2020 marks the 13^th anniversary of the NCPA. On December 22^nd, the NCPA will host a special “Online Arts Festival” featuring online performances and events. On December 15^th, the NCPA held a press conference, where ZHU Jing, the NCPA’s Vice President, announced highlights. LÜ Jia, Music Artistic Director of NCPA, ZHANG Yi, Music Director of the National Ballet of China, Artistic Director of Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, ZHOU Xiaolin, a soprano and NCPA Resident Opera Singer, and ZHAO Ling, a member of the NCPA Drama Ensemble, also shared their artistic experiences of this year on behalf of the artists and expressed their best wishes for the NCPA.

 

In return for support of audiences over the past 13 years, the NCPA has planned a series of activities with the theme, “Life with Art”. From December 11^th to 22^nd, more than 20 performances will be held online and offline to meet audiences’ expectations. In particular, the 12-hour “Online Arts Festival” will be an online art feast. Vice President ZHU Jing said, “In the 13 years since the opening of NCPA, we have had plenty of joy with all the artists and audiences, and we have also weathered many storms together. This year, even though we were unable to meet our audiences at the difficult times, we remained in close contact with them at all times. After the special trials and tribulations of the pandemic, we have grown tremendously and are more aware of the great power of art.”

Due to the epidemic prevention and control, the offline admissions will be cancelled on December 22^nd. For the first time, the open day will be held online, offering a special “Online Arts Festival”. From 10 AM. to 10 PM., the 12-hour programme of uninterrupted performances and activities will be streamed for free on many online platforms.

 

The “Online Arts Festival” will provide a wide range of performances, covering song, music, dance, drama and opera, including excerpts from NCPA dramas A Doll’s House, Crossroads, and The Count of Monte Cristo; the National Ballet of China’s original ballet Flying Against the Wind; excerpts from Peking Opera Highlights; excerpts from the popular opera film The Dawns Here Are Quiet; and an exciting performance of Link Up: The Orchestra Is Singing by children. It’s worth mentioning that four string section principals of the China NCPA Orchestra will team up with the Stradivari Quartet for a streamed performance.

This year, the NCPA has made every effort to promote high art online. In the “Online Arts Festival”, there are also sections on art popularization such as “Art Talk”, “Online Arts Lectures” and “Online Exhibition”. In the East Exhibition Hall of NCPA, the opening of Exhibition of NCPA Collection will take place online on December 22^nd. FAN Di’an, Chairman of the China Artists Association and President of Central Academy of Fine Arts, will give an opening pre-talk and lead an in-depth visit of the exhibition. The specially curated “One Centre, Three Sites” section will explore the NCPA Taihu Art Centre. In the streamed studio, artists and hosts will give viewers a real-time introduction of the Online Festival; they will also provide some behind-the-scenes knowledge on the production of artworks.

The audience will also be treated to an online “cooking demonstration” by violinist LÜ Siqing and other guests in the newly-renovated Western Cuisine, which is the “Art and Lifestyle House”, a special part of the Festival. Special guests will showcase delicacies and creative products, share art knowledge, and interact with the audience in raffle games. In addition, there will be an alliance moment”, which will bring together artists and arts institutions from both at home and abroad, as well as a documentary that chronicles the NCPA’s journey with its audiences during the unusual 2020.

The finale of the Festival will feature the China NCPA Orchestra and Chorus under the leadership of NCPA Music Artistic Director LÜ Jia. They will present Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and other classics along with an exciting pre-talk.

Along with the much-anticipated “Open Day Arts Festival”, a series of performances are scheduled. For more information, please click on the link at the end of this article.

At the most critical stage of epidemic prevention and control this year, the NCPA responded by presenting ten art works on the theme of fighting the epidemic in just over two months, with a total of 260 million hits on major media platforms, including 180 million hits for the symphonic chorus What Angels Say. The works have triggered widespread attention from our society and have gathered a strong spiritual against the epidemic.

Since April 11^th, the NCPA has launched online performance series including, “Spring Online”, “Sound of Summer Blooms”, “Bright Autumn Cadenza” and “An Invitation from Winter”, with a total of 40 performances and over 1.21 billion hits online. This year, the NCPA has delivered the world’s first live broadcast of stage art in 8K+5G, which became a landmark event.

In late July, the NCPA has gradually resumed offline performances while following strict epidemic prevention measures. The NCPA gave a total of 308 commercial performances throughout the year, building a platform for domestic artists and theatres to demonstrate the power of Chinese art. In 2020, the NCPA has also released three new productions, namely February, Crossroads and The Count of Monte Cristo.

The NCPA hosted the 2020 Beijing Forum for Performing Arts and Taihu International Stage Design Forum, building a broad platform for cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and the rest of the world through online and offline channels. The BFPA was officially established. With the goal of “building a community with shared future for all theatres”, it will be a standardized, high-level and permanent multilateral exchange platform for the development of the performing arts worldwide.

The NCPA signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Beijing Dance Academy to set up the NCPA BDA Youth Dance troupe. The NCPA has established “three troupes and two teams” to promote the prosperity of arts and culture and aesthetic education of colleges and universities in the capital city and nationwide.

With a view to 2021, the NCPA will adhere to high standards of epidemic prevention and control in order to ensure stability and safety while developing with high quality. In terms of performances, the NCPA will launch performance series such as “2021 Chinese New Year Wishes” and “Charm of China: Top Chinese Traditional Musicians”, as well as original productions and art activities based on the centenary of the founding of the CPC. Themed arts festivals such as the NCPA Opera Festival and China Orchestra Festival will also be presented with a new look. In terms of art exchanges, the NCPA will deepen international artistic communications, build interactive channels for art exchange, continue to hold important events such as the “2021 Beijing Forum for Performing Arts”, and give full play to the international artistic communication platform.

The NCPA will continue its online performance series, optimize the new business format combining online and offline performances, explore technology to support the arts, implement a digital strategy for the arts industry, accelerate construction of smart theatres, promote development of “One Centre, Three Sites”, accelerate construction of the theatre in the city’s cub-centre, enhance popularization and promotion of the arts, keep upgrading service levels of the Centre and strive to build a theatre that satisfies everyone.

Photos by NIU Xiaobei