The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra will play two concerts under the baton of two famous European musicians this weekend - maestro Justus Frantz and rising conducting star Christian Arming.

Tomorrow night the local orchestra will cooperate with Frantz and his Philharmonia of the Nations playing Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" and Mozart's "Piano Concerto No. 21."

Internationally renowned as a pianist and conductor for 30 years, Frantz is a name associated with great orchestras.

He began his musical career in 1967, when he won the international music competition of a famous German television station. Three years later he rose into the circle of first-class pianists with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karajan.

He made his US debut five years later with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

He embodied Bernstein's dream of a young, international and professional orchestra when he founded the Philharmonia of the Nations in 1995. He also founded the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in 1986.

Tonight, the promising Vienna-born Arming will conduct the Shanghai Symphony in two masterpieces - Brahms' "Violin Concerto" and Beethoven's "Symphony No. 3 Eroica" - with award-winning female Shanghai violinist Wang Zhijiong as soloist.

Like Frantz in his younger years, the 34-year-old Arming has also learned from musicalmaestros.

Having studied under Karl Osterreicher and Leopold Hager in Vienna, Arming later collaborated closely with Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa and conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra several times while Ozawa was chief conductor.

Having been director of the Lucerne Theater and chief conductor of the New Japan Philharmonic, Arming conducted at the Salzburg Festival in 1999 and the Vienna Music Festival in Osaka; he also conducted for opera performances in Cincinnati, Verona and Strasbourg.

In 2003 Arming worked with the Czech Philharmonic at the opening concert of the Prague Spring festival, and was the second-youngest conductor in the history of that distinguished festival.

"We will invite a galaxy of outstanding conductors for the 2006-07 season of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra," says Chen Guangxian, general manager of the orchestra.

"The concerts with Franz and Arming are just a beginning. In the future we will cooperate with the world's top conductors like Myung-Whun Chung and Michel Plasson," he adds.

Plasson will conduct Bizet's "Carmen" and Puccini's "Madame Butterfly."

Christian Arming concert
Date: October 27, 7:30pm
Tickets: 80-300 yuan

Justus Frantz concert
Date: October 28, 8pm
Tickets: 80-360 yuan

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