KLASSIKOM=Innovations in classical music

The Dagger Society, an iconic blockbuster dance first performed in Shanghai in 1959, returned to its birthplace last night. The Dagger Society was a secret society with Triad roots. In 1853 its members under Liu Lichuan occupied Shanghai’s walled Chinese city and held it until 1855, with the Hall of Rising Spring in Yuyuan Garden as their headquarters. Qing forces and French troops besieged them,...

This is a Chinese language programme with bilingual subtitles. Baritone Zhang Gonghao has just completed his doctorate at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he studies with Liao Changyong. Liao is a member of this year’s jury and won Operalia in 1997. In this interview Zhang says the competition’s arrival in Shanghai matters greatly to students who see Liao as both a role model and a goal....

This is a Chinese language programme with bilingual subtitles. Baritone Li Zihao is in the second year of a master’s in opera at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, where he studies with Sun Jian, best known for the opera The Savage Land by Jin Xiang, hailed at the best Chinese opera ever written. In this interview he traces his path from the piano at seven or eight, through children’s singin...

Jasmine Chinese Orchestra presented a crossover programme last night at the Jasmine Theare, both affiliated with the Shanghai Workers’ Union. The ensemble played music of its own creation and arrangement. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit klassikom.substack.com

Ever thought of wine tasting while listening to Liszt’s formidable Sonata in B minor in a pitch-dark cellar lit by nothing but two candles? This is not Napa Valley but a private subterranean wine club in downtown west Shanghai. On a cool autumn evening at EPM Vintage & Club, composer and pianist Sansui played Liszt’s Sonata in B minor on a baby grand Kawai transported to the basement by eight work...

World renowed Rossini tenor Juan Diego Flórez travelled to Shanghai last week. He sang in the opening gala at the inauguration of the Shanghai Grand Opera House yesterday, and then appeared tonight at the Expo Cultural Park in an open-air gala with guest tenor Shi Yijie, another brilliant Rossini tenor and President of the Shanghai Opera House. Diego Matheuz conducted the Shanghai Opera House Orch...

Brazilian singer Lívia Nestrovski and composer/guitarist Frederico José Ferreira performed at BFC in Shanghai in a programme that mixed their own culture and what they’ve seen and heard along the way touring in China, including a vintage song from a film they picked up in Suzhou. Filmed on October 10, 2026 in Shanghai. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscrib...

Presented by JZ, the annual jazz festival moved to the big lawn of a sports park in Pudong area of Shanghai for the first time and welcomed spectators with free entry and shows across four stages from 5 to 9pm, Sat to Fri. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit klassikom.substack.com

When Maestro Muhai Tang arrived in Shenyang to conduct Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 Resurrection with the Shenyang Symphony Orchestra at Shengjing Grand Theatre on 11 October, he brought with him more than forty years of intimate familiarity with the score. What he found at the other end was an orchestra whose own story of survival lent the programme an unplanned resonance. The Shenyang Symphony Orches...

Dance by Philip Glass was presented by Opera Lyon at Shangyin Opera House last night, the first run of a three-night programme. The show is a line-up of the CSIAF. It’s sponsored by Van Cleef & Arpels. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit klassikom.substack.com

On the flight to Xi’an last month I watched the film adaptation of A Step into the Past , the time-travel adventure in which a modern-day protagonist tumbles back into the Qin dynasty and finds himself caught between those who wish to alter history and those determined to preserve it. It came back to me last Thursday evening at the He Luting Concert Hall of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, wher...

Shanghai Opera House presented Verdi's Falstaff at Shanghai Grand Opera House. It was the last of the dry run from the house's soft opening season. The performance was conducted by Zhang Chengjie. Zhang Feng sang the titlerole. Shanghai Grand Opera HouseSeptember 28, 2026 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit klass...

Amateur musicians and music teachers gather at Artist la Pie to present a night of autumn chill while celebrating the Mid Autumn Festival under the Harvest Moon with suona music, Bach and Japanese animation soundtracks. This is part of the public piano concert series presented by the French bakery in Shanghai. Filmed on September 25, 2026 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this...

