Above: the NCPA Orchestra with Maestro Lü Jia
A new series of broadcast concerts from the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing will be released in July 2025 as part of the WFMT Orchestra Series. Program listings will be available in April 2025.
China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts showcases the best-in-class musicianship of the orchestra of Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) and its affiliated programs in choral music, traditional Chinese forms, opera, and more. With a focus on presenting familiar Western masterworks alongside new and traditional Chinese composers, maestro LÜ Jia and the China NCPA Orchestra are sure to delight casual listeners and classical aficionados alike. This Week from China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts is a part of the WFMT Orchestra Series.
China’s NCPA Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Beijing. Since its founding in 2010, the orchestra has fast established itself as one of the most adventurous and dynamic orchestras in the country and earned an international reputation through extensive performances abroad. Many world-renowned artists have collaborated with the orchestra, including Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Christoph Eschenbach, Rudolf Buchbinder, Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, Renee Fleming, and many others. Lorin Maazel worked closely with the orchestra before his passing and praised the musicians for their “amazing professionalism and great passion in music.” Christoph Eschenbach also declared it as “one of the finest orchestras in Asia.”
In February 2012, Lü Jia took up the post of Chief Conductor, succeeding Chen Zuohuang, NCPA’s then Artistic Director of Music as well as a founder of the orchestra. In January 2017, LÜ Jia started serving as NCPA’s Artistic Director of Music and the NCPA Orchestra’s Music Director.
Please Note: Chinese names use the family (last) name first, followed by the first name. Here, as in the listings, we follow the traditional order and provide the family name first.
