Artistic Director: Yu Long

Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is one of the earliest and best-known orchestral ensembles of its kind in Asia. Originally known as the Shanghai Public Band, it was renamed the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra in 1922. Notably under the baton of the Italian conductor Mario Paci, the orchestra promoted Western music and trained Chinese young talents very early on in China, and was the first to introduce the first Chinese orchestral music to the public. With a long history of 141 years, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is synonymous with the history of China's symphonic music development. Spanning three different centuries, the Shanghai Symphony has now embraced a new era. The orchestra created a series of musical products, including: the Concert Season, the Shanghai New Year’s Concert, the Spring Festival Concert, and Music in the Summer Air. These performances have not only fostered cultural exchange but have also built a bridge between people, orchestras and nations. Read more at shsymphony.com

The China Now Music Festival is honored to have fostered a close partnership with the Shanghai Symphony for this year’s festival, ‘China and Beethoven.’ Their performance of composer Yu Jingjun’s Beethoven Variations will be featured in the Dec 13 program ‘Beethoven Made in China,’ and on Dec 15 the festival will devote an evening to recent performances by the orchestra in ‘Shanghai Symphony: a Night of Beethoven.’

Music Director: Lü Jia

Conductor Laureate: Chen Zuohuang

China NCPA Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Beijing. Since its founding in 2010, the orchestra has fast established itself as one of the most adventurous and dynamic orchestras in the country and earned an international reputation through extensive performances abroad. For more information, visit en.chncpa.org

In this unpredictable 2020, the NCPAO led by the Music Director LÜ Jia has collaborated with many artists in presenting an online concert series over several months. In November, the NCPAO announced its 2020-21 season after several rounds of adjustments. In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Music Director LÜ Jia conducted the NCPAO in Egmont with actor SUN Qiang. NCPAO generously contributed their Egmont performance for the final event of the 2020 China Now Music Festival on Dec 18.

Music Director: Leon Botstein

The Orchestra Now (TŌN) is a group of vibrant young musicians from across the globe who are making orchestral music relevant to 21st-century audiences by sharing their unique personal insights in a welcoming environment. Hand-picked from the world’s leading conservatories—including The Juilliard School, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Royal Conservatory of Brussels, and the Curtis Institute of Music—the members of TŌN are enlightening curious minds by giving on-stage introductions and demonstrations, writing concert notes from the musicians’ perspective, and having one-on-one discussions with patrons during intermissions. Conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein founded TŌN in 2015 as a graduate program at Bard College, where he is also president. The orchestra’s home base is the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center at Bard, where they perform multiple concerts each season and take part in the annual Bard Music Festival. Learn more at theorchestranow.org

Having performed major new works by Chinese composers in the first two seasons of the China Now Music Festival, TŌN makes a special contribution this year in the Dec 11 opening event, with a historic representation of the 17-member Peking University Orchestra, active in the 1920’s and the first Chinese orchestra to play Beethoven symphonies.

Music Director: Yannick Nézet-Séguin

The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the world’s preeminent orchestras. It strives to share the transformative power of music with the widest possible audience, and to create joy, connection, and excitement through music in the Philadelphia region, across the country, and around the world. Through innovative programming, robust educational initiatives, and commitment to the community, the ensemble is on a path to create an expansive future for classical music, and to further the place of the arts in an open and democratic society. Read more at philorch.org

The China Now Music Festival is proud to be presenting a special screening of the new documentary film about the orchestra, Beethoven in Beijing: and Orchestra’s Journey on Dec 16. On Dec 17, Asia Society hosts a roundtable discussion with the filmmakers, the orchestra’s executive director, Ryan Fleur, and special guests.

Music Director: Cao Peng

The Shanghai Youth Philharmonic Orchestra was established with the aim of making an “urban cultural name card” for Shanghai, the international metropolis, and its modern education, gathering high-quality resources of arts education in Shanghai, and setting up a high-level platform for orchestral music for students in Shanghai. The renowned artist CAO Peng is the Music Director of the Shanghai Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. Principal players from the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and other renowned ensembles, both in China and abroad, act as instructors for all parts. The Shanghai Youth Philharmonic Orchestra participates in the annual Music in the Summer Air Festivai (MISA).

The orchestra’s rousing performance of the final movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony during the 2020 MISA festival will be presented in the opening program of the China Now Music Festival, ‘China’s Sage of Music,’ on Dec 11.