Thousands of Erhus to open music fest
(eastday.com)
Updated: 2005-04-15 09:22

Three-thousand Chinese Erhu players will put on an outdoor concert at Century Square on May 5 to kick off this year's Shanghai Spring International Music Festival.

The event will run until May 15. "This will break the record of 1,200 people performing together in Wuxi of Jiangsu Province last September," said Chen Jizhang, deputy secretary-general of the organizing committee. "Around 300 are from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces but the rest are all locals."

The concert, which will begin at 9:30am, will be so large the musicians will need two conductors and 30 sub-conductors to stay in time with one another.

This year's version of the annual festival will include 70 international performances.

Chen said some of the highlights of the festival will be nine concerts showcasing the latest works from modern composers.

The new works include "Offertorrium" by Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina and "All in the Spring Wind" by Zhou Wenzhong.

Several internationally renowned violinists including Huang Mengla, Li Chuanyun and Hilary Hahn will also perform during the event.

The final event will be a concert at the Shanghai Grand Theater to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Chinese composer Xian Xinghai.