KLASSIKOM=Innovations in classical music

This is a Chinese language programme without subtitles. To many observers, the conductor stands at the center of the stage, commanding the orchestra and shaping the entire musical event — the most visible, even glamorous, presence in the concert hall. For Hu Yongyan, however, the essence of conducting has little to do with spotlight or aura. “It is,” he suggests, “a long discipline of cultivation....

Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra presented its first Lunar New Year concert by performing Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus at the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre on February 6th. Maestro Zhang Liang, deputy director and Chief Conductor of the orchestra, assembled local operetta stars including baritone Zhou Zhengzhou, mezzo Lu Yunfei (in her role debut as the Prince) and a chorus affiliated to a normal...

Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai presented an evening of jazz, vintage songs, folk music, and pop-inflected fusion, led by Huang Ye and performed by his band alongside a string quartet from Senza New Strings. Titled Jazzical , the programme marked Huang’s latest and most recent instalment in his ongoing exploration of “Shanghai-style” jazz, shaped by the city’s long history of cultural exchange and...

Yesterday afternoon Siria Cold Air, an indie band founded in late 2025 in Shanghai, performed in an exclusive event to some 20 guests in an office building in the town. The band is among the few indie bands with an active touring schedule. Zia, a percussion postgraduate from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, made her debut on the drums, together with a guitarist, a vocalist and a versitile flaut...

Norwegian Sami band KEiiNO travelled to China for the first time and performed at the residence of the Consul General of Norway to Shanghai last night. They were joined by Totem, a Shanghai based Mongolian traditional music band who were guest performing at the salon. They two bands jammed together in KEiiNO’s signature songs including Spirit in the Sky , Monument , Unbreakable and Damdiggida whil...

This is a Chinese language programme with Chinese subtitles. A short video released by the Beijing Chinese Orchestra this week has gone viral across Chinese social media, posing a deliberately absurd question to musicians and staff: if the orchestra’s president fell into a river, would you jump in to save him? The answer, delivered unanimously and without hesitation, is no. The video, produced and...

Rickshaw Boy , the operatic opus magnum by Guo Wenjing, received its concert premiere last night at Qingdao People’s Hall. The Qingdao Symphony Orchestra, joined by the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra Chorus, was conducted by Zhang Guoyong, music director of both ensembles. The performance also marked the closing of the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra’s 2025 season and coincided with the 60th anniversary of t...

This is a Chinese language programme without subtitles. Yan Siyi, winner of the inaugural Young Conductors’ Conference held in Shenzhen in 2025, returned last week as a guest observer during the forum’s second edition in Nanning, offering candid reflections on her musical training, artistic influences and how conductors are judged by both audiences and professionals. Yan, a native of Fujian provin...

This is a Chinese language programme without subtitles. Chinese conductor Xu Leyuan swept all major conducting prizes at the Second Young Conductors’ Conference , a rare national platform for emerging conductors in mainland China. Xu, who studied conducting at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and is now pursuing a master’s degree at The Chinese University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Conservatory (CUHK...

Chinese American conductor Hu Yongyan is the founder of the CUHKMus Young Conductors’ Conference. Its second editon is presented in Nanning in association with the Guangxi Symphony Orchestra, Jan 18-21. Here Hu talks about the myth in teaching conducting. This is a Chinese language programme with English synopsis. Hu Yongyan reflects on the difficulty and inherent paradox of teaching conducting. H...

This is a Chinese language programme without subtitles. Fifteen young conductors from across China took part this week in the second Young Conductors’ Conference, an intensive training and competition programme hosted by the Shenzhen School of Music at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, with rehearsals held at the Guangxi Concert Hall in the southern city of Nanning. Over two days of public sess...

This is a Chinese language programme without subtitles. On a winter evening in Zhejiang province, I found myself in Yanguan, a historic town in Haining, attending a concert that did not behave like a concert at all. Normally, the rules of classical music are clear. Audiences sit below the stage, listen in silence, applaud at the appropriate moment, watch the performers take their bows, and then di...

The Wuxi Symphony Orchestra presented its third annual New Year’s Concert on 1 January 2026, conducted by its artistic director Lin Daye. He was joined by violinist Maxim Vengerov, pianist Kong Xiangdong, baritone Liao Changyong and suona player Liu Wenwen. This year’s concert marked a significant milestone. It inaugurated the Wuxi Symphony Hall, the orchestra’s first permanent home. According to...

