An International Mosaic: 28th Beijing Music Festival Links Classical and Contemporary, China and the West, October 10–24, 2025

If anything can be called an international “melting pot,” it’s classical music. A better term might be former New York Mayor David Dinkins’ coinage, a “gorgeous mosaic.” Even as conflicts and turmoil proliferate around the world, musicians and music lovers continue to travel, gather, and exchange artistic and cultural energies and heritages. The Beijing Music Festival (BMF) has been an exemplar of this kind of peaceful cultural cross-pollination since 1998.

To see this, we need look no further than the 28th BMF’s upcoming October 10 kickoff concert. The featured soloist, pianist Haochen Zhang, hails from China. He told me earlier this year that he thinks of Philadelphia, where he arrived at age 15 to study at the Curtis Institute, as his “second home.” And he recorded both his first studio album, in 2016, and his latest, Haochen Zhang plays Beethoven & Liszt, in a church in Neumarkt, Germany.

When Zhang made his debut with the New York Philharmonic back in 2020, it was with a program of music by Chinese and Korean composers – and George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. That program was led by Long Yu, who just happens to be the BMF’s founder and Artistic Committee Chair.

Nearly six years later, when pianist and conductor reunite at the BMF opening concert on October 10 with the China Philharmonic Orchestra, it’s music by two of Russia’s greats that will dominate the program: Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. (It may be worth noting in this context that Haochen Zhang, when he was just 12, became the youngest winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians.)

Following the kickoff event, the 28th BMF will continue with two weeks of concerts, recitals, talks, masterclasses, and other events in a variety of venues around the Chinese capital.

Beijing

The earliest walled city on the site of today’s Beijing was built over 3,000 years ago. When the 28th Beijing Music Festival opens October 10, no particular four walls, whether literal or metaphoric, will contain it. With a population of 22 million, the Chinese capital is one of the world’s great international cities. Appropriately, the BMF, Beijing’s preeminent annual music event, will present music and opera from world-class artists from China and around the world.

Over two full weeks, the festival programs will include luminaries such as conductor Charles Dutoit, violinist Gil Shaham, and Harry Bicket and the English Concert. Ensembles include the China Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, and Shanghai Symphony orchestras, as well as Belgium’s Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, which will stage the Chinese premiere of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck.

Intermingling Cultures

Works by Brahms, Chopin, Shostakovich, Clara Schumann, Amy Beach, and other mainstays of the classical repertoire will mingle with contemporary music from composers including Huang Ruo, Elliot Leung, and Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun. Concerts and recitals will take place in a variety of venues and spaces around the city. The festival will also include forums and masterclasses, programming for children, and more.

Founder and Artistic Committee Chair Long Yu said that “this year’s festival aspires to be a high-caliber, internationally influential artistic celebration.” But that’s humble language – the BMF has been known for accomplishing just that for years.

Opera and theater director Shuang Zhou has been associated with the festival for almost a decade, and is now Artistic Director. She explained that this