A young erhu player and conductor, Liu Jie is a professional erhu instructor at the middle school affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He is also the Executive Director of the Erhu Professional Committee of the Shanghai Musicians' Association and the Assistant Conductor of the Shanghai Feiyun Chinese Orchestra. He was admitted to the primary school affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1985 and became a student of Professor Lu Jianye. In 1988, he studied at the middle school affiliated to the Conservatory under the tutelage of Professor Wang Yongde. With outstanding results, he was recommended for admission to the Department of Chinese Music of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1994. During his studies, he won the outstanding performance award in the professional group of the "Shanghai Spring" Second National Erhu Competition, and began to receive training in conducting from Professor Xia Feiyun. He has been teaching at the Conservatory since graduation with outstanding results in 1998.

Liu Jie received several educational awards, including the Tang's Teaching Scholarship and the He Luting Award. He has performed and given lectures in countries and regions such as Germany, the Netherlands and Hong Kong. In 2006 and 2013, concerts performed by Liu Jie and his students were successfully held at the He Luting Concert Hall. Some of Liu Jie's students have won the Gold Prize in the "Shanghai Spring" Erhu Completion, the Gold Award at the Chinese Golden Bell Awards for Music and the Gold Prize in the National Professional Skills Competition for Middle Vocational Schools organised by the Ministry of Education. He is the conductor of the Chinese Orchestra of the middle school affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, which won the Silver Prize at the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival in 2001 and the Gold Prize in 2002.

Dr. Peter Ettrup Larsen studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland from where he graduated in 1993 and later obtained a doctorate in symphonic conducting in 2015. He also has a diploma in clarinet playing from The Royal Danish Academy of Music (1991) and a master's degree in musicology and rhetoric from the University of Copenhagen (1994).

Dr. Larsen grew up playing with the famous Tivoli Boys Guard's Band in Tivoli in Copenhagen and has maintained his close affiliation with the professional wind world having been chief conductor in the Danish Army (2013-16) and conducting military ensembles as well in his native country of Denmark as internationally.

Parallel-tracking his artistic career, Dr. Larsen has held faculty positions on distinguished educational institutions such as The Sibelius Academy, Finland; The Royal Danish Academy of Music, Denmark; The University of Stavanger, Norway and Bradley University, USA. Dr. Larsen frequently adjudicates major band competitions including the national championships in Denmark, Norway and Finland, not to mention the world's oldest wind band competition in Valencia, Spain in 2015 and the Hong Kong Youth Music Interflows Competition in 2017.

Dr. Larsen has a busy schedule as an international freelance conductor while also continuously giving master classes, conducting workshops and motivational talks all over the world. Within the past year conducting workshops have been held on four continents: Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.

Resident Conductor of the China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra National Class One Conductor (Chinese version only)

Dr. Jeffrey Douma is Professor of Conducting at the Yale School of Music, Director of the Yale Glee Club, Founding Director of the Yale Choral Artists, Artistic Director of the Yale International Choral Festival, and Musical Director of the Yale Alumni Chorus, USA.

Dr. Douma has appeared as a guest conductor with leading choruses and orchestras on six continents, and also appears frequently as a guest clinician and master teacher. Choirs under his direction have performed in Leipzig's Neue Gewandhaus, Dvorak Hall in Prague, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Notre Dame de Paris, Singapore's Esplanade, Argentina's Teatro Colon, the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai, Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall, and he has prepared choruses for performances under such eminent conductors as Marin Alsop, William Christie, Valery Gergiev, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir David Willcocks, Dale Warland, Krzysztof Penderecki, Nicholas McGegan, and Helmuth Rilling.

An advocate of new music, Dr. Douma established the Yale Glee Club Emerging Composers Competition and Fenno Heath Award, and has premiered new works by such composers as Caroline Shaw, Jennifer Higdon, Dominick Argento, Bright Sheng, Ned Rorem, Jan Sandström, Ted Hearne, Hannah Lash, Martin Bresnick, David Lang, Rene Clausen, Lewis Spratlan, and James Macmillan. He also serves as editor of the Yale Glee Club New Classics Choral Series, published by Boosey & Hawkes. His original compositions are published by G. Schirmer and Boosey & Hawkes.

Dr. Douma earned a Bachelor of Music from Concordia College and a Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting from the University of Michigan.

Commended by The Strad for "brilliance of tone and charismatic delivery," Dr. Scott Conklin regularly appears as a recitalist, soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, and teaching clinician throughout the USA and abroad.

Dr. Conklin is Associate Professor of Violin at the University of Iowa School of Music and a violin teacher at the Preucil School of Music. Dr. Conklin has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Louisville, Nashville, and Berlin Symphony Orchestras. He is a recipient of the Iowa String Teachers Association Leopold LaFosse Studio Teacher of the Year Award and has been a featured artist/clinician at the conferences of the Music Teachers National Association and the Suzuki Association of the Americas. Dr. Conklin has also been a presenter at the American String Teachers Association Conference.

In addition to performing from the heart of the standard repertoire, Dr. Conklin is a champion of new music. Dr. Conklin's recording of A Tempered Wish for Solo Violin and Chamber Orchestra by Ching-chu Hu was released on the album Vive Concertante! Ching-chu Hu wrote and dedicated The Hope Moment (2011) to Conklin along with a new violin concerto that will be premiered in 2015.

A devoted supporter of music education, Dr. Conklin was featured on the violin master class DVD, Sound Innovations for String Orchestra, directed by Bob Phillips, Peter Boonschaft and Robert Sheldon. As an orchestral musician, Dr. Conklin performed on the Chandos release Prokofiev: War and Peace with conductor Richard Hickcox, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, and the Russian State Symphonic Cappella—an album listed in The Penguin Guide 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings. As a chamber musician, he performed in the Iowa City Piano Quartet with Hannah Holman, Rene Lecuona, and Elizabeth Oakes, and has also appeared on recital tours with pianists Alan Huckleberry and Uriel Tsachor.

During his youth, Dr. Conklin was a student of Carol Dallinger, Violin Professor at the University of Evansville. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He also earned Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from The University of Michigan School of Music.