鄭小瑛 ZHENG Xiao-ying（1929年9月28日～）
鄭小瑛，指揮家、教育家、社會活動家。中國第一位交響樂女指揮家、中央歌劇院終身榮譽指揮、鄭小瑛歌劇藝術中心藝術總監；曾任中央音樂學院指揮系主任、中央歌劇院首席指揮、愛樂女樂團音樂總監和創辦人之一、廈門愛樂樂團藝術總監兼首席指揮、中國音樂家協會常務理事。1929年9月28日，出生於上海的一個知識分子家庭，原籍福建省永定縣；6歲開始學鋼琴；抗戰初，逃難到四川讀小學，中學時就讀華英女中；1947年，考入金陵女子大學生物系，短暫後離開，投赴解放區中原大學文工團；1952年，進入中央音樂學院作曲系，偶得機會參加了蘇聯專家的合唱指揮短期訓繰班；1960年，被派往蘇聯莫斯科音樂學院深造；1962年，因成績優異，獲指揮普契尼歌劇《托斯卡》的演出機會；1963年，回國，文革時下放接受「再教育」；改革開放後，任中央歌劇團首席指揮；1989年，她和一群女音樂家組建了愛樂女室內樂團；1994年，赴美國講學；1997年，受原廈門市政協主席的邀請，到廈門創辦一個民營的樂團；1998年9月9日，廈門愛樂樂團在鼓浪嶼音樂廳舉行成立首演，鄭小瑛擔任樂團藝術總監、首席指揮；2013年9月30日，聘用合約到期，她卸任了樂團藝術總監職務。鄭小瑛曾成功在二十多個國家指揮演出，獲法國文學藝術榮譽勳章兩枚、俄中友誼榮譽勳章、中國歌劇事業特別貢獻獎、文華指揮獎、中國文聯中國音協“金鐘獎”終身成就獎等。
ZHENG Xiao-ying (September 28, 1929 – )
ZHENG Xiao-ying is a conductor, educator, and social activist. She is the first female symphony conductor in China, Honorary Conductor of the Central Opera House, and Artistic Director of the Zheng Xiao-ying Opera Art Center. She has held positions such as Director of the Conducting Department at the Central Conservatory of Music, Chief Conductor of the Central Opera House, Music Director and co-founder of the Philharmonic Women’s Orchestra, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, and Executive Council Member of the Chinese Musicians’ Association.
ZHENG Xiao-ying was born on September 28, 1929, into an intellectual family in Shanghai. Her ancestral home is Yongding County, Fujian Province. She started learning piano at the age of six. During the early years of the Anti-Japanese War, she evacuated to Sichuan and attended Huaying Girls’ School for her secondary education. In 1947, she was admitted to Jinling College for Women’s Biology Department but left shortly after to join the Central Plains University Work Troupe in the liberated areas. In 1952, she entered the Composition Department of the Central Conservatory of Music and had the opportunity to participate in a short-term training class for choral conducting conducted by Soviet experts. In 1960, she was sent to the Moscow Conservatory in the Soviet Union for further studies. In 1962, due to her outstanding performance, she was given the opportunity to conduct Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Tosca”. She returned to China in 1963 but was sent down for “re-education” during the Cultural Revolution. After the reform and opening up, she became the Chief Conductor of the Central Opera Company. In 1989, she founded the Philharmonic Women’s Chamber Orchestra with a group of female musicians. In 1994, she went to the United States for further studies. In 1997, at the invitation of the former Chairman of Xiamen Municipal Political Consultative Conference, she founded a private orchestra in Xiamen. On September 9, 1998, the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra held its inaugural performance at the Gulangyu Concert Hall, with ZHENG Xiao-ying serving as the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor. On September 30, 2013, her contract expired, and she stepped down from the position of Artistic Director of the orchestra.
ZHENG Xiao-ying has successfully conducted performances in more than twenty countries. She has been awarded two French Order of Arts and Letters medals, the Russia-China Friendship Medal, the Special Contribution Award to China’s Opera Career, the Wen Hua Conducting Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Chinese Musicians’ Association “Golden Bell Award,” among others.