Across vast oceans they journey toward each other, and across ten thousand miles they sing in one voice. From September 3^rd to 5^th local time, a joint gala concert was grandly held at Sala São Paulo under the title of “Moving Forward Together: China NCPA Orchestra’s Brazil Tour 2026 China‑Brazil Year of Culture”. As an official event of the 2026 China-Brazil Year of Culture, the concert brought these two orchestras together, through music, to build a bridge of mutual learning.

Through the World Association for Performing Arts (WAPA), the NCPA and the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, a founding WAPA member, exchanged visits within half a month: on August 22^nd, ten musicians from the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra visited Beijing and joined the China NCPA Orchestra for the “Sights and Sounds of Amazon” Concert. This time, the China NCPA Orchestra likewise sent ten musicians to São Paulo at the invitation, returning the visit with three joint concerts, opening a new chapter in China–Brazil art exchange.


Music Builds a Bridge for Mutual Learning Among Civilisations, Empowering China-Brazil Cultural Exchange

China and Brazil, separated by vast oceans, share a deep friendship. Since they established diplomatic relations in 1974, the two countries have walked hand in hand for 52 years. In the new era in particular, bilateral relations have been further elevated to a China–Brazil community with a shared future for a more just world and a more sustainable planet. It has become a model of friendly cooperation between the two largest developing countries in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, China and Brazil keep enhancing mutual trust, with practical cooperation in all fields deepening and yielding fruitful results. People-to-people and cultural exchange, an important component of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Brazil, serves as a flexible bond for deepening mutual understanding and building bilateral consensus, laying a solid social foundation for the steady and enduring development of bilateral relations.

In 2026, the two countries jointly launched the “China-Brazil Year of Culture”, an authoritative national exchange platform for inter-civilisational communication and multi-dimensional cultural exchange and mutual learning. This two-way exchange of performances between the China NCPA Orchestra and the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, staged under the China–Brazil Year of Culture with the strong support of the Chinese Embassy in Brazil and the Brazilian Embassy in China, stands as a landmark practice of two-way interaction, equal dialogue and deep integration in culture and art between the two countries. Beijing, the capital of China, is the national political and cultural centre. São Paulo, the largest metropolis in Brazil, is a major industrial, financial, commercial and cultural hub in South America. Spanning the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, over 17,000 kilometres apart, the two cities, nonetheless, reach toward each other through music as a bridge and art as a bond, narrowing the vast oceans and bringing distant civilisations into harmony.


YU Peng, Chinese Consul General in São Paulo, said that China and Brazil are both Global South countries and BRICS members. The development of bilateral relations needs, more than anything, to be further achieved through the people and through culture. These two joint performances, different in theme and form, both fully showcased the cultural characteristics of China and Brazil and warmly received by the audiences. Advancing understanding and friendship between the two peoples through art will further cement the foundation of bilateral relations.

Chinese and Brazilian Orchestras Reach Toward Each Other, Striking a Chord of Friendship Across Borders

On August 22^nd, ten musicians from the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra visited Beijing and joined the China NCPA Orchestra for the “Sights and Sounds of Amazon” Concert, bringing an immersive audiovisual experience to the Beijing audience. Half a month later, ten musicians from the China NCPA Orchestra went to São Paulo at the invitation, returning the visit with three joint concerts. Conductor ZHANG Xian took the baton, and violinist Tai Murray performed alongside musicians from both countries. The concert opened warmly with “Purple Bamboo Tune” from BAO Yuankai’s Chinese Sights and Sounds, followed by Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, among other classics. The musicians of the two countries performed in perfect harmony, building a bridge of cultural dialogue in symphonic language. The performance on September 5^th was live-streamed in full by the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, with this symphonic feast shared by audiences worldwide.

With BAO Yuankai’s music as a thread, the two concerts cleverly echoed each other - the Beijing concert began with an encore, Pleasant Sunrise, which raised the curtain of the joint concert in Beijing, while the São Paulo concert opened with Purple Bamboo Tune, closing the loop. From east to west, a visit there and a visit here together close the full cultural loop of two-way interaction between “visiting China” and “going abroad”.

WANG Yubing, Deputy Managing Director and Trumpet Principal of the China NCPA Orchestra, said that the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra is a truly top orchestra in South America, and its brass section in particular is remarkably unified in timbre, intonation and playing technique. Outside rehearsals, the musicians from both countries often exchanged ideas, striking artistic sparks in their encounters. When we picked up our instruments and stood together on the stage, music became our most powerful tool for communication. We are thousands of miles apart, but music brings our hearts together.

Deepening Engagement with the WAPA to Broaden the Framework for Long-Term Communication and Cooperation

This cross-border musical and artistic exchange stands as a vivid example of the WAPA, an international platform, empowering cultural exchange between China and the world. The WAPA is an international organisation founded at the initiative of the NCPA, headquartered in Beijing. Upholding the principles of mutual learning, openness and inclusiveness, the WAPA endeavours to bring global theatrical forces together to build an international bridge for cross-border artistic collaboration, skill exchange and resource sharing.

The São Paulo Symphony Orchestra Foundation, a founding member of the WAPA, has been deeply involved in platform building since the WAPA’s inception and has long maintained regular, in-depth strategic cooperation with the NCPA. The two sides have worked closely in multiple fields, including stage art creation, symphony performance, and innovative audiovisual integration, accumulating a solid foundation and mature collaborative mechanism for further cooperation. This two-way exchange of performances is precisely an important milestone achievement of the long-term sincere cooperation between the two sides, and it has laid a firm foundation for deeper cooperation in the future.


The WAPA provides an international platform for global performing arts organisations in terms of equal dialogue, resource sharing and co-production. This exchange of performances is a vivid embodiment of in-depth cooperation among WAPA members. During the visit, the NCPA delegation also held exchanges with the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo, a member of the WAPA. The two sides had an exchange of views on stage performance, industry research, online dissemination, and other areas, showcasing the distinctive cultural landscapes of the two countries through diverse art forms.