About APAC | AsianPerformingArtsCouncil

Asian Performing Arts Council (APAC)

Founded by Dr. Martha Liao in 1987, the Asian Performing Arts Council (APAC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to foster cultural exchange between the East and West and support exceptional talents in the performing arts.

In 2011, APAC founded the "iSING! International Young Artists Festival" - a unique program with a mission to promote Mandarin as a lyric language and introduce Chinese vocal literature to major mainstream stages worldwide. Under the artistic leadership of celebrated opera bass Hao Jiang Tian, the festival has attracted over a thousand singers from all corners of the globe to apply. Over 400 young singers from more than 30 countries have been selected to participate in this pioneering training initiative on full scholarship. iSING! Festival has presented more than 60 concerts and operatic performances on the stages of the Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts, Shanghai Grand Theatre, Jiangsu Grand Theatre, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the National Library of France.

In 2020, the Festival produced the world premiere of "Echoes of Ancient Tang Poems" in Suzhou, featuring original commissions from 15 young composers hailing from 6 countries who set the timeless classical Tang poetry to music.

In January 2023, "Echoes of Ancient Tang Poems" received its North American premiere in collaboration with The Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Lio Kuokman with two performances at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and Lincoln Center in New York. In November of the same year, singers of the iSING! Festival joined the China National Symphony Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra in 5O Years of Musical Friendship: Special Anniversary Concert of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 1973 China Tour.

In 2024, the Asian tour of "Echoes of Ancient Tang Poems" commenced, featuring eighteen iSINGers from nine countries: the United States, China, Canada, Hungary, Romania, France, Italy, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Held at Tianjin Juilliard, the month-long training immersed participants in 15 Tang Poems set to contemporary music composed by global young talents. The tour culminated in performances with the Macau Orchestra in Macau and the Hubei Symphony Orchestra in Wuhan on September 14th and 19th, 2024, respectively.

On November 2, 2024, the iSING! Festival and the Philadelphia Orchestra performed under the baton of Marin Alsop at Beijing National Center for the Performing Arts. In addition to selections from “Echoes of Ancient Tang Poems,” the concert also saw the world premiere of Mason Bates’s “Spring River Flowers by Moonlight,” the Philadelphia Orchestra and Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin and the China International Culture Association.

OperaWire featured a review of the iSING! 2024 concert and included a short history of our pioneering program.