China National Symphony Orchestra Chorus
China's oldest professional choral ensemble — the choral arm of the China National Symphony Orchestra.
The choral ensemble of the China National Symphony Orchestra is the country's oldest and most distinguished professional chorus. Established in 1956 and based in Beijing, the ensemble traces its lineage to the founding generation of Chinese symphonic music and has shaped the choral practice of an entire nation across nearly seven decades.
In 1959, the chorus made history as the first Chinese ensemble to perform Beethoven's Ninth Symphony — a defining moment that anchored its dual commitment to the Western symphonic canon and to Chinese repertoire. Today its programming moves freely between Verdi's Va pensiero, Wagner's Tannhäuser, selections from Orff's Carmina Burana, and arrangements of Hezhe, Mongolian, Xinjiang and Han folk traditions.
Under Permanent Conductor Wang Linlin, the chorus made its long-awaited Australian debut in March 2025. The three-city tour took in Hamer Hall in Melbourne and Adelaide Town Hall with piano accompaniment, before a Sydney finale at the Opera House Concert Hall in which the choir performed Xian Xinghai's monumental Yellow River Cantata with The Australia Orchestra under conductors Wang Linlin and Guy Noble. The cantata, composed in 1939 and arranged in its 1975 edition by Yan Liangkun, remains one of the defining works of modern Chinese music — and one that audiences in Sydney heard performed by the ensemble that has been its custodian for more than half a century.
In 1959, the first Chinese chorus to perform Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
About the CNSO Chorus
