The Beijing Music Festival the programming for its 27th festival, with the theme Voices From Far. Scheduled from October 5 to 13, the festival offers musically and culturally diverse performances each day, featuring renowned artists from China, France, the United States, Austria, South Africa and Germany, among others.

The festival will feature 10 concerts and 11 public events at venues that include the National Center for the Performing Arts, Poly Theatre, Zhongshan Park Music Hall and the Altar of the Temple of Heaven. Highlights include the China premiere of the classic American opera Porgy and Bess, the Beijing premiere of Aaron Zigman’s new oratorio Émigré, and the Asian premiere of Andy Akiho’s virtuoso piece for percussion quartet Seven Pillars, performed by Sandbox Percussion, who commissioned it.

Since its founding in 1998 by conductor Long Yu – a milestone in China’s classical music industry – the BMF offers a glimpse into the future of classical music, creates a platform for domestic and international performance exchanges, making Beijing an international music hub every fall. Now led by artistic director Shuang Zou, the festival bridges China to the rest of the world through the arts, and also stimulates the creation of Western and Chinese contemporary music. BMF allows young Chinese musicians to showcase their talents from a platform with global reach, which has been the driving force of Long Yu, the former artistic director who now serves as chairman of the artistic committee, for many years. BMF is the most authoritative art and culture event in Asia.

The 27th BMF proudly presents the China premiere of Porgy and Bess, the beloved opera by George Gershwin, which tells the story of a man trying to save a woman from a painful life. The 1935 stage play, which celebrates African-American life and culture in Charleston, South Carolina, remains relevant today through its themes of timelessness, placelessness, struggle and hope. The new semi-staged production, directed by Noa Naamat and conducted by Kazem Abdullah, is a co-production between the Beijing Music Festival, Cape Town Opera and the KT Wong Foundation. It plays on October 12 and 13 at the Poly Theatre; a press conference will be held on October 10. (Porgy and Bess will also play in Shanghai on October 8.)

The Beijing premiere of Aaron Zigman and Mark Campbell’s oratorio Émigré 2023 takes place on October 6 at the National Center for The Performing Arts. Campbell’s libretto for Émigré, in English, tells a love story against the historical backdrop of the thousands of Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai to escape Nazi oppression during the National Socialist era. Maestro Long Yu conducts the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lanzhou Concert Hall Choir and an amazing cast. Émigré had successful premieres in Shanghai and New York recently, and will play in Europe for the first time in November.

American composer Andy Akiho’s groundbreaking Seven Pillars is an 80-minute, 11-movement suite for percussion consisting of seven ensemble movements and one solo movement for each member of the group. The structure is formed by two simultaneous processes: an additive process where each movement introduces a new instrument, and a symmetrical/palindromic structure on either side of the central movement. It is Akiho’s most ambitious project to date. Seven Pillars was nominated for two GRAMMY Awards – “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” and “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance” – and was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music. It will be performed by Sandbox Percussion for the first time in Asia on October 11 at the Forbidden City Concert Hall.

The 27th BMF also includes performances by internationally renowned artists that include composer and conductor Tan Dun, bandleader Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Hélène Grimaud, cellist Gautier Capuçon, percussionist Shengnan Hu and the Salzburger Camerata. Acclaimed contemporary composers Richard Dubugnon and Zhou Long, among many others, will attend the festival. For more information, visit: www.bmf.org.cn/en or www.facebook.com/BeijingMusicFestival/

Beijing Music Festival Announces 2024 Festival: Voices From Far

October 5, 7:30 p.m
National Center for the Performing Arts
BMF opening concert: A hundred birds from east and west pay tribute to Phoenix
Celebrate 60 years of Sino-French diplomatic relations
Tan Dun conducts the China National Symphony Orchestra

• Tan Dun: Whispers of Winds and Birds
• Chinese Folk Music (Rearranged by Guan Xia): Hundreds of Birds Worshiping the Phoenix, Suona Concerto
• Stravinsky: The Firebird
• Mozart: Sinfonia concertante in E flat major, K.364
• Ravel: Boléro

Liu Wenwen, suona; Lu Wei, violin; Wang Jian, cello

October 6, 7:30 p.m
National Center for the Performing Arts
Aaron Zigman: Émigré, in two acts

Jinxu Xiahou: OTTO BADER, tenor
Arnold Livingston Geis: JOSEF BADER, tenor
Huiling Zhu: LI SONG, mezzo-soprano
Yuanming Song: LINA SONG, soprano
Shen Yang: Wei Song, bass-baritone
Huang Ying: TOVAH ODESSKA, soprano
Andrew Dwan: YAAKOV ODESSKA, tenor

Mark Campbell, librettist/lyricist
Brock Walsh, additional lyrics
Lanzhou Concert Hall Choir
China Philharmonic Orchestra
Long Yu, conductor

October 6, 11am/3pm
The Polytheater
Percussion sounds
Hu Shengnan & Friends concert for children

• Rodrigo Y Gabriela: Diablo Rojo
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Overture from Die Zauberflote
• Chick Corea: La fiesta
• Nebojša Jovan Živković: Trio per Uno
• Johann Strauss (ii): Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka
• Max Hoffmann: Yankee Land
• Emmanuel Sejourne: Lose
• Keiko Abe: Libra

Percussion by Hu Shengnan, Mo Hanyin, Zhang Ling, Wang Shunhe and Zhang Jinwei

October 7, 7:30 p.m
The Polytheater
Masterpiece again
Hélène Grimaud & Salzburger Camerata

• Mozart: Overture from Idomeneo, K.366
• Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4, Op.58, G major
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, op.92, A major

October 8, 7:30 p.m
The Polytheater
Jiu Ge + Immortal Love
Two new commissions on Chinese themes

• Richard Dubignon: Eros athanatos
• Zhou Long: Jiu Ge Concerto for Erhu and Orchestra

Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano; Gautier Capucon, cello; Lu Yiwen, erhu; Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra; Yi Huang, conductor

October 9 & 10, 7:30 p.m
National Center for the Performing Arts
We have rhythm
Wynton Marsalis with Jazz at Lincoln Center

Wynton Marsalis, trumpet/arrangement; Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

October 10, 7:30 p.m
Divine Music Administration
Temple of Heaven

Voices from afar
Concert of African choral music by the Cape Town Opera Chorus

Acapella, small percussion

• Traditional Zulu: Bawo Thixo Somandla (Father, God Almighty)
• Traditional Sotho/Setswana: Mahlo A Bona (The Eyes That See)
• isiXhosa Church Chorus: Ndisondela Kuwe (I’m getting closer to you -Xhosa)
• Arr. Barrett & Schmitt: Indodana (The Son) (IsiZulu)
• Braam du Toit: Die Môrester (The Morning Star)
• Pieter-Louis van Dijk: Horizons
• Clare Loveday: Collection
• Laura Stevens: The Way We Go
• Mpumelelo Manyathi: Thonga Lami (To My Calling)
• Mpumelelo Manyathi: Siyaphahla (We are looking)
• Mzwandile Mabuza : Wamwmwza uEzekile (He has given us)
• Mzwandile Mabuza: Dilika Zintaba/Izintaba ezikude (distant mountain)
• Peter Klatzow: We who are stars

Piano accompaniment

• Traditional isiXhosa: Ukuthula (The Silence)
• Traditional Venda: ivieguru
• Traditional isiZulu: Our Homestead
• Christopher Tin: Baba Yetu (Our Father)
• Pieter Bezuidenhout: Toring (the tower)
• Sibusisu Ndjeza: Waza wamuhle Mzantsi Africa! (You are beautiful, Africa!)
• Ongama Mhlontlo: Here we are

South African Opera Chorus

October 11, 7:30 p.m
Forbidden city concert hall
Dream maker
Andy Akiho’s Seven Pillars

• Andy Akiho, Composer
• Sandbox Percussion (Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum and Terry Sweeney)

October 12 & 13, 7:30 p.m
The Polytheater
‘Til you rise and sing that summer
BMF’s 27th closing concert
Half-stage production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (China premiere)

George Gershwin: Porgy and Bess in Three Acts

Otto Maidi: PORGY, bass-baritone
Nonhlanhla Yende: BESS, soprano
Mandisinde Mbuyazwe: CROWN, baritone
Lukhanyo Moyake: SPORTIN’LIFE, tenor
Siphamandla Moyake: CLARA, soprano
Luvo Rasemeni: JAKE, baritone
Pumza Mxinwa: SERENA, soprano
Zolina Ngejane: MARIA, contralto

Magdalene Minnaar, artistic director
Noa Naamat, director

Cape Town Opera House
Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
Kazem Abdullah, conductor

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