In music's tranquil chamber, the future belongs to the young

It was a balmy spring Saturday in Sanlitun, an area of Beijing popular for outings, particularly of the nocturnal kind.

The area includes a garden dotted with gray-brick buildings with green vines climbing up the walls, a magnet for photographers.

Yet the prime attraction on this April evening was inside, where a concert titled The Sound of Youth, by 10 groups of teenage musicians, featuring music pieces by composers such as Carl German, Maria von Weber, Tchaikovsky and Schubert, was taking place.

"The musical connection is palpable and intimate, and we're really glad that live concert is back after last year's absence because of the pandemic,"," said Zhang Yong, organizer of the concert, which opened this year's China Youth Music Competition－Hummingbird Music Award.

The competition and award, established in 2015, is based on the German Music Council's Jugend Musiziert, the most well-known music competition for young performers in Germany, first held in 1963. Winners of the two competitions visit each other's countries and are offered a week of training and the opportunity to perform.

Zhang, who is also the founder and organizer of the China Youth Music Competition－Hummingbird Music Award, said it aims to promote amateur music education, especially in chamber music, so applicants are not necessarily in full-time music training institutes.

Zhang, a former music learner, founded the Beijing International Music Competition, which brought together professional international musicians, in 2006. In 2014 he met Benedikt Holtbernd, the artistic manager of the nonprofit arm of the German Music Council in Munich, where the Jugend Musiziert's headquarters are located. Since then it has become an important cultural exchange event between young people of China and Germany.

In Sanlitun the young musicians, having won major awards in the competition, were about to display their musical talent and the beauty of chamber music, with which "they can share their thoughts with the audience, because they can do it in this intimate setting, and receive immediate response", Zhang said.

With competitors from around the country, the China Youth Music Competition－Hummingbird Music Award was scheduled to be held in Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou from May 1 to June 13. The competition was also due to travel to Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

One of the performers in Sanlitun on April 24 was Chen Shengyu, 17, who took part in the China Youth Music Competition－Hummingbird Music Award in 2016 and in 2018. In 2016 he won first prize as a solo violinist by playing La Campanella, or The Little Bell, which is the final movement of Violin Concerto No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 7, by Niccolo Paganini. In 2018 Chen again won first prize, performing with the cellist Wang Wanglele, featuring Passacaglia for violin and cello by the Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen. That year Chen and Wang traveled to Germany together with other winners of the competition, attending workshops and giving live concerts.

In the Sanlitun concert on April 24, Wang, Chen and the pianist Jiang Yicheng performed Piano Trio No. 3 in F minor, Op. 65, B. 1301. Allegro ma non troppo by Dvorak.

"I started playing the violin when I was 5," Chen, a Beijinger, said. "During my days of practicing, I usually played alone. It's a totally different experience to perform with another person of my age who shares the joy of music with me."

He has performed at major concert halls, such as the Forbidden City Concert Hall and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

Wang, 17, who, lives in Shanghai and began playing the cello when he was 6, said: "The process of learning a particular piece of music together and rehearsing it together makes a deep impression on you. You talk a lot about music and in a way you converse with your instruments."

Another young group that performed in Sanlitun was Jiang Yicheng, a pianist, Zhang Bowei, a violinist, and Li Shuyu, a cellist, who performed Piano Trio No. 1 in B major Op. 8 II. Scherzo by Brahms.

Jiang, who is studying at the middle school of the Central Conservatory of Music, said that when he first took part in the competition in 2016 he performed with a flutist. It was the first time that he had played with another musical instrumentalist, and he was intrigued.

"It was an eye-opening experience because I got to know a total foreign musical instrument and as a team we won first prize."

Since then he has been keen on playing chamber music and he is prepared to study conducting, which will allow him to learn more about other musical instruments, he said.

Wang Guan, a harpist who is one of the judges of the China Youth Music Competition－Hummingbird Music Award, said: "There are so many talented young musicians in China who have received classical music training from a young age. Some may not become a professional musician but they will enjoy classical music for the rest of their life, and that's great."

Wang, a teacher of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, said developing a feel for chamber music is critical for young musicians because "it's about listening to each other and working with other people".

Wang also conducts workshops for amateur musicians, mostly young children or teenagers, and she encourages them to play together onstage because "it's a good way to learn from each other".

She began playing piano when she was 3, and the guzheng, or Chinese Zither, when she was 4. She was enrolled to study at the Central Conservatory of Music primary school when she was 10, which was when her piano teacher introduced the harp to her, she said.

She has taught her daughter, 8, to play the harp, which she hopes to become a family tradition of playing musical instruments.

Chamber music training has been a long tradition in music schools in China, Wang said. With more and more people enjoying classical music, chamber music has gained a large following, giving birth to many young chamber music groups.

Chinese groups doing their bit to promote and perform chamber music in the country include Amber Quartet, founded in 2005 and featuring teachers of the Central Conservatory of Music－Yang Yichen, a cellist, Ning Fangliang and Su Yajing, both violinists, and Qi Wang, a violist－and Major Music, a trio consisting of Lyu Siqing, a violinist, Qin Liwei, a cellist, and Sun Yingdi, a pianist, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.