Academy Chinese Orchestra Concert - Guest Conductor：Liu Sha

Liu Sha is a National Class One Conductor and currently Resident Conductor of the China National Traditional Orchestra (CNTO) and the Central Conservatory Chinese Orchestra, Guest Conductor-in-Residence of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, and Vice Chairman of the Russian Chinese Artists’ and Musicians’ Association.

He graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music where he studied conducting, and later went to the N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg Conservatory to further his conducting studies. He completed the programme with top honours and was awarded a diploma in Opera-Symphony Conducting. During his studies, he had benefitted from the teaching of Professors Xu Xin, Wang Fujian, and Alexander Polishchuk. He had also attended the master classes of world famous maestros Seiji Ozawa, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jorma Panula, Colin Metters and Gustav Meier. 

Acclaimed as a cross-genre conductor adept in both Chinese and Western music in recent years, Liu has easy command over Western symphonic music and Chinese orchestral music. In the former, his forte is in the music of Russia and Eastern Europe, and he expanded his concert repertoire phenomenally by including 20th century Western music and Chinese contemporary works. In the latter, he actively explores ways to develop Chinese music ensembles and to groom professional conductors in Chinese orchestral music. He has performed by sight-reading and premiered close to a thousand works in the genre. Furthermore, Liu is a visionary who has been actively advocating, commissioning and performing new works by young composers. The resulting achievements have launched him into the limelight of the music circles of China and Asia. The media dubbed him as a distinguished representative figure and leader among the younger generation of Chinese music conductors. At the 5th Chinese Music Forum in 2016, he was the youngest conductor to be named one of China’s Top Ten Conductors in Chinese Orchestral Music. In August the same year, he was the cover feature in People’s Music. Liu has published many papers and music critiques with contents showing his wide and varied empirical experiences as well as insights into pedagogic studies. He is currently a visiting professor to many arts institutes in China.