The 6^th annual NCPA “China Orchestra Festival” will kick off on April 6^th, when nine concerts will be held for performances of 35 symphonic works by 22 contemporary Chinese composers. The development of symphony in contemporary China will be highlighted at the festival themed, “Chinese Stories & National Symphonies.”

Among 22 composers expected to gather at the sixth festival are the older generation of Chinese composers that have composed classic symphonic works, such as ZHU Jian’er, WANG Xilin and WANG Ming, China’s hard-core symphony composers that grew up in the Reform and Opening-up, such as ZHAO Jiping, BAO Yuankai, YE Xiaogang, GUO Wenjing, ZHANG Qianyi and GUAN Xia, as well as new-generation composers full of creative energy, including CHANG Ping.

Composer ZHAO Jiping

In the 1980s, ZHAO Jiping ushered in a golden age of music composition. In 1983, he returned to northern Shaanxi to collect folk songs for the creation of background music for film Yellow Earth, and what he did at that time remains visible before our eyes. Everytime he returned to northern Shaanxi to collect folk songs, he sighed with deep feelings, “It’s pleasant but worrisome to return there. Pleasant because the local economy is developing rapidly and people are leading a better life. Worrisome because some primitive music is missing. We’re now in a more open and multiplex environment of composition, where we should pay more attention to the development of symphony, to facilitate a new leap of art in the new age.” ZHAO Jiping, who is sentimental about the past, is drawing a beautiful picture of life with touching melodies. As he said, “The ode to a new era should be innovated and given real feelings.” His Pipa Concerto No. 2 and Violin Concerto No. 1 are such works full of sunlight, hope, great love and feelings.

Composer BAO Yuankai

Since the beginning of the Reform and Opening-up, economy and technology have developed rapidly, providing composers with favourable conditions to engage in compositions, imposing new missions and responsibilities on them. BAO Yuankai said, “We need a Western musical form - symphony - to help us to act out Chinese stories.” Thinking in this way, he has created a number of symphonic works based on Chinese music elements, such as Chinese Sights and Sounds and Peking Opera Symphony.

Composer ZHANG Qianyi

The traditional culture of China, including literary masterpieces and Chinese traditional music instruments, has provided composers in the new era with more themes under which Chinese stories can be acted out in symphonic form. The local customs of different nationalities provide composers with a steady flow of artistic inspirations and music materials. ZHANG Qianyi, who has created symphonic masterpieces such as The Boreal Forest and Yunnan Capriccio, said, “Every time I go to regions inhabited by ethnic groups to collect folk songs, I experience the local culture personally, and search for new folk song materials. I feel at home with our minority compatriots. When I return to these regions, I sing around a fire pit with them, strengthening the bonds between us. I gain a lot every time.”

Composer GUAN Xia

At the upcoming festival, the China National Symphony Orchestra will perform “Hani Symphony” series. Director of China National Symphony Orchestra GUAN Xia, who led artists to Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province to collect folk songs, has a profound feeling for this land rich in folk music. Back in the 1980s, when he was a student of composition, GUAN Xia went deep into ethnic minority areas in Yunnan to collect folk songs. Soul-stirring music left a deep impressions on him and came into his compositions. “We should give a boost to the creation and performance of excellent Chinese symphonic works, promote them worldwide and blend them with mainstream Western music,” said GUAN Xia.

Reportedly, the festival will be held on April 6^th-28^th, when nine wonderful concerts will be given successively by the China National Symphony Orchestra, Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Central Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra, Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, National Ballet of China Symphony Orchestra and Sichuan Philharmonic Orchestra and China NCPA Orchestra, to offer audiences a feast of Chinese symphony this spring.