American conductor of Hong Kong origin Perry So has been appointed as the new Musical and Artistic Director of the Navarra Symphony Orchestra, a position in which he succeeds Manuel Hernández-Silva. With an initial three-year contract, which will be effective from September 1, 2022, maestro Perry So has been the orchestra’s favorite in the polls. According to the statement from the orchestra itself, the choice of Maestro So has been the product of a rigorous participatory process that has lasted for several months. It began last year with a first phase of consultations and proposals submitted for consideration by the Orchestra, after whose decision the Board of Trustees of Fundación Baluarte proceeded to approve the candidacy… in the choice of maestro So “other criteria have also weighed in addition to his talent as a director, such as his wide and varied curriculum, his international projection and his artistic concerns”.
Conductor Perry So was born in Hong Kong in 1982, where he received early musical training in piano, organ, violin, viola, and composition. He later earned a BA 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 the graduates. In 2008 he studied conducting at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore under the tutelage of Maestro Gustav Meier, receiving the First Prize and the Special Prize at the 5th Edition of the St. Petersburg Prokofiev International Conducting Competition. After this recognition he was appointed Assistant Director and then Associate Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and later he will be invited to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra.
Having already consolidated his presence on five continents, Perry So has recently debuted with the San Francisco Symphony and has occupied the pits of the Royal Danish Opera -The Magic Flute- and the Yale Opera -Eugene Onegin- as opera director. Among the latest milestones in his career, three important tours stand out: a tour of Milan conducting the Nuremberg Symphony, another through the Balkans in 2013 with the Zagreb Philharmonic, and a third seven-week tour of South Africa conducting three orchestras in which he performed Verdi’s Requiem in the framework of the South African National Arts Festival.
Besides these projects and invitations, Perry So has conducted more than 30 orchestras around the world, including the San Francisco Symphony, the National Orchestra of Wales, the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, the New Zealand Symphony, the Shanghai Symphony, the Residentie Orkest of The Hague or the London Philharmonic, as well as half a dozen Spanish orchestras. He has also served as assistant to such renowned teachers as Edo de Waart, Esa Pekka-Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel and John Adams.
Perry So is a member of the Music Conducting faculty at the Manhattan School of Music and also has a large body of recordings to his credit leading the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Concert Orchestra, repeatedly earning recognition from the criticism and being laureate in 2021 with the Diapason d’Or.
Perry So returns to the San Francisco Symphony on February 11 and 12 to conduct an original program in which all the works will be performed by the orchestra for the first time. This program of San Francisco Symphony premieres opens with with Bounce!!, by Texuu Kim. Pipa virtuoso Wu Man will then join the orchestra for the Concerto for Pipa with String Orchestra by Lou Harrison, which will be followed by Nim,by Younghi Pagh-Paan, and The Age of Birds, by Takashi Yoshimatsu. The program closes with Zhou Long’s lively The Rhyme of Taigu, celebrating the energy and spirit of Japanese Taiko drumming. This concert is a recovery of the one scheduled for February 12 and 13, 2021, which was canceled due to the pandemic that has overcome us for the past two years.
Perry So’s debut with the San Francisco Symphony also took place in the month of February 2020 (February is definitely Perry’s month in San Francisco). On that occasion, the event celebrated the Year of the Mouse with a Chinese New Year Concert in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Symphony’s signature heritage event, which bridges East and West traditions with the universal language of music. The annual event is an elegant and colorful celebration of the Lunar New Year, drawing upon vibrant Asian traditions, past and present. Conductor Perry So made his San Francisco Symphony debut leading the orchestra in a program with traditional folk music and works by Asian composers, including the U.S. premiere of Huang Ruo’s Folk Songs for Orchestra and Bright Sheng’s Red Silk Dance.
Perry So will soon return to Spain to conduct the Symphony Orchestra of the Principality of Asturias with pianist Nikolai Luganski, in a program that includes Medtner’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in E minor “Ballade”, Op. 60, and Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61.
