Lü Shao-chia

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Lü Shao-chia (Chinese: 呂紹嘉) is a Taiwanese conductor.

Born in Taiwan, Lü studied piano at an early age. Initiated by well-known Taiwanese conductor Chen Chiu-sen, he later turned to conducting and went on to Indiana University and Vienna Conservatory. In 1998, he was accepted in conducting course held by maestro Gennady Rozhdestvensky in Accademia Musicale Chigiana and graduated as the only recipient of Diploma di Honore. In 1991 he graduated from Vienna Conservatory with excellence and was honored by the Science Research Department of Austrian government for his outstanding achievement.

Lü's fame soared after he was called in on short notice to replace the ailing Sergiu Celibidache for his scheduled concert tour with Münchner Philharmoniker in Taiwan. After that Lü has seen his reputation taking flight and was ranked among the best conductors of the younger generation.

As an opera conductor, Lü was appointed principal conductor of Komischen Oper Berlin in 1995. By the time he left the opera house in 1998, he had conducted in hundreds of performances of more than 30 operas, which also helped establishing his reputation as one of the leading opera conductors of his generation. Starting 1996, Lü was invited to work with English National Opera, Norway Royal Opera, Sydney Opera, Royal Opera Brussel, Stuttgart Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Hamburgische Staatoper.

Lü had headed Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonia between 1998 and 2004 as music director and was bestowed 'Peter Cornelius Plakette' by the Cultural Minister of Rheinland for his outstanding contribution in local culture in May 2004.

Lü has led Niedersächsische Staatstheater Hannover as music director from 2001 to 2006. The performance of the opera house was elevated to higher level soon after his arrival and he along with the opra house were named 'Conductor of the Year' and 'Best Opera House of the Year' by Die Opernwelt, the most influential opera magazines in German-speaking countries.

Lü won the International Kiril Kondrashin Competition for conductors in 1994 and went on to win Besançon International Competition for Conductors (both first prize and Lyre d'Or award) and Pedrotti International Competition for Orchestra Conductors.