NEW YORK, Aug. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In one of the largest concerts ever held at the General Assembly of the United Nations, August 28 will see Music Director Long Yu assemble his orchestra to represent China in a musical celebration marking 70 years since both the ending of World War Two and the establishment of the UN itself.

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, led by Maestro Long Yu

Artists from all the major Allied powers of WWII will be represented, performing music by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, John Williams (Schindler's List performed by Russian-born violinist Maxim Vengerov) and a new work by Zou Ye (Shanghai 1937).

"It is a concert in which the music we play is about memories and about new beginnings," says Long Yu. "World War Two was of course a great tragedy, as well as a victory over evil, which must be remembered, while the birth of the UN from out of the wreckage of that war was a new beginning for the world."

The concert will also feature America's MasterVoices choir, 12-year-old Chinese piano prodigy Sirena Wang, and singers Ying Huang (China), Sarah Fox (UK), Aurhelia Varak (France), Vadim Gan (Russia), David Blalock (USA) and Christopher Magiera (USA).

The concert is part of a tour of the Americas by the SSO and will also take in two venues in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (August 30, 31), and one in Buenos Aires, Argentina (September 2).

About Shanghai Symphony Orchestra:

The SSO is China's oldest symphony orchestra, founded in 1879. The SSO was the first Chinese orchestra to play Carnegie Hall (1990), the first to play the Berlin Philharmonie (2004), the first to give a concert in New York's Central Park (2010).  In 2014 the SSO and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra launched the NYPO's Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership, a joint endeavor that included the founding of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy (SOA), and the NYPO's four-year performance residency in Shanghai.

About Long Yu:

Maestro Long Yu is Music Director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, also of the Guanzhou Symphony Orchestra, the Artistic Director and co-founder of the China Philharmonic Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. He is also Founding Artistic Director of the Beijing Music Festival, co-founder of the Shanghai MISA Festival and incoming Principal Guest Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

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SOURCE Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

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