With the recovery of the performance industry and the resumption of international cultural exchanges, the Beijing Music Festival, which has been around for 26 years, restarted its music event for the first time in a "biennial session" format.

On August 9th, the 25th/26th Beijing Music Festival announced its program highlights and lineup. With the theme of "Together for the Future", the festival will open on September 22nd and close on October 15th, lasting for 24 days, and will feature 25 music performances.

Beijing Music Festival poster

Providing a stage for young musicians

"The Beijing Music Festival will become the focus of attention for young musicians in China and a new starting point for the future of China's music industry," said Yu Long, chairman of the festival's artistic committee.

Providing a platform for young musicians to showcase and exchange their talents and let the world hear the voices of young Chinese musicians has been Yu Long and the festival's mission for many years. This year, the festival will provide a platform for even more young musicians.

Young violinist Mei Diyang will perform with the Berliner Barock Solisten Members of Berliner Phiharmoniker, and young violinist Lin Ruifeng will perform as a special guest with the London Sinfonietta. Jazz prodigy Lin Bing will make her debut on the Chinese stage and collaborate with the China Philharmonic Orchestra, while young conductor John Warner from the UK will join the Mahler Foundation Festival Orchestra.

The festival will collaborate with the Dahua City Art Center to produce Haydn's opera "The World of the Moon," which will have its China premiere. The cast will consist of young Chinese singers and will be performed in collaboration with the China Youth Symphony Orchestra conducted by young conductor Yu Ji.

The Mahler Foundation Festival Orchestra, composed of young musicians from various European countries, will serve as the "resident orchestra" and bring four concerts, creating a grand event for young musicians from China and abroad to exchange ideas.

The fourth concert is also the closing concert of the music festival. The Mahler Foundation Festival Orchestra will join forces with the Novus-Classica Camerata, a Chinese new classical chamber music group composed of "post-2000s" musicians, and will be conducted by John Warner and Yukuang Jin .

Yu Long, the founder of the Beijing Music Festival and chairman of the Artistic Committee, spoke at the press conference.

China adds new works to its repertoire.

In 2002, Yu Long introduced "Chinese Concepts" at the music festival, and since then, the festival has continuously commissioned new works from Chinese composers. This year, the festival will continue to enrich its list of commissioned works.

The opening concert, themed "In Commemoration of the 101st Anniversary of the Founding of the Beijing University Music School," will feature the world premiere of a fantasy symphonic suite called "Listening to Liu Tianhua," composed by Zou Ye, a composer commissioned by the Beijing Music Festival and the Beijing Chinese Orchestra, based on Liu Tianhua's works such as "Liang Xiao," "Kong Shan Niao Yu," "Guang Ming Xing," and "Gai Jin Cao." Conductor Yang Yang will lead the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Beijing Chinese Orchestra at the opening ceremony.

The festival will also feature the premiere of "The Monkey King," a symphonic dance piece created by composer Liu Sola, commissioned jointly by the festival and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. This new work combines Chinese characteristics with an international musical language, creating a fresh interpretation of a classic animated work.

The festival will also collaborate closely with the Mahler Foundation, inviting the Mahler Foundation Festival Orchestra to be in residence. The four concerts will be centered around the theme of "Dialogue with Mahler's Works," bringing together several highly promising young composers from China and abroad. Huang Ruo and Wang Ying's works will have their China premiere, while Sarah Scott, Wang Feinan, and Li Zhenyan, who were commissioned by the festival, will also present original new works.

Yu Long, chairman of the Artistic Committee, and Zou Shuang, artistic director of the festival, answered questions from reporters.

Rich performances and new experiences.

"We want to break the traditional mode of watching performances and provide more ways for audiences to immerse themselves in classical music, while also presenting more works that embody a forward-looking attitude," said Zou Shuang, artistic director of the festival.

The visual symphony "Pastoral for the Planet," a combination of installation, performance, visual, and auditory elements, will be presented by Huang Yi and the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. Audiences can interact with the music through a mobile app and get closer to the Earth's hymn and environmental themes. Young pianist Zhang Haotian will also cross over into digital art, releasing digital art collections and exploring the festival's artistic exploration in the digital age.

