Conductor/Shui Lan

Conductor Laureate: Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Honorary Conductor: Copenhagen Phil
Principal Guest Conductor: Taiwan Symphony Orchestra
Artistic Advisor: China National Symphony Orchestra

Lan Shui is renowned for his abilities as an orchestral builder and for his passion in commissioning, premiering and recording new works by leading composers from Asia and elsewhere on the international contemporary orchestral scene.

In the 2024/25 season Shui continues as Principal Guest Conductor of Taiwan Symphony Orchestra where he returns for several performances including the season opening with Brahms Double Concerto for Violin and Cello and Richard Strauss Ein Heldenleben. It is also the inaugurating season for him as Artistic Advisor of China National Symphony Orchestra with whom he opens the season with Bruckner’s Symphony No.7 and pays tribute to anniversaries of Ravel and Schönberg by featuring their music later in the season. Other highlights include a return to Copenhagen Phil and a performance of Verdi’s Requiem in June 2025 with Dresdner Musikfestspiele.

Shui’s 2023/24 season included regular appearances with the Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, as well as returns to China Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, Guangzhou Symphony and Hangzhou Philharmonic orchestras. A highlight of the season included a tour of China with the Philharmonia Orchestra in January 2024, with seven performances including one inaugurating the new hall of Beijing Performing Arts Centre, of varied repertoire, including music by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Elgar and Dvořák.

Shui served as the Music Director of Singapore Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to 2019, with American Record Review noting that Shui“turned a good regional orchestra into a world-class ensemble that plays its heart out at every concert”. Together they made several acclaimed tours to Europe, Asia and the United States and appeared for the first time at the BBC Proms in September 2014. As of January 2019, Shui has been appointed SSO’s Conductor Laureate. Shui Shui also held the position of Chief Conductor of Copenhagen Philharmonic from 2007 to 2015, currently serving as the orchestra’s Honorary Conductor. From January 2019, he is the principal Guest Conductor of Taiwan Symphony Orchestra.

In the United States he has appeared with Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Baltimore and Detroit symphony orchestras. In Europe he has performed with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Gothenburg Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Royal Swedish Orchestra and Orchestre National de Lille. In Asia he has conducted the Hong Kong, Malaysian and Japan Philharmonic Orchestras and maintains a close relationship with China and Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestras and Shanghai and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestras.

Since 1998 Shui has recorded over 40 CDs with Singapore Symphony Orchestra for BIS — including the first ever complete cycle of Tcherepnin’s symphonies plus complete orchestra works of Rachmaninov and Debussy. He also recorded Beethoven’s complete symphonies with Copenhagen Philharmonic. His albums have received Grammy nominations twice.

Shui is the recipient of several international awards from the Beijing Arts Festival and the New York Tcherepnin Society, the 37th Besançon Conductors’ Competition in France and Boston University (Distinguished Alumni Award) as well as the Cultural Medallion — Singapore’s highest accolade in the arts.

Born in Hangzhou, China, Shui studied composition at the Shanghai Conservatory and graduated from The Beijing Central Conservatory. He continued his graduate studies at Boston University while at the same time working closely with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Festival. He has worked together with David Zinman as Conducting Affiliate of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as Associate Conductor to Neeme Järvi at Detroit Symphony Orchestra, with Kurt Masur at New York Philharmonic and with Pierre Boulez at The Cleveland Orchestra.

Pianist/Liu Jian

Dr. Jian Liu is an internationally acclaimed concert pianist and one of New Zealand’s leading artists. He has performed across Europe, Asia, and North America, appearing at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall, and the Juilliard School’s Paul Hall, and as soloist with orchestras including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. A passionate advocate for New Zealand music, Dr. Liu has premiered and recorded numerous works by New Zealand composers. In 2022, he edited and published New Zealand Piano Works in both English and Chinese through Shanghai Music Publishing House—the first-ever publication of New Zealand music in China. Its companion album, Where Fairburn Walked (Rattle Records), earned him the Best Classical Artist award at the 2025 Aotearoa Music Awards. Dr. Liu frequently collaborates with New Zealand’s major performing arts organizations, including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music New Zealand, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and the New Zealand Arts Festival. He is Deputy Head of School and Head of Piano Studies at the New Zealand School of Music—Te Kōkī, Victoria University of Wellington, and a trustee of the New Zealand Music Trust. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Professor Claude Frank.