AYO Symphonists

Renowned for his exceptional musicianship, cellist Ng Pei-Sian is one of the most outstanding musicians of his generation, winner of the coveted Gold Medal and First Prize at the 55th Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition in London and Commonwealth Musician of the Year 2007. Since 2010, he has served as Principal Cellist of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

He has performed concertos in Europe, Asia and with major Australian symphony orchestras. Notable collaborations include Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Cello Concerto with the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra under the baton of the composer, as well as Sollima’s “Violoncelles Vibrez!” for two cellos with Yo-Yo Ma and chamber performances with Renaud Capuçon, Alina Ibragimova, and Cho-Liang Lin.

Born in Sydney in 1984, he studied with Barbara Yelland in Adelaide and Janis Laurs at the Elder Conservatorium of Music before winning the prestigious Elder Overseas Scholarship to study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Pei-Sian’s studies under Ralph Kirshbaum culminated in the RNCM Gold Medal, the college’s highest honour.

Pei-Sian performs on a rare cello by Francesco Goffriller “ex-Daniel Müller-Schott”, Udine, c. 1720.

Through innovative concert performances and adventurous musical theatre, conductor Christoph Altstaedt aims to expand audiences of both opera and classical music. His programmes span from early music on period instruments, to contemporary music and even hip hop. Following hugely successful periods with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 17/18 season, he returns not only for subscription concerts in May 2020 (Beethoven, Kodaly, Butterworth, Vaughan-Williams, Elgar), but also to conduct their annual Messiah, making his Royal Albert Hall debut in December 2019.

Further highlights include a return to Finnish National Opera with Marriage of Figaro and a debut at Vienna Volksoper with a ballet production of Ein Deutsches Requiem.

Highlights of previous seasons include debuts and ongoing relationships with Staatskapelle Weimar, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, as well as debuts with Toronto Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR amongst others.

In the 18/19 season, Christoph and the Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie followed on from their successful Stravinsky project #sacrelektro and took their new project #Petruschka #Etruschka to the Berlin Konzerthaus and Elbphilharmonie as part of their Stravinsky Festival, in a brilliant collaboration with composer and live electronic artist Joe Snape.

Christoph returned to Glyndebourne to conduct La traviata on tour having previously conducted Die Entführung aus dem Serail for them as his debut in 2015, an opera he has since conducted at the Savonlinna Opera Festival and for Opera Zürich. Christoph also maintains a good relationship with Opera North for whom he has conducted highly acclaimed productions of Hänsel und Gretel and Don Giovanni. He has also conducted Così fan tutte for Finnish National Opera and Julia Hölscher’s production of Die Zauberflöte for Theater Basel.

Equally successful in both the operatic and orchestral fields, Christoph Altstaedt started his professional life as kapellmeister for Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, a position he held between 2010 and 2014 where he conducted a variety of productions including La bohème, Carmen, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, Hänsel und Gretel, La traviata, Luisa Miller and Werther. He also has an ongoing relationship with the highly acclaimed ballet company ‘Ballett am Rhein’ directed by Martin Schläpfer.

From 2004 to 2011 he was the director of the Young Klangforum Mitte Europa, an orchestra consisting of music students from Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany. Under the auspices of the Presidents Weizsäcker, Havel and Wałęsa, the orchestra performed at historically significant venues such as Terezín and Kreisau / Krzyżowa and has won several awards for its efforts to promote international understanding, including the Praemium Imperiale and the Marion Dönhoff Prize.