The XX Mariinsky International Piano Festival, which concluded On December 29 in St Petersburg, stands as one of Russia’s most prestigious piano events. Founded with the involvement of Valery Gergiev, the festival this year saw a Chinese pianist emerge as a particularly striking presence: Fang Yan, making his debut at the festival. On the evening of 28 December, Fang gave a recital at the Rachmani...

The Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg isn’t just a theatre. It’s an entire complex made up of three separate buildings: the historic Mariinsky Theatre, the Second Stage, and the Concert Hall. Together they house as many as nine performing spaces. On 27 December, I put myself through a bit of a self-imposed marathon. At two in the afternoon, I started at the Concert Hall with a piano festival conc...

On 1 January 2025, we were combing the shoreline of Fangchenggang, Guangxi, searching for shells at low tide. For KLASSIKOM , that quiet moment by the sea marked the beginning of a year that was destined to be anything but ordinary. Over the following twelve months, we took nearly 60 flights, crossed half the globe in longitude and latitude, and travelled to close to ten countries and regions. Our...

On 21 December at the Henan Performing Arts Centre, the cantata Sister Jiang returned to the stage under the baton of Niu Chuang, with the Henan Symphony Orchestra. The title role was shared by soprano Jin Man, who first sang Sister Jiang in the original opera in 1984, and the younger soprano Song Lu. Tenors Dai Yuqiang and Mou Tianxiang alternated as Fu Zhigao, Jiang’s husband whose betrayal seal...

This is a Chinese language programme without subtitles. On the evening of December 14, the Qingdao Concert Hall witnessed a milestone in the young career of percussionist Zhang Fang: his 30th solo concert. For Zhang, winner of the 2020 BBC Young Musician competition, the event was not simply another performance, but a personal summation of five years of artistic growth, self-reflection and commitm...

A concert devoted to the rarely heard Chinese double-reed instrument guanzi took place on December 18 at the Opera Hall of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, bringing together performance, education, and innovation around one of China’s most marginalised traditional wind instruments. Titled Home in the Heart , the concert featured renowned guanzi performer and educator Han Lei alongside...

Xia Feiyun is a veteran conductor of Chinese orchestras who turns 90 this year. He is often credited with the founding of conducting techniques required in a Chinese orchestra, and fostering the younger generation of Chinese orchestra conductors. Some of them travelled to Shanghai from Malaysia and Singapore last night to celebrate the 90th birthday of their mentor: Yan Huichang, Pang Kapang, Liu...

Champion of the 2020 BBC Young Musician, percussionist Zhang Fang returned to China in 2021 and lived in Qingdao, studying quietly with his teacher since seven while refining his already blazing technique. Now at 22, Zhang is back on the stage. He gave his 30th portrait concert at the Qingdao Concert Hall on December 14th, a marathon that well stretched into its fourth hour. Twenty two pieces were...

Name one reason to take a 48-hour trip to Qingdao, best known for its brewery and German style architectures? For the music that once graced the staged on Berliner Philharmoniker. On December 13th at the Qingdao People’s Hall when bushes and trees were still covered in white after a brief snow fall the previous day, several Chinese classics were revisited by the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra which is...

The Fifth International Conducting Competition for Chinese Music, jointly organised by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and the Wuxi Chinese Orchestra, concluded its preliminary round today. Recognised as a UNESCO “City of Music”, Wuxi hosted the event at the headquarters of the Wuxi Chinese Orchestra. The competition is co-chaired by Yan Huichang, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor for Life...

Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis was disrupted during a performance of Wagner’s Ring Without Words with his ensemble, MusicAeterna, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) on Friday evening. According to videos taken from the audience, an attendee wearing white was escorted out after causing a disturbance. Witnesses reported that near the end of the piece, as the music was fading, t...

Chen Musheng is a composer and deputy dean of the Composition and Conducting Department, Shanghai Conservatory of Music. His portrait concert, Symphonic Psalm, was presented at Shangyin Opera House last night, Darrell Ang conducting the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and leading soloists including cellist Qin Liwei, mezzo Yang Guang, and pianist Niu Niu, etc. Six of Chen’s works were spotlighted...