The 2022/23 Season is a musical menagerie for the senses. The Ulster Orchestra invites you to Immerse Yourself this season, as we celebrate our artists, composers and conductors.
On Friday 7th October, Tianyi Lu returns to the podium to lead the Ulster Orchestra for the first time in over three years.
“So much has happened in the world since I met the Ulster Orchestra in April 2019, and I am immensely looking forward to returning to Belfast soon to collaborate with these inspiring musicians again.”
Lu is due to conduct a programme in the Ulster Hall that will take you beyond the earth into celestial spaces. Tupaia, a work by fellow Kiwi Salina Fisher, refreshingly focuses a great deal more on timbre and musical colour than on counting and time. According to Lu, Fisher’s use of an untraditional score places the conductor in a position of empowerment rather than dictation.
“Unlike traditional scores that dictate every note, Fisher allows for spontaneous freedom and serendipity, giving the musicians space to choose to play certain gestures in their own way, within certain parameters. I find it fascinating as it takes a certain amount of power away from the conductor and leaves it up to the musicians to decide how the piece will sound each time. It resonates with my ethos of questioning the traditional power structures within the orchestral world and my role as the conductor to empower, rather than dictate.”
Striving for equity and diversity, as well as empowering young musical leaders, is something Lu consistently strives to stand for within her conducting career and as an educator in the art form. According to her website, Tianyi is an Artist Ambassador for Opera For Peace and is regularly invited to work with and speak to communities and institutions about her experiences in empowering leadership, transforming cultures, resilience and wellbeing. In a recent episode of The Conductor’s Podcast, Lu spoke extensively on the psychological obstacles within music education and even professional musicianship/musical leadership. She also attested to the importance of positive role models within the orchestral leadership space who encourage the embracing of vulnerability alongside of the power these roles also encompass.
This seems engrained, too, in how Lu thinks about music and how immersion in interpretation can impact both the musicians themselves and the audience. Lu has been at the helm before of the Tchaikovsky work she will lead Ulster Orchestra in, which she clearly holds dear to her within her musical journey.
“Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 is a piece that has always been close to my heart – I cannot experience it without being deeply moved. I still remember working on it in St. Petersburg eight years ago and the unforgettable intensity and passion in the sound that the musicians produced. The piece has this rawness, a fierce vulnerability about it, and it takes the listener on a profound emotional journey. It forces us to look into the soul of another and recognise that in suffering and hope, we are all the same.”
Our wholehearted thanks to Tianyi Lu for contributing her thoughts to this blog post.
We invite you to Immerse Yourself in our concert programme this Friday 7th October 2022, 19:45, which also includes the dazzling Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, with the incredible Arabella Steinbacher as the violin soloist.
More details on how to book here.