Art beat ... finger on the pulse

Concert

Gao Xiaosong's songs

Chinese songwriter and pop singer Gao Xiaosong will perform his The Youth Around Here concert in Beijing on April 28.

The concert gathers established singers, including Liu Huan, Lao Lang, Zheng Jun and Ye Pei, who have performed Gao's works during the past decades. Singers such as Sa Dingding, Li Yuchun and Tan Weiwei, who will collaborate with Gao for the first time, will perform Gao's new songs.

8 pm, April 28. MasterCard Center (formerly Wukesong Arena), Beijing. 4006-228-228.

Talented trio

Cellist Wang Jian, pianist Chen Sa and guitarist Yang Xuefei will join the China National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) Concert Hall Orchestra for a concert at the opening show of NCPA's May Festival 2012. They will play Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Trumpets; Johann Sebastian Bach's Guitar Concerto, Arranged from Violin Concerto in E Major; Joseph Haydn's Piano Sonata No 60 in C Major; and Robert Schumann's Adagio and Allegro, Op 70.

Wang has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras and produced many recordings. His latest release is an album of short pieces for cello and guitar titled Reverie.

As a soloist, Chen, who's described as "one of the brightest performers of her generation" by Classical FM in London, has been delighting audiences in European countries, China, Japan and the United States.

Yang is a Beijing guitarist, now based in London and is also internationally acclaimed. She is the first Chinese guitarist to launch an international career as a professional musician.

7:30 pm, May 9. National Center for the Performing Arts, Beijing. 010-6655-0000.

Steely songs

Composer Ping Anjun, from Anshan, Liaoning province, will present works spanning his more than 40-year career.

Most are inspired and written by the grassroots people of the "Capital of Iron and Steel".

Songs include symphonies, ironworkers' anthems, ballads and children's songs performed by the China National Symphony Orchestra and such singers as Dai Yuqiang and Lu Jihong.

7:30 pm, May 5. Poly Theater, 14 Dongzhimen Nandajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-6500-1188.

American piano duo

American pianists John Salmon and Antonio Truyols perform in Shanghai this Sunday.

John Salmon's broad repertoire covers classics from such masters as Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert through contemporary music. He has championed, and been at the forefront of, performing new works by celebrated composers, including Dave Brubeck and Nikolai Kapustin.

Antonio Truyols is a pianist and composer performing primarily in the Greensboro triad and Washington DC metro areas. He has shared the stage with such big names as Lee Konitz, Curtis Fuller and Branford Marsalis.

7:45 pm, April 22. Shanghai Oriental Art Center, 425 DingxiangLu, Pudong, Shanghai. 021-6854-1234.