National Center for the Performing Arts Choir releases 2024 music season
China News Service, Beijing, January 29 (Reporter Gao Kai) – On January 29, the National Center for the Performing Arts Choir’s 2024 music season with the theme of “Voice of Harmony” was officially released in Beijing.
Zhang Yao, deputy director of the National Center for the Performing Arts, Lu Jia, music and art director of the National Center for the Performing Arts, and Jiao Miao, resident conductor of the National Center for the Performing Arts Chorus, attended the press conference and introduced the content and highlights of this season to the media and audiences present.
According to reports, this is the first choir season released by the National Center for the Performing Arts Chorus since its establishment. It is also a rare music season launched by a professional choir nationwide.
The theme of “Voice of Harmony” is the most authentic pursuit of choral art, and the purest interpretation of the harmonious resonance between multiple cultures. 2024 marks the fifteenth year since the establishment of the National Center for the Performing Arts Chorus. The opening of its first independent concert season with “Voice of Harmony” is not only a reflection on the origin of choral art, but also a refined summary of fifteen years of accumulation. It is a declaration to keep moving forward.
Jiao Miao introduced that diversified integration and excitement are the most prominent features of the overall performance arrangement. Especially in the concert section, the choir plans to launch four series of themes based on the type and style of the works: National Rhythm Menghua, Harmony with Music, Music from the Four Seas and New Voices, which respectively correspond to Chinese music, opera excerpts, world art songs and Modern work.
In this series, the choir will invite conductor Zheng Jian to collaborate on “Journey Cantabile” – a special concert commemorating the 10th anniversary of the speech at the literary symposium, providing the audience with a theme work rich in the strong sounds of the times. At the same time, under the leadership of resident conductor Jiao Miao and conductor Meng Huan, folk songs, art songs, and modern works from China will also be on stage.
Additionally, the choir will invite conductor Li Xincao to collaborate on the “Concert of Excerpts from French Classic Operas” to present classic excerpts from French operas produced and performed since the founding of the Grand Theater, including “Carmen” and “Chapelle”, “The Pearl”, “Lakme” and “Romeo and Juliet”.
Lu Jia, the music and artistic director of the National Center for the Performing Arts, will lead the audience to experience the most classic choral masterpieces from the Renaissance, Baroque, classical to romantic schools in the “Enjoy the Music” concert. Wu Lingfen, conductor of the National Center for the Performing Arts Chorus, will also continue to explore and polish distinctive folk music from various countries around the world in the “Window of the World” concert. This season will also feature four dazzling male chorus concerts, including both classic male chorus repertoire and new arrangements and creations.
The popular love-themed concert “The Love of a Lifetime” and the “Children’s Dream Together” Children’s Day concert will be further polished and will meet the audience again this season. At the same time, innovative, fusion, and boundary-breaking original musical works will also be presented, showing more possibilities for choral art.
At the music season press conference that day, the famous playwright and poet Mr. Zou Jingzhi also sent a video blessing for the unveiling of the 2024 music season. In this season, Zou Jingzhi and composer Zou Ye will work together to compose a choral suite with the themes of traditional Chinese songs “Su Wu Sheep”, “Yangguan Triple Layer”, “Three Plum Blossom Alleys” and “Spring River Flower Moonlight Night”.