Organized by the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province and hosted by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Xinghai Concert Hall, the "Youth Music Culture Guangdong" (YMCG) was initiated by conductor and music director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and served as the chairman of the art committee, and has been successfully held for four consecutive years since January 2017, and its artistic director is cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
In order to adapt to the new situation of normalized epidemic prevention and control, with the support of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province, as the two main founders of the Music Week, Yu Long, Chairman of the Arts Committee and Music Director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, and Ma Youyou, Artistic Director of the Fourth Music Week, planned the "Guangdong International Youth Music Week 2021 Special Project" in advance, which will be presented to the world online on January 30, 2021 at 8:00 p.m. Beijing time.
This special project is one of the few important international music events with the theme of focusing on youth since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, including three parts: first, Yu Long, Chairman of the Music Week Art Committee and Music Director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, will lead the orchestra, and bring an online performance of the musical "Back Wave" of hong Kong young violinist Su Qianxun and young pianist Wang Yalun in the United States; followed by an online master class "With Friends in the Piano Room", ma Youyou will play and share online. Finally, as the keynote speaker, Yu Long, who is at the event site in Guangzhou, and Yo-Yo Ma in Boston, will be at opposite ends of the globe, 13 time zones apart, across day and night, connecting in real time, answering questions and answering questions on the spot, and holding an in-depth interview on "harmony and balance" across the eastern and western hemispheres.
Young Hong Kong violinist Su Qianxun and young pianist Wang Yalun in the United States, two rising rising stars of the post-zero zero, debuted in the special project of Guangdong International Youth Music Week 2021. Escorted by Yu Long and the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, they performed Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor.
Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor was composed in 1935 and was the last work the composer composed before returning to his homeland, with a fresh and concise melody and rhythmic passages alternating between harmonic colors. Introducing the work, the composer himself said: "The first movement was based in Paris, the second was based in Voronezh, the instrumentation was completed in Paris, and the first performance took place in Madrid in December 1935." ”
Violinist Su Chihiro
Because of the characteristics of the style and the cultural diversity of the creative background, this work was considered to be a work that revealed the future of music creation at the time of creation. Violinist Su Qianxun has a wealth of experience in studying and performing at home and abroad, and has also appeared on the stage of the Berliner Philharmonic Hall, and she will undoubtedly give this work a timeless expression with her own understanding.
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor is a groundbreaking work that inherits traditional writing techniques during Beethoven's creative career. The arrangement of this performance is also a tribute to the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth just past. Pianist Aaron Wang was not yet 10 years old when she first performed in the Canton Symphony Season Concert, when she was stunned by a piece of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, which was conducted by Mr. Yu Long. In recent years, Wang Yalun has also appeared on the stage of the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra many times, and has performed in concerts with The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in collaboration with Master Zubin Mehta.
Pianist Aaron Wang
The concert will also feature a timeless Chinese work, Liu Tianhua's "Good Night" (yuanzhi adaptation). This is a small song written by the erhu master Liu Tianhua in Chinese New Year's Eve, 1928, and later adapted into a string band sketch by Huang Yijun (pen name Yuanzhi), the first generation of Chinese conductors. On the occasion of the performance 93 years after the birth of this work, coinciding with the beginning of the Gregorian calendar 2021, the Lunar New Year of the Ox is coming, the music is idyllic and natural, there is no interlacing, but there is a pulse of warmth, a gentleman's temperament and elegance, slowly opening the prelude to this "good night".
Due to the pandemic, Yo-Yo Ma, artistic director of the four-year Music Week and a renowned cellist, was unable to come back to Sui this year, but he presented his unique artistic concept for this special event at the beginning of 2021. At 9:00 p.m. Beijing time on January 30, netizens around the world will experience the feeling of "Inside the Practice Room with Yo-Yo" through the Internet.
Mr. Ma will issue a "soul torture" to himself in his study: "I was in your age" and will set "Part 1: Asking Questions: Activating the Imagination", "Part 2: Diving into Music" and "Part 3: Bringing it." Forward) and other sessions to illustrate his artistic philosophy. During this period, Mr. Ma Youyou will explore the mental process of cognition and communication by himself and others by playing three distinct pieces of music, namely Saint-Saëns' "Swan", the second movement of Beethoven's Sixth "Pastoral" Symphony, "Small Scene by the Stream", and the Chinese piece "Eaves Head Rain", which is played by Sheng player Wu Tong, and uses video clips of his performance of Beethoven's "Third Violin Sonata" at the United Nations concert. "As a musician, you have to constantly experiment with yourself, trying to align your body and mind and create unforgettable experiences for your audience." In this session, Yo-Yo Ma will have a musical dialogue with himself, leading us to experience the whole process of solving music problems and sharing ways of thinking. Yo-Yo Ma believes that this can teach us not only as musicians, but also as a person, how to have a complete life.
A cross-continental master talk
Yo-Yo Ma and Long Yu
In the final part of the evening, Yo-Yo Ma will connect in Boston with Long Yu, Chairman of the Music Week Arts Committee in Guangzhou, and young guests invited to participate in the event in Guangzhou, to hold an intercontinental connection event with the theme of "Harmony and Balance" across the eastern and western hemispheres.
The youth representatives invited to the Guangzhou event to join the online interaction include professional musicians who have participated in the four Guangdong International Youth Music Weeks from 2017 to 2020, as well as Young Taiwanese cellists, film and television actors and singers Ouyang Nana, who have studied at the world-renowned music school Curtis College of Music and Berkeley Conservatory of Music. Mike Block, Ouyang Nana's teacher at Berklee College of Music, served as a mentor for Guangdong International Youth Music Week for four consecutive years from 2017 to 2020, hosting the teaching of the "Silk Road Youth Music Workshop". Ouyang Nana will also perform Tchaikovsky's famous song "Like a Song" with the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra Youth String Quartet at the event site.
Ouyang Nana performed in the 20th anniversary concert of the China Philharmonic Orchestra
Based on the careful consideration of epidemic prevention and control, although this year cannot present a Guangdong International Youth Music Week implemented offline in the past form, the organization of such a music event based on online dissemination has shown the soothing power of music in the context of the era when the new crown epidemic has swept the world.