When the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performs Belshazzar’s Feast and then Bluebeard’s Castle: with Bach and Brahms at the Sydney Opera House in November, three students from the Shanghai Orchestra Academy (SOA) will be up there on the Concert Hall stage playing with them.

The performances are part of a two-week residency that the students are undertaking with the SSO, as part of the Orchestra’s commitment to helping develop the next generation of Chinese orchestral musicians.

Minxian Sun. Photograph © Daniela Testa

The two-week residency, lasting from November 19 to December 3, will give the three SOA students the opportunity to rehearse and perform alongside SSO musicians in their two season finale programmes. Participants were selected by audition in September, while the SSO was on tour in China, after two days of workshops and masterclasses.

“The calibre of talent among the students who auditioned was exceptionally high this year, which made choosing our guests a very difficult decision,” said Andrew Haveron, SSO’s Concertmaster, who presided over the audition process with SSO Principal Cellist Umberto Clerici. “Our collaboration with SOA has been very successful in the past, with both the students and SSO musicians having a fabulous time...