I have long been drawn to music happening in places that seem to have nothing to do with music. There is something genuinely important about that kind of boundary crossing. Two weeks ago, it was a bookshop on Fuzhou Road, where a Hangzhou quartet performed a meditative, healing-oriented set on lusheng, bamboo flute, xiao, bass, voice, and keyboards. Last week, a return to the long-missed Yongfu Ro...

The House of Blues and Jazz held its first swing dance party since relocating to a larger venue on Saturday evening, with a quartet led by clarinettist and saxophonist Huang Ye setting the floor in motion. The night marks a small but telling addition to Shanghai’s reviving jazz scene. The city now has at least two major clubs hosting regular swing parties, a modest count against the dozens of danc...

Keep It Quiet by Yongfoo Elite resumed its live music programme after a hiatus of over one year. During last night’s show, guzheng player and crossover artist Yu Miao presented a night of ambience and rhythmic music to an international clientele, many of whom regular guests of the fine-dining restaurant in Shanghai. Filmed on September 18, 2026. This is a public episode. If you would like to discu...

Prima donna of the Shanghai Opera House, soprano Song Qian recounted her eight years’ study in Milan and how she survived robbery, intimidation and other crimes directed to her. This is a Chinese language programme without dubbing. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit klassikom.substack.com

Qin Wenchen, professor and deputy dean of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, has been awarded the Special Prize for International Cultural Engagement at the Austrian Music Theatre Prize (Österreichischer Musiktheaterpreis), presented on 8 September 2026 at the Votivkirche in Vienna. The neo-Gothic church on the Ringstraße, one of Vienna’s most recognisable landmarks, served as the cerem...

Yan Huichang, one of the most prominent figures in Chinese orchestral music, conducted the world premiere of his Xianqiang Rhapsody at Xi’an Concert Hall Tuesday evening, with the Shaanxi Broadcasting National Traditional Orchestra and a one-man-band featuring 25-year-old Xianqiang virtuoso Wang Kun performing under the composer’s baton. The programme and the Orchestra’s commission is funded by th...

Shanghai Opera House opens its 26/27 season with a gala at the Shanghai Concert Hall conducted by Zhang Liang. The gala features tenors Shi Yijie and Wang Hongwei, sopranos Huang Ying and Wu Lie'ri, as well as soloists from the house. Shanghai Concert HallSeptember 5, 2026 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit klas...

She was the most celebrated actress of Republican-era China, and she died at 24 with a note that read: “Gossip is a fearful thing.” Ninety years after Ruan Lingyu’s death, she remains an irresistible subject, for filmmakers, for biographers, and now, for a new generation of composer. Ruan Lingyu , a chamber opera composed by Li Zi’ao with a libretto by Li Xuanru — both Gen Zs — arrived at the West...

She admits it freely, without embarrassment: she was super nervous. Not the polite, performative anxiety that competition pianists sometimes confess to in interviews, but the real thing, the kind that drains sound from your fingers and leaves you playing in a kind of internal silence. Anqi, a French-Taiwanese pianist competing in the 2023 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, was giving herself no il...

Episode Two Song Qian arrived in Shanghai as a stranger. She had grown up in another city, and when she first walked the streets of the metropolis to buy something from a local shop, she found herself unable to follow the accent, unable to penetrate the particular pride that Shanghainese carry in their voices. The conservatory was famous, and getting in felt like an achievement. But belonging to t...

Xu Leyi is 15, from Guiyang, and a flute major at the Secondary School Affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She was originally destined for piano until a stern teacher frightened her into switching instruments. A gentler flute teacher sealed the deal, and she has never looked back. This summer she spent nearly a month in the United States on her own, taking masterclasses at the Eastma...

Jane Eyre the Musical was staged in Shanghai over the weekend at the AIA Grand Theatre. This is a Chinese language musical sung with pre-recorded music. Here're the encores. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit klassikom.substack.com