Exclusive management for Europe
Susanna Stefani Caetani
susanna@onlystage.co.uk

The Chinese conductor Lü Jia has received great acclaim internationally. Born into a musical family in Shanghai, Lü began studying piano and cello at a very young age. He later studied conducting at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, under the tutelage of esteemed conductor Zheng Xiaoying. At the age of 24, Lü entered the University of Arts in Berlin, where he continued his studies under Professor Hans-Martin Rabenstein and Robert Wolf. The following year, he was awarded both the First Prize and Jury’s Prize at the Antonio Pedrotti International Conducting Competition in Trento, Italy, and launched his career as a conductor.

Over the past decades, he has conducted over 2,000 orchestral concerts and opera performances in Europe and America, and became the first Asian conductor to serve as the artistic director of a major Italian opera house, as well as the first Chinese conductor to lead Chicago Symphony. He has worked with important productions at the Bayersiche Staatsoper in Munich, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and La Scala in Milan, as well as opera houses in Lausanne, Turin, Rome, Naples, Verona, Venice, Florence, Frankfurt and Stuggart. He has also worked with many renowned orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Lyon National Orchestra in France, Finnish Radio Symphony, Hamburg Radio Symphony, Bamberg Symphoniker, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and many others across Europe, America and Australia.

Lü Jia was the first Chinese conductor to record Felix Mendelssohn’s complete orchestral works, and also the only conductor so far who has recorded the complete works by the important Swedish composer Ingvar Lidholm. His interpretations of German Classical Romanticism and French Impressionists have been praised for their “extremely convincing musical interpretation" with "musical precision and perfect baton technique”. 2024 saw the release of Lü Jia and the China NCPA Orchestra's recording of Bruckner's complete symphonies, an album hailed by Gramophone magazine as "expressive and refulgent."

Having directed nearly 50 operas in Italy and Germany, homelands of the European opera tradition, he has also been praised by Italian music critics as “a conductor who understands Italian opera even better than the Italians themselves do”.

In 2007, his performance of "La Gazza Ladra" at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro was voted as European Opera Production of the Year. That same year, in recognition of his important contribution to musical culture in Italy, Lü Jia was awarded the President’s Prize by President Giorgio Napolitano. In 2012, the Domingo International Vocal Competition invited Lü Jia to serve on the jury, making himthe Competition’s first-ever Chinese jury member.

Among his most recent engagements are appearances with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, “La Wally” at Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, a concert at Teatro Regio di Torino, a conducting masterclass in Italy organized by OnlyMaestros (marking his very first teaching engagement), and his participation as jury member at the Toscanini Conducting Competition.

In the upcoming seasons, highlights include the opening of the Symphony Season at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa with Ettore Pagano, “Il turco in Italia” in Verona (Teatro Filarmonico) and a concert with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo. He will also return to the Orchestra Arturo Toscanini in Parma with violinist Charlie Siem, and to Verona Teatro Filarmonico for performances of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony.

In 2012, Lü Jia was appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of Opera at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing, China. Under his musical direction, NCPA's ownproductions of "Lohengrin", "The Flying Dutchma", "Othello", "Le Nozze di Figaro", "Un Ballo in Maschera", "Tosca", and many other works, have received glowing reviews from the international press. With these brand new productions aspiring to high international standards, the NCPA has become a strong contender in the world of opera, and also launched an exciting new chapter in the history of professional opera productions in China. In the meantime, the China NCPA Orchestra, under Lü'sbaton, has fast established itself as one of the leading new ensembles in the orchestral world in China, presenting impressive performances season after season.

In 2017, Lü Jia has been appointed as Artistic Director of Music of National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), and Music Director of China NCPA Orchestra. Before taking up his current position in Beijing, Lü served as Music Director at Fondazione Arena di Verona, Artistic Director at Symphony Orchestra of Tenerife, Music Director and Principal Conductor of Macao Orchestra, as well as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor at Teatro G. Verdi in Trieste, Orchestra Regionale Toscana in Florence and Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden.

Season 2025/2026