On September 17^th, the China NCPA Orchestra and Chorus launched their official 2021/22 season. In the new music season titled, “Glows From Within”, China NCPA Orchestra will give 117 virtuoso performances of symphonic music, chamber music and operatic music paying homage to the extraordinary journey that it has been covered by the music director LÜ Jia over the past ten years. Meanwhile, the China NCPA Chorus will not only perform operas, but also give 17 concerts that are very different in historical background and of various styles.


That evening, the two signature ensembles of NCPA played ZHAO Jiping’s Red Star Over China, SHENG Zongliang’s Nanjing, Oh Nanjing! and magnificent Yellow River Cantata with ZHANG Qiang, WANG Haitao, ZHOU Xiaolin and ZHAO Ling under the leadership of the conductor LI Xincao, expressing their vigorous patriotic feelings and singing the praises of their inner bright light, kicking off the new season.

For the China NCPA Chorus, the last season was both challenging and amazing: Confronting the pandemic, they launched the season by two steps for the first time in order to ensure that the performance information was as accurate as possible. During the 17-month super season, they adjusted their schedules in real-time and gave more than 130 performances both online and offline, at the NCPA and elsewhere, attracting the attention of music lovers to their “aggressiveness”, becoming one of the orchestras in the world to have given the largest number of performances, operated most steadily and performed the best since the outbreak of COVID-19. Its first China tour, Mini Chamber Music Week, online appearance at Davos and 32 online performances, watched by an audience of more than 100 million, are all their shining footprints left over the past ten years.


The new season is titled, “Glows From Within”, which means spreading light with music in tribute to the Olympic flame, which illuminates the soul. “Glows” means “bright sunlight and pure white light”. According to REN Xiaolong, General Manager of the Orchestra, the beam of “light”, which is full of what is peculiar to China, is not only “a hope harboured by people in trouble, but also an attractive trait of the Olympics, and the richest treasure in music”. Music director LÜ Jia said with emotion, “Artists are often lucky enough to bathe in the light from art, and therefore always want more people to be so lucky. With the aid of our work and this theme, I hope more people will see extraordinary light through music.”

According to REN Xiaolong, General Manager of the Orchestra, the beam of “light”, which is full of what is peculiar to China, is not only “a hope harboured by people in trouble, but also an attractive trait of the Olympics, and the richest treasure in music”.

Adhering to the spirit of innovating and popularising Chinese music culture, the Orchestra will hold an East-West dialogue with folk music masters including guqin artist CHEN Leiji, pipa artists ZHANG Qiang and ZHANG Hongyan, erhu artist LU Yiwen, and pipe artist HAN Lei in “Native Music is Best” series to render enduring classics and masterpieces composed by contemporary composes including CHEN Qigang, SHENG Zongliang, YU Jingjun, ZHOU Wenzhong, ZHOU Long, TAN Dun, CHEN Xinruo and YAO Chen. HUANG Ruo’s Butterfly · Transformation, a work commissioned by the Orchestra the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Essen Opera House Germany, will have its world premieres, too.

ZHAO Jiping’s “Composer in Focus” series will continue to be staged in this season. Pipe Concerto, Pipa Concerto No. 2, Red Star over China and Qingyun Music will be rendered, too. At the same time, the NCPA’s symphonic chorus commission The Story of Flower, composed by ZHAO Jiping based on choreographic music of the same title, will have its world premiere and undoubtedly become one more masterpiece created by this 76-year-old composer.

The China NCPA Orchestra’s special preparation for the music season has long been its most distinctive feature in which music lovers take delight in talking, and there is no exception to this year’s season. 2022 will mark the 50^th anniversary of Stravinsky’s death. The Orchestra has produced “Echo of Neoclassicism” series to make this modernist pioneer meet with Respighi, Ravel and Bartók. Stravinsky’s Jeu de cartes, Symphony In Three Movements, Dumbarton Oaks and Violin Concerto in D major, Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dance, and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, which all have far-reaching historical influence and are rarely heard in China, will be a real feast for Chinese music lovers.

Over the years, many chamber music ensembles founded by orchestra members have been getting an increasingly firm foothold and taking the stage frequently, making chamber music a new highlight of the music season. After launching the “Mini Chamber Music Week”, they will continue their close cooperation with three art consultants, including LI Weigang, LIU Mingjia and HAN Xiaoguang, violinist WANG Xiaoming and the Shanghai Quartet. They will also develop crossover cooperation with some recitalists including the guitarist YANG Xuefei, guqin artist CHEN Leiji and erhu artist LU Yiwen to launch all-star “Unbounded” chamber music series. They will give 13 resident concerts and 6 touring concerts to render string music works composed by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schoenberg and Piazzolla, wind music works by Richard Strauss and Beethoven, and rare adaptions of Prokofiev’s Roméo et Juliette and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition for Wind Orchestra.

In addition, a number of masterworks are also highly anticipated, including Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, which will be conducted by ZHANG Yi, Schubert’s Rosamond, to be conducted by YU Feng, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which will be conducted by LI Xincao, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, and Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote, which will be conducted by LIN Daye. As the pandemic comes under increasingly effective control, the signature operas of the NCPA will also return resoundingly, including world classics Gianni Schicchi, Il Trovatore, Turandot, La Traviata, L’Elisir d’Amore, etc., and fascinating opera commissions The Long March, The Daughter of the Party, Song of Youth, Summer Rainbow, and so on, which will surely satisfy the audience’s craving for amazing opera performances.

In this season, the China NCPA Orchestra will celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the start of its integration with LÜ Jia, who took the stage as chief conductor for the first time in February 2012, and became music director in 2015. After ten years of development under the leadership of LÜ Jia, the Orchestra has grown into a well-deserved speaker for the new generation of top orchestras, not only building up its lofty prestige in the art scene, but also becoming a trend-setter in orchestra management. It has also made outstanding contributions to the development of musical life in Beijing and the country.

In April this year, the Orchestra toured China for the first time, winning critical acclaim. The Paper praised it for “showing its overwhelming power as a national symphony orchestra”. Music Weekly praised it for “showing its strength and sincerity by performing rarely heard masterpieces under the highest standard.” During this season, although the long-planned Europe tour, which boasts a splendid itinerary, may be delayed, the plan to tour China for a second time remains in good progress. Furthermore, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4, a magnificent masterpiece, is likely to be played to share with more Chinese music lovers the gratifying achievements made by the Orchestra and LÜ Jia over the past ten years.

For more details of the music season, please visit the NCPA’s official website (www.chncpa.org/ncpao) to download the electronic handbook. The information of the music season is also simultaneously published on the China NCPA Orchestra’s official WeChat and Weibo accounts. In addition, a video about the music season has been posted on the China NCPA Orchestra’s Video Account and Bilibili account. For English information of the music season, please visit NCPA’s official website in English (www.chncpa.org/ncpao/en) or China NCPA Orchestra’s official Facebook and Instagram accounts.