Perry So returns to Spain to conduct again the Navarre Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Principality of Asturias and the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra. In Navarre, he will also have the participation of the Orfeón Pamplonés in a program including works for choir and orchestra by Brahms and the rarely programmed Symphony in C by Paul Dukas. Immediately after Navarre, Perry will join the OSPA, an orchestra with which he has a long history of collaborations, where he will conduct Nikolai Luganski in Medtner’s Concerto No. 3 and Tchaikovsky’s Pathetic Symphony. He will finish his Spanish tour in Tenerife, where he will conduct Pablo Ferrández with Tchaikovsky’s Rococó Variationsand Borodin’s Symphony No. 2. Perry should be conducting these days the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and then what would be his second appearance with the San Francisco Symphony, but both commitments postponed due to the COVID19 restrictions.
Perry So has worked, among others, with the Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras, the Houston, Detroit, New Jersey, Israel and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras, the Chinese Philharmonic and the Residentie Orkest in The Hague. He has been a frequent guest at the Walt Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl as a Dudamel Conducting Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He conducted the Hong Kong Philharmonic with Lang Lang in celebration of the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China at the closing of his four-year term as Associate Conductor, and led a tour of the Zagreb Philharmonic in the Balkan Peninsula.
Perry So received the First Prize and the Special Prize at the 5th Prokofiev International Conducting Competition in St. Petersburg. His recording of the Barber and Korngold violin concertos with Alexander Gilman and the Cape Town Philharmonic received the Diapason D’Or in January 2012. He has done many recordings with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Concert Orchestra. He is known for the enormous variety of repertoire that he conducts, including numerous world premieres on four continents. He has directed productions of Cosí fan tutte, The Magic Flute, The Turn of the Screw, Giulio Cesare, Gianni Schicchi, and Die Fledermaus. His commitment to young people has led him to work with the Australian Youth Orchestra, the Round Top Festival, the Manhattan School of Music, the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and the Yale School of Music. He has also been assistant to Edo de Waart, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel and John Adams. Born in Hong Kong, he holds a Degree in Comparative Literature from Yale University.
Maestro Perry So, who recently joined ACM Concerts, conducts 11 of the 20 performances of Marco Arturo Marelli’s production of The Magic Flute at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhague. Performances will take place on December 5, 7, 9, 12, 14 y 20 , January 12 , February 27, and March 1, 4 and 11.
In the while he will also conduct the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra in a four programs festival, Vancouver Symphony and the Manhattan School Chamber ORchestra; then he will come back twice to Spain to conduct the Orquesta Sinfóncia de Principado de Asturias on March 22 and 23 and April 19 y 20; and to Germany to conduct the Nürnberg Symphoniker.
Perry So
Recent debuts include the Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras, Houston, Detroit, New Jersey, Israel and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras, the China Philharmonic, and the Residentie Orkest in the Hague. He has been a frequent guest both at Walt Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl following his stint as an inaugural Dudamel Conducting Fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He led the Hong Kong Philharmonic with Lang Lang in an internationally televised celebration of the 15th Anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China at the close of his four years as Assistant, then Associate Conductor. He toured the Balkan Peninsula with the Zagreb Philharmonic in the first series of cultural exchanges established after the breakup of Yugoslavia.
So received the First and Special Prizes at the Fifth International Prokofiev Conducting Competition in St Petersburg. His recording of Barber and Korngold’s Violin Concertos with violinist Alexander Gilman and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra was awarded the Diapason d’Or in January 2012. He has recorded extensively with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Concert Orchestra.
He is known for his wide-ranging programming, including numerous world premieres on four continents and works from the Renaissance and the Baroque. He has conducted productions of Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte, Turn of the Screw, Giulio Cesare, Gianni Schicchi, and Die Fledermaus. His commitment to working with young musicians has taken him to the Australian Youth Orchestra, the Round Top Festival, the Manhattan School of Music, the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, and the Yale School of Music. He has assisted Edo de Waart, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel and John Adams. Born in Hong Kong, Perry So holds a degree in Comparative Literature from Yale University.
