Angelo Xiang Yu joins the group as its new second violinist
The Shanghai Quartet has announced that Angelo Xiang Yu is to join them as the group’s new second violinist.
Xiang Yu is a former Menuhin Competition winner (2010), as well as the recipient of both a 2019 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2019 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award. As part of the quartet, Xiang Yu joins the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, where the members have served as quartet-in-residence since 2002. The Shanghai Quartet will also join the Tianjin Juilliard School faculty this coming autumn.
The new appointment follows the departure of violinist Yi-Wen Jiang. In March this year, Jiang posted a comment on the Chinese social media platform WeChat in response to a post by San Francisco Symphony associate principal viola Yun Jie Liu. Jiang’s comment, which went viral, was denounced by some Chinese media outlets as ’racist’ and led to a parting of the ways between Jiang and his fellow Shanghai Quartet members.
Read: Ex-Shanghai Quartet violinist sues former colleagues for unfair dismissal
Read: Shanghai Quartet: Musical Emissaries
In September it was revealed that Jiang was suing his former Shanghai Quartet colleagues and Montclair State University in New Jersey, where the quartet is resident, for unfair dismissal.
The Shanghai Quartet responded to the lawsuit with the following statement:
’In March, the Shanghai Quartet collectively accepted the voluntary resignation of violinist Yi-Wen Jiang. Then as now, we regret that our former member, Mr. Jiang, has chosen, through his words and actions to put the reputation and success of the Shanghai Quartet at risk. The lawsuit is without merit and fanciful. Our audience is important to us, and enjoying deep musical experiences with them is our priority and focus. We look forward to continuing to share music with our fans around the world, and we thank them for their continuing support.’
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