QPO’s new music director Han-Na Chang at one of her concerts.
DOHA: Incoming Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO) music director Han-Na Chang will conduct the orchestra in Dmitri Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony tonight at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) theatre.
The 30-year-old Korean who has been known as a world famous cellist, will assume the helm as Qatar Philharmonic’s new music director in September.
She will be the first female, the youngest, and the third music director of the 101-piece orchestra since it was founded in 2007. Her collaboration with Qatar Philharmonic took off one year ago as she impressively led the orchestra in a concert in June last year.
Chang catapulted into international prominence as cellist upon winning both the First Prize and the Contemporary Music Prize at the Fifth Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris in 1994 at the age of 11. She has collaborated with renowned orchestras performing in sold-out concerts around the world and recorded with EMI Classics, which have been multi-awarded and remain bestsellers worldwide.
She studied Philosophy at Harvard University and serves as the Roving Goodwill Ambassador for Korean Red Cross. This will be Chang’s first appearance in Doha since being named music director.
At tonight’s concert she will be conducting Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, op. 65, one of the largest works of the composer’s entire output, written only in two months. In this composition, Shostakovich depicted the violence of war and the many lives it had taken.
French pianist Julien Quentin will be the guest soloist in a programme. He is famous for his remarkable depth of musicianship, clarity of sound and flawless technique, making him in demand both as soloist and chamber musician.
The exciting programme also includes Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to Der Freischuetz and Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G.
The Peninsula
