Mario Paci

Paci succeeded in having the orchestra grow from 22 to 37 members and gave the first symphonic concert in Asia on November 23, 1919.

On the program was Beethoven's fifth symphony, the serenade for strings "In the Far West" by Granville Bantock, and Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No.

Initially, the audience was composed of foreigners living in Shanghai, who numbered about 20,000; at this time Chinese were not permitted to attend the concerts.

Paci's support also contributed to the founding of the National Special School for Music (國立上海音樂專科學校), which was renamed the Shanghai Conservatory in 1956.

Among the teachers there who were also members of the orchestra was the German composer Wolfgang Fraenkel (1897-1983), who fled Germany in 1938, and violinist Tan Shuzhen.

Mario Paci (second row center) with his colleagues and students in Shanghai, 1945. In the front row are two of his youngest students: Fou Ts'ong (front left) and Wu Yili (front right).