Lan Shui
Lan Shui
Lan Shui

Lan Shui

Conductor
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“One cannot avoid comparing what Shui has achieved in Singapore with what George Szell did in Cleveland or Simon Rattle in Birmingham. He has turned a good regional orchestra into a world-class ensemble”

(American Record Guide)

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

Lan Shui has served as the Music Director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to January 2019 and has been appointed Conductor Laureate of the orchestra. From 2007 to 2015 he was the Chief Conductor of the Copenhagen Phil, currently holding the post of the Honorary Conductor. From the 2019/20 season, Shui will be the new Principal Guest Conductor of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. 

As a guest conductor, Lan Shui has worked in the United States with orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra and the San Francisco, Baltimore, Detroit and Houston symphony orchestras, as well as appearing at festivals including Tanglewood and Aspen. In Europe, he has performed with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Gothenburg Symphony, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, Tampere Philharmonic and the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie. He was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra and maintains a regular relationship with the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

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Lan Shui - Rachmaninov: Symphony No.1 (excerpt) © Singapore Symphony Orchestra

He is renowned for his abilities as an orchestral builder and for his passion in commissioning, premiering and recording new works by the cream of Asia’s composers. Under Shui’s direction, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra has become a world-class ensemble and enjoys an exclusive recording contract with the BIS label. Shui has led the orchestra on several acclaimed tours to Germany, Switzerland, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, France, Spain and the USA, and is passionate about commissioning, premiering and recording works by Asian composers.

Born in Hangzhou, China, Lan Shui studied composition at the Shanghai Conservatory and graduated from The Beijing Central Conservatory, where he studied conducting with Prof. Xu Xin and Prof. Huang Fei Li. He made his professional conducting debut with the Central Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing in 1986.

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Lan Shui - Rachmaninov: Isle of the Dead (excerpt) © Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Lan Shui
Lan Shui - Seascapes (excerpt) © BIS
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Lan Shui - Zhou Long: The Rhyme of Taigu (excerpt) © Singapore Symphony Orchestra

“Musically, the performance was on an entirely different level from the opera’s premiere 2010 run…Lan Shui led the players from the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and a chorus of local singers with a firm dramatic sweep that sacrificed none of the music’s rhythmic details.”

(Ken Smith, Opera Magazine, July 2019)

“Lan Shui’s Debussy: Jeux, Khamma, La Boîte à joujoux recording is the best I know… Shui’s balancing of the orchestral forces is exemplary. His control of the work’s fleeting contrasts and fluidity are beautifully realized by every section of the orchestra, and are capture in warm, clear sound in the fine acoustic”

(Fanfare, January 2018)

“Lively speeds which never sound hurried. Sparky, well-articulated playing, the period brass adding a distinctive colour. Crisp, clear, recording. All present….These discs are an utter joy, and spot comparisons with other, better-known recordings confirm that Lan Shui’s Copenhagen players deserve to be up there with the best. …an Eroica that’s among the best I’ve heard. Life-enhancing stuff.”

(Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk, August 2016)

“Lan Shui – an impeccable stylist whose body language is as serious as it can be charming and courteous – took the strings to the edge, living dangerously and developing a tone, attack and dynamic range one doesn’t find so often”

(Classical Source, Ateş Orga, May 2016)

“[Beethoven symphonies 1 – 4] Throughout the four symphonies (..) nearly every phrase is more penetrating and more energized than you have ever heard it before.”

(Fanfare, July/August 2015)

“[Beethoven: Complete Symphonies Vol. 1 by Copenhagen Phil] ​“this is genuinely refreshing Beethoven (…) which should always be a cause for celebration”

(Andrew McGregor, BBC Radio 3, May 2015)
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