Former Adler Student Sheng Mingliang dies of COVID

The original inspiration of The Adler Project, Sheng Mingliang（盛明亮）, violinist of the Central Philharmonic Society （中央乐团）, a student of Austro-Hungarian violinist Ferdinand Adler, dies of COVID in Beijing on the morning of January 2, 2023. He was 90 years old.

​

Sheng Mingliang was born in Nanjing, China. He was orphaned during WWII. In 1945, Sheng Mingliang was accepted by the State Conservatory of Music Junior Program （国立音乐院幼年班）in Chongqing. As the junior program was relocated to Changzhou, he started to study violin under Ferdinand Adler, then concertmaster of the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra （工部局交响乐团）, until Adler returned to Austria in 1947. In 1950, the Junior Program was merged into the Central Conservatory of Music Youth Program and relocated Tianjin. In 1951, Sheng Mingliang was selected to join the China Youth Artists Group （中国青年文工团） to attend the 3rd World Festival of Youth and Students in Berlin, and toured Eastern Europe for one year. After the successful tour, Sheng Mingliang did not return to the Central Conservatory but joined the newly founded Central Song and Dance Group （中央歌舞团） based on the Youth Artists Group. In 1956, the orchestra of the Central Song and Dance Group was reorganized into the Central Philharmonic Society. Sheng Mingliang became a founding member.

Sheng Mingliang worked at the Central Philharmonic Society for nearly 40 years until he retired in the 1990s. During his tenure, he participated in many major events, such as performing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony “Ode to Joy” in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the all-Beethoven symphony cycle concerts and recordings, as well as tour of Japan in 1972, and cross-US tour in 1987. He participated in the orchestra’s collaboration with world renowned musicians including Isaac Stern (“From Mao to Mozart”), Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Fou Ts’ong, Seiji Ozawa, Herbert von Karajan, Eugene Ormandy, and more.