The festival, in collaboration with the Dahua City Art Center, will present Haydn's opera "The World of the Moon," using small theater opera as a starting point to create a new mode of music experience that is integrated into the city and close to life.

This year, the festival will also feature a middle theater opera. The London Sinfonietta and Theatre of Sound will perform a new adaptation of Bartok's opera "Bluebeard's Castle" at the Beijing Comedy Theater.

Composer Haoweiya's sci-fi opera "Seven Days" will be presented in a semi-staged form, as a glimpse into the future era of coexistence between artificial intelligence and humans in a different space.

From Sanlitun and CITIC Tower to the Temple of Heaven and Jingshan Shouhuang Palace, the "City Series" of the music festival, which has lasted for many years, will continue to step out of the concert hall and integrate into Beijing's urban life and culture.

The music festival press conference will be held at Divine Music Administration Temple of Heaven.

Famous musicians from China and abroad will gather in Beijing.

After resuming international performance exchanges, the music festival quickly invited international famous musicians and groups to come to Beijing, while also gathering a group of Chinese orchestras and musicians to participate in the music event.

The opening concert will be presented by the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Beijing Chinese Orchestra, and the world premiere of "Listening to Liu Tianhua" will be jointly completed by the two orchestras. The China Philharmonic Orchestra will also collaborate with Lin Bing to present the "Jazz Lady-Symphonic Youth" jazz symphony concert.

The 40-year-old Shanghai Quartet and the over 140-year-old Shanghai Symphony Orchestra are both old friends of the music festival and will perform together on stage. The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra will also play Liu Sola's symphonic dance "The Monkey King" to pay tribute to the glorious history of Chinese animation spanning a century.

Under the leadership of the new artistic director Huang Yi, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra will participate in the performance of the visual symphony "Pastoral for the Planet", weaving through the rich ecology of human music culture with environmental protection as the theme.

Composer and conductor Tan Dun will lead the "Martial Arts Trilogy" symphony concert, and violinist Daniel Hope, pianist Sun Jia Yi, and cellist Nie Jiapeng will jointly depict the martial arts philosophy of the movies "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "The Banquet", and "Hero".

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's principal violist, Madeleine Carruzzo, will lead a Baroque soloist ensemble composed of Berlin Philharmonic's principal musicians to perform a series of Baroque works. Pianist Stephen Hough will perform piano classics and his own new works in a solo concert.

The London Sinfonietta, known for performing contemporary works, returns after a decade and will perform a new version of the opera "Bluebeard's Castle" and a modern work chamber concert.

The Mahler Foundation Festival Orchestra will hold four concerts as the resident orchestra. Among them, the fourth concert is the closing concert of the festival. The orchestra will join forces with the Novus-Classica Camerata from China to perform Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World".

Guest photo at the festival press conference

Diverse public welfare activities

This year's festival will also plan to launch more than ten public welfare performances and activities, integrating music culture into every corner of the city.

The opera "The World of the Moon" and "Bluebeard's Castle" will plan public welfare guided tours to bring the works closer to the audience. Violinist Midori and pianist Stephen Hough will hold public master classes for professional college students and music enthusiasts. The Shanghai Quartet and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra concert and the Mahler Foundation Festival Orchestra series of concerts will hold open rehearsals to show the process of a concert coming together.

The festival will also cooperate with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's "Project Spring Bird" to hold four concerts with the theme of "Future Night". From planning, production to performance, all will be completed by young musicians, encouraging them to unleash their artistic imagination.

At the Deheyuan Grand Theater in the Summer Palace, the festival will also hold a parent-child day event for the symphonic dance "The Monkey King", using the music materials in the symphonic dance to create a unique music education activity.

The festival's public welfare brand "Children's Music Concert" will welcome the Beijing Phiharmonic Choir. The choir has appeared at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremonies. They will celebrate their 40th birthday with the children and bring a choral party.