The 7th Annual China Now Music Festival: Composing the Future at Carnegie Hall

The China Now Music Festival is dedicated to promoting an understanding and appreciation of music from contemporary China through an annual series of concerts and academic activities. In the previous six seasons, China Now has attracted more than 10,000 live audience members, and nearly 100,000 viewers have participated in online programs. The seventh season features contemporary works on the cutting edge of music with two concerts at Carnegie Hall, in Stern Auditorium on October 12 and Zankel Hall on October 19, to look at the intersection of technology and music.

CONCERT 1:

COMPOSING THE FUTURE: THE ORCHESTRA NOW (TN) CONDUCTED BY JINDONG CAI

Saturday, October 12 at 7:30 pm

Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall

Tickets: $25/$40/$60

Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall

57th Street and Seventh Ave, New York, NY, 10019

For tickets, visit: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2024/10/12/Composing-the-Future-A-Concert-with-The-Orchestra-Now-Jindong-Cai-Conductor-0730PM

At the opening concert, The Orchestra Now and conductor Jindong Cai will perform an electrifying program featuring new symphonic works by contemporary Chinese composers from different backgrounds.Juilliard-trained composer and pianist Peng-Peng Gong brings Of Peking and Opera, an abridged version of his Tenth Symphony to New York audience. Experience Pulitzer Prize-winner Du Yun’s Hundred Heads (In Tribute to Ray Charles) live, where traces of Charles’s best-known tune, “Georgia on My Mind,” and his trademark brass rhythm are hinted.

In keeping with the future-focused theme of this year’s festival events, China Now asked the Department of Music Artificial Intelligence of Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) to contribute pieces composed in part by AI and works that experimentally incorporate AI technology in live performances. Rounding out the dynamic selection are pieces by Qin Wenchen, Yao Chen, Li Xiaobing, and Sun Yuming from the faculty of CCOM, locus of some of the most forward-thinking and innovative composers of our time. 

Learn more at https://www.barduschinamusic.org/composing-the-future

CONCERT 2:

COMPOSING THE FUTURE: THE CHINA NOW CHAMBER ORCHESTRA AND THE BARD EAST/WEST ENSEMBLE

Featuring AI’S VARIATION: OPERA OF THE FUTURE 

Jindong Cai, conductor

Saturday, October 19 at 7:30 pm

Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall

Tickets: $25/$35/$45/$60

Seventh Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets, New York, NY, 10019

For tickets, visit: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2024/10/19/Composing-the-Future-A-Concert-with-the-China-Now-Chamber-Orchestra-and-the-Ba-0730PM

The China Now Music Festival concludes with a chamber opera by visionary composer Hao Weiya, performed by the China Now Chamber Orchestra and conductor Jindong Cai. Unlike the October 12 concert program, which highlights the fusion of music and technology, Hao Weiya’s AI’s Variation: Opera of the Future confronts us with a series of chilling questions relating to the ethics of science and technology merging with human creativity. A science fiction-themed drama for three voices and a chamber orchestra, AI’s Variation tells the story of a troubled artist who allows his identity to be ‘enhanced’ by AI but then struggles with the consequences in his personal life.

The program at Zankel Hall also features a performance by the dynamic young musicians of the Bard East/West Ensemble, whose unique combination of Chinese and Western instruments has been widely enjoyed by the audience of the China Now Music Festival in past years. They will be joined by Duo Chinoiserie, a unique pairing that combines the Chinese guzheng and the European classical guitar.

For more information about the China Now Music Festival and for full programming details, please visit: barduschinamusic.org/composing-the-future