Di Yu

Yu Di (; born November 23, 1981) is a Chinese classical crossover singer-songwriter, musical actor and educator. A classically trained lyric baritone, he combines his singing career with his full-time teaching position at Shanghai Theatre Academy and gained nationwide recognition after participating in the first season of the singing competition Super–Vocal.

Early life Yu's love for music began at an early age as he grew up in a music-loving household and often listened to and mimicked foreign-language pop songs by singers ranging from Michael Jackson to Jacky Cheung. His given name originates from the fact that his father, an amateur musician, plays the dizi (Chinese flute).

At age 16, Yu enlisted into the People's Liberation Army and became a drummer assigned to the Beijing Military Region. He was selected to participate in the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China parade. In December 2000, he received an honorable discharge after serving for three years. Prior to his stint with the military band, he had no formal training in musicianship and was mostly self-taught. He and his bandmates were encouraged by their commanding officer to apply the music theory they learned by composing songs, thus piquing his interest in the art of singing for the first time.

Career As he did not complete gaozhong (高级中学; grades 10 to 12) and had no formal training in singing, Yu spent the next three months independently studying and preparing for the National College Entrance Examination and Shanghai Conservatory of Music (SHCM) Department of Vocal Music and Opera's notoriously competitive admissions audition. The CCTV featured him in a one-off documentary special entitled "Dream Came True" (圆梦), chronicling his journey from a recently discharged military band drummer to his admission into SHCM; the crew discovered that he was filmed during the 1999 50th anniversary parade for a potential special feature that never came to fruition, thus enabling them use the archived footage for the documentary. As a graduate student, he taught music appreciation courses at Shanghai University Fine Arts College and was part of the first ever Chinese popera group called "Perfect Vocals of Men" (绝妙男声; Hanyu Pinyin: Juémiào nán shēng) along with three other fellow conservatory graduates. At that time, the domestic music industry was still strictly segregated and divided along the lines of "pop" and "classical", despite the popularity of classical crossover artists such as Il Divo and The Three Tenors among domestic music-lovers. The quartet were forced to disband due to a frosty reception from local music producers.

Yu then took up a teaching position at Shanghai Theatre Academy and continued performing both at home and abroad as a soloist. After completing his residency, he returned to his job at Shanghai Theatre Academy, where he has been ever since. Like Yu himself, Song and Wang are both music educators at various Shanghai tertiary institutions and shared a desire to address prejudices and stereotypes about classical music, specifically opera and bel canto, being "boring" or "only for the elite". They intentionally did not recruit a tenor to challenge a popular misconception among domestic audiences that the melody must be carried by a higher register such as that of tenors or sopranos and scored their own arrangements to suit their baritone tessiture and vocal range. Due to their main jobs in academia, they mostly release singles rather than full albums and have a limited performance schedule.

The trio made their debut performance during the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival in May 2014. Initially they mostly performed at college festivals and local municipal events, gaining a sizeable following in Shanghai. They have appeared on infotainment programs, conducted seminars for music teachers and given lectures at schools and music interest clubs in addition to releasing music and performing.

Super Vocal and other activities Yu appeared in the Hunan Television variety-reality show Grade One Freshman (一年级·大学季) and its sequel Grade One Graduation (一年级·毕业季), which featured celebrities experiencing college life at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. He was among the instructors who made guest appearances on both shows.

In 2018, Yu took a short sabbatical from his teaching job after he successfully applied to participate in the classical crossover singing competition Super–Vocal. He did not perform during the first duet stage as he was assigned to the understudy group. Instead he and fellow vocal instructor Hong Zhiguang of Yale School of Music first came to the viewers' attention for their spontaneous duet rendition of the popular aria "Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre" from Carmen during a challenge to win the right to perform in the upcoming second duet stage and the uploaded clip went viral on social media. Videos of his next two performances, during the trio stage, went viral on Weibo, each tallying over 2 million views within two days and earning rave reviews from both viewers and industry professionals. The Chinese delegation had visited Rome to sign a series of investment agreements related to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Yu made his debut in musical theater with the Chinese adaption of Stephen Dolginoff's critically acclaimed Flames, which began its run in December 2019. The song 琴歌 (Hanyu Pinyin: Qín gē; roughly translates to mean "Piano Song") was co-composed by himself and a friend as a tribute to the love story of his late former conservatory instructor Wen Kezheng and the latter's widow Wang Qiu, herself a renowned pianist and accompanist.

In February 2021, Yu released his first solo studio album containing original music, some of which were self-composed. Several of the tracks were digital singles he had released the previous years and were either composed or produced by other Super-Vocal participants.

From March to May 2022, Yu played Shen Fu in Our Life-Long Serendipity, a new musical adaptation of the autobiographical literary classic Six Records of a Floating Life. A musical adaptation already existed but the production team revised the original script and added dramatic elements of Chinese opera. Yu served as the musical director and composed an original song for the updated version.

Since 2024, Yu has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Shanghai Musicians Association (上海音乐家协会).

In October 2024 Yu reunited with some of his Super-Vocal castmates for a guest appearance on the fourth season of Time Concert (时光音乐会), a popular music program on Hunan Television that features singers from popular past singing programs such as Super Girl.

Personal life Yu is married to SMG producer and presenter Chen Chen (陈辰).

Discography Singles Year English title Chinese title Album Notes 2019 "The Tree Near You" 你路旁的树 "Heroes" 闪亮的名字 Heroes (闪亮的名字) OST "Time Goes By" 时光不散 "Birds Fly At Dusk" 黄昏时 众鸟飞逝 Monsieur Yu 余生 with Zheng Yunlong "Beside You" 身畔 "We Are Loved" 我们都被爱着 2020 "Piano Song" 琴歌 "Can't Love" 余情不了

Participation singles Year English title Chinese title Album Notes 2018 "Clouds of My Hometown" 故乡的云 Super-Vocal (Episode 5) with Hong Zhiguang "Bella ciao" (Italian and Mandarin mash-up) 啊，朋友再见 Super-Vocal (Episode 6) with Hong Zhiguang and Gong Ziqi "Les Rois du monde" (from Roméo et Juliette) 世界之王 Super-Vocal (Episode 7) with Hong Zhiguang and Ayanga "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" 你眼里的蓝 Super-Vocal (Episode 8) with Zhaili Shuotian and Wang Kai 欢乐Song (Ode to Joy remake / Spanish and Mandarin mash-up) Super-Vocal (Episode 9) with Zhaili Suotian and Gong Ziqi 2019 "Halo" Super-Vocal (Episode 11) with Cai Chengyu, Wang Kai and Ju Hongchuan "Il Libro Dell' Amore" 爱之书 Super-Vocal (Episode 12) with Wang Kai, Ju Hongchuan and Gao Tianhe

Studio album Title Album details Monsieur Yu 余生 Released: February 5, 2021 Label: Yu Di Studio Format: digital download

Filmography

Year English title Chinese title Notes 2002 Chronicle — "Dream Came True" 纪事 — 圆梦 2015 Grade One Freshman 一年级·大学季 2016–2017 Grade One Graduation 一年级·毕业季 2018–19 Super–Vocal (season 1) 声入人心 2020 Kevin Hours — Teach Me How to Miss Him 可凡倾听 — 教我如何不想他