanera by Rafael Bolívar Coronado and Pedro Elías Gutiérrez, will put the Venezuelan flavor in Beijing. Additionally, the group will perform Sensemayá, by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas.
On Tuesday, June 18, the OSJJL will return to the Beijing Concert Hall under the baton of maestro Christian Vásquez. In this concert, the Venezuelan orchestra will take the public on a vibrant journey, with Revueltas’ The Night of the Mayans, -a colorful work that immerses the public in a magical and ritualistic universe- and Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, a composition that evokes a whirlwind of passions, dreams and fantasies. Finally, on Thursday, June 20, they will visit the Beijing Science and Culture Youth Center of the Song Ching Ling Foundation. The concert will be divided into two parts. The works by Carreño, Revueltas and Castellanos, together with the last movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, will be performed in the first part, which will be conducted by Maestro Zheng. Next, the Spring Festival Overture by Li Huanzhi and Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky will be conducted by Christian. Jupiter, from Gustav Holst’s The Planets, and the fourth movement of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, both conducted by Zheng, will also be performed.
Perry So, who begins his tenure as Musical Director of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra on July 1, will now lead the orchestra this coming Saturday, June 15 at 8:00 p.m. in the formation’s annual collaboration with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, ARTIDEA, which will take place on the open-air stage of the New Haven Green. The festive program involves a diverse roster of collaborators including Hillhouse Marching Band, NHSO concertmaster David Southorn, Hanan Hameen and the Juneteenth Coalition, vocalist Carly Callahan, St. Lukes Steel Band, erhu (the traditional Chinese violin) soloist Joy Lu, or the Spanish Community of Wallingford Mariachi Band and Dancers. Perry So has just launched the 2024/25 season of the Navarra Symphony, his third at the helm of the formation, while announcing his renewal as chief and artistic director starting in August 2025.
The fourth-oldest orchestra in America, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s exceptional and accessible performances and education programs reach more than 40,000 audience members and 20,000 students each year. Innovative programming and a dedication to the commission of new works inspires deeper audience engagement and meaningful artistic and educational collaborations. Through the nationally-acclaimed Harmony Fellowship program, as well as numerous award-winning education and community engagement programs, the Symphony strives to be a leader for racial equity in the arts.
Perry So was born in Hong Kong in 1982, where he received early musical training in piano, organ, violin, viola and composition. He later graduated in Comparative Literature from Yale University with a specialization in 20th-century Central European music and literature. During that period he founded an academic orchestra and conducted lyrical productions with graduating students. In 2008 he studied conducting at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore under the tutelage of Maestro Gustav Meier, receiving First Prize and Special Prize at the 5th Edition of the Prokofiev International Conducting Competition in St. Petersburg. After this recognition he was named Assistant Conductor and then Associate Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and later he was part of the Dudamel fellowship program of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and since then he has conducted some of the most important American, European and Asian orchestras. Since the 2022/23 season he has been Music and Artistic Director of the Navarra Symphony and since next June he is the new Music Director of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.
