Innovative concert about to hit Shanghai

THE Shanghai Chinese Music Orchestra is bringing its concert version of the “New Oriental Chinese Music Scene” back to its hometown this month.

Conducted by Chinese musician Tang Muhai, the orchestra will perform at the Shanghai Symphony Hall on July 21.

“New Oriental Chinese Music Scene” wowed audiences when it first premiered at the 2016 Shanghai International Arts Festival. The piece manages to weave traditional Chinese music with modern electronic and elements of multimedia.

“It is not about Chinese music instruments modifying Western symphonic sounds, but harmony contributed by Chinese melodies and instruments with their distinguished characteristics,” says Luo Xiaoci, director of Shanghai Chinese Music Orchestra.

A number of original works will be presented at the upcoming show, such as a performance of an 8,000-year-old bone flute and a modern Chinese music orchestra, the combination of traditional Chinese music and Western opera and a crossover presentation of traditional Chinese music and calligraphy.

Audiences will also find some familiar melodies presented in a novel way, such as the traditional (double-reeded horn) solo classic “A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix,” as well as the famous Western work “Flight of the Bumble Bee” staged by a quintet of Chinese music instruments like (twostringed bowed instrument), (a reed pipe wind instrument), (a plucked stringed instrument), Chinese percussions and (a modern stringed instrument adapted from

The concert version returned from a European tour earlier this year with gigs in Britain, France, Belgium and Germany.

Date: July 21, 7:30pm

Tickets: 80-580 yuan

Tel: 6283-5288

Venue: Shanghai Symphony Hall Address: 1380 Fuxing Rd M.