september 27–october 5 2025
jazz at lincoln center, NYC
fisher center, bard college
SEASON EIGHT
“For the eighth season of the China Now Music Festival, we explore music as part of the primal movement of the earth and stars, the human body, and the human mind. Music as motivation, as momentum, as a force of nature. As always the festival program is full of stories, and the pieces we will present over two major concerts will bring to mind visions of the earth, society, and time itself. The music is fluid, graceful, and elegant, with symphonic and chamber concerts incorporating dance, voice, and a unique fusion of Western and Chinese musical styles.”
— Jindong Cai, artistic director
MAIN EVENTS
MORE ABOUT CHINA NOW 2025
The 8th annual China Now Music Festival….
3rd Annual China Now Music Forum
”Music in Motion”
Sunday, September 28, 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Location TBD; reception to follow. TICKETS $8. (coming soon)
FESTIVAL ARTISTS
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
The China Now Music Festival is an annual series of events produced by the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music in collaboration with the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music, China. China Now is dedicated to promoting an understanding and appreciation of classical music from contemporary China. Each year’s festival explores a singular theme. The inaugural festival in 2018, Facing the Past, Looking to the Future: Chinese Composers in the 21st Century, presented US and world premieres of orchestral works by 11 living Chinese composers in concerts at Bard College, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. The following year, the festival presented China and America: Unity in Music at Bard College, Carnegie Hall, and Stanford University, and featured the world premiere of the symphonic oratorio Men of Iron and the Golden Spike, a major new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Zhou Long honoring the Chinese railroad workers of the American West on the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Recent seasons include Beethoven and China in 2020, Asian American Voices in 2021, East of West in 2022, The Bridge of Music in 2023, and Composing the Future in 2024.
The 2025 China Now Music Festival is presented in collaboration with the Central Conservatory of Music, China.
