Few events in 2024 stood out more than the visit of the illustrious Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Kirill Petrenko. Marking his first-ever trip to China since assuming the helm in Berlin, the orchestra—the unequivocal crown jewel of the symphonic world—spent nearly ten days in Shanghai at the height of the year. Their residency featured a rich and diverse programme, encompassing music by Beethoven, Wagner, Brahms, Richard Strauss, Ravel, Mussorgsky, and Prokofiev. Across four orchestral concerts, seven chamber music performances, and twelve outreach events, the tour attracted an impressive audience, with over 10% of ticket buyers coming from overseas and 47% travelling from other cities in China for the orchestra’s sole stop in the country.
The visit sparked a media frenzy, with images of orchestra members dining at local restaurants celebrating China’s gastronomic heritage going viral. All of this was made possible by a generous 20-million-yuan grant from the Shanghai Municipality, aimed at reaffirming the city’s global competitiveness and international visibility.
As China rebounded spectacularly from its recent economic downturn, so too did the influx of visiting orchestras, their presence often seen as a barometer of the country’s economic and cultural vibrancy. An incomplete survey of major tours in 2024 revealed an astonishing lineup: the Vienna Philharmonic with Andris Nelsons, the Munich Philharmonic with Tugan Sokhiev, MusicAeterna with Teodor Currentzis, the London Symphony Orchestra with Antonio Pappano, the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra with Wayne Marshall, the New York and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras with Jaap van Zweden, the Salzburg Camerata with Hélène Grimaud, and the WDR Symphony Orchestra with Cristian Măcelaru. Together, they introduced eager Chinese audiences to a vast repertoire, largely composed by what is often labeled as the “dead white European male” canon.
Yet, strikingly absent from nearly all these programmes was music by living Chinese composers. While visiting musicians and conductors enthusiastically embraced Chinese cuisine, many seemed indifferent to China’s rich and evolving music landscape—a cultural phenomenon worth deeper reflection.
Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic may have viewed China as a lucrative gold mine, but Vasily Petrenko saw it as a talent pool. Under his leadership, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra stood out for its embrace of Chinese composers like no other. During its China tour in August, the orchestra not only performed works by Britten, Shostakovich and Rimsky-Korsakov but also featured incidental music by Guan Xia and Tan Dun—an exemplary model of how culinary enjoyment can translate into artistic appreciation.
One can only hope that more visiting orchestras and conductors will follow suit, integrating works by top Chinese composers into their future seasons and tours. Both Chinese food and Chinese music deserve to be taken seriously.
Without further ado, here are my picks for the unforgettable concerts in China in 2024, a year of premieres, legends, and innovation—including some amazing music by top Chinese composers.
Muhai Tang premieres Huang Anlun
A premiere of a Symphony No. 9 is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and mine came in July last year. Huang Anlun’s Symphony No. 9 in four movements received its world premiere on July 1st at the Harbin Concert Hall, with Muhai Tang—its dedicatee—conducting the Harbin Symphony Orchestra. While Huang’s music inevitably leans toward the clichés of late Romanticism, evoking shades of Kurt Weill or Hans Rott, he nonetheless captures the intellectual struggles and, ultimately, the rise of nationalism. With this work, Huang firmly establishes himself as a symphonic giant. It is a symphony not to be missed.
Huang Anlun: Symphony No. 9, Movt I
The Savage Land
On June 15th, I arrived in Beijing via an overnight train, sleeping in a four-bed couchette, determined to catch the new production of Jin Xiang’s The Savage Land, often hailed as the greatest opera ever composed by a Chinese composer. The China Conservatory of Music staged this new production, directed by Chen Wei, with performances held at the China National Opera House under the baton of Li Xincao, the conservatory’s conductor-rector and former president of the China National Symphony Orchestra.
New production of Jin Xiang’s The Savage Land by China Conservatory
2024 Beijing Modern Music Festival
Beijing-based composer Ye Xiaogang discussed his work Strophe, which received its Chinese premiere at the closing concert of the 2024 Beijing Modern Music Festival. Performed by Klangforum Wien under the baton of Titus Engel on May 12th at the Central Conservatory of Music’s opera hall, Strophe took Ye 20 years to conceive. After its world premiere at Juilliard in 2020, he had to wait another four years before the work could finally reach a Chinese audience.
Ye Xiaogang: Strophe
Zhang Liang conducts Turangalîla
Delayed by four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Olivier Messiaen’s monumental Turangalîla-Symphonie—his only symphony—finally received its long-awaited mainland China premiere. Zhang Liang conducted the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra at the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre, with Zou Xiang on piano and Cynthia Millar on the ondes Martenot.
Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie received mainland premiere
Kevin Puts in Shanghai
Luzhou Laojiao (literally “Ancient Cellar of Luzhou”) operates multiple historic cellars in Luzhou, including a museum housing four that have purportedly been in continuous use since 1573. As China’s second-largest liquor manufacturer, the company launched the 1573 Award for Best Composer in 2023, potentially making it the only international prize dedicated to composers. The award carries a cash prize of RMB 157,300 (approximately USD 20,000). Last year’s recipient, composer Kevin Puts, traveled to Shanghai to accept the award at a Mid-Autumn Festival ceremony, accompanied by a performance by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under Yang Yang.
Kevin Puts: Silent Night Elegy
Qin Wenchen curtain call
Qin Wenchen, a prolific composer and deputy rector of the Central Conservatory of Music, showcased seven of his solo works for piano, zheng, bamboo flute, and pipa at a concert in the conservatory’s recital hall. The sheer virtuosity of the soloists fully justified Qin’s relentless pursuit of expanding the technical limits of Chinese instruments.
Qin Wenchen: Ode to Bamboo Flute
Concert by undergraduates
Eight undergraduate composition students from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music presented a chamber music concert featuring eleven fusion works, blending electronic elements, Western instrumentation, and traditional approaches. Produced by fifth-year composition student Yang Zehao—who learned firsthand how to organize a concert from scratch—the event served as a crucial stepping stone for young composers, teaching them the survival skills needed to consolidate the resources and get their music performed.
Past, Present, Future, concert by SCM undergraduates
Martha Argerich and Friends
Martha Argerich and Friends earned the nickname “buy one, get one free” among concertgoers at the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre. Fans drawn in by her stardom endured moments of mediocrity from her extended circle of musicians, but the octogenarian pianist herself remains unparalleled. Everything she touched turned to gold—whether it was the Yangtze River grand piano she played in the second programme, her collaboration with Gil Shaham (who generously played in the orchestra for the second half), or her signature witty charm. She transformed the 1,800-seat hall into her living room, inviting the audience as her guests, for an evening of electrifying music-making and childlike honesty.
Here’s a critic. Critic! Critic! Oh God!
Wynton Marsalis and Long Yu
The one and only Wynton Marsalis returned to Shanghai with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, where his Symphony No. 4 was performed in a joint concert with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under Long Yu. The piece is an ambitious, chaotic fusion of ragtime, mambo, silky aloha-style strings, Madison Square-style cacophony, and Brazilian bossa nova. The jazz orchestra and symphony orchestra seemed to wrestle for dominance, vying for the audience’s attention, like a bowl of bone broth rich in collagen but stirred hundreds of times.
Encore of Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in Shanghai
Academic Exchanges in Music
The Academic Exchanges in Music forum, hosted by CUHK Shenzhen Conservatory, brought together a formidable delegation of international organizations and networks, including the International Music Council. The two-day event tackled pressing issues such as cultural equality, diversity, accessibility, affordability, and sustainability. But the true highlight was the concert featuring Dutch band LOTT and Friends, proving that an academic event can also be exhilarating. Their inventive twist on Nan Ni Wan, a classic wartime song, practically shattered the ceiling of the hall.
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