Long YU

Long Yu is an influential Chinese conductor with an extensive national and international career. He has spent decades developing his country's connection to classical music and bringing the great talent of Chinese musicians to international recognition. He holds the top position in the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and is Honorary Music Director for Life for the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. He has multiple albums on Deutsche Grammophon, including Gateways with Maxim Vengerov (2019) and the poetically conceived project The Song of the Earth (2021), which places Mahler's song cycle alongside Xiaogang Ye's settings of the same ancient Chinese texts. Yu also conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on Esther Yoo's solo violin album, Love Symposium (2026).