Shanghai to showcase monthlong feast of the arts

The 19th China Shanghai International Arts Festival will begin on Oct 20 at the Shanghai Grand Theater with the commissioned work, The Beginning - Choral Symphony, performed by Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and Shanghai Opera House.

"Every year we choose a Chinese production to open the arts festival and a foreign production to close it," Wang Jun, president of the Center for China Shanghai International Arts Festival, says in Beijing. "This year, we commissioned a new work, which was composed by Gong Tianpeng, who is very young and talented."

The 25-year-old Gong, a Shanghai native, started learning the piano at 5. He entered Shanghai Music Conservatory at age 9 and was enrolled into the Juilliard pre-college division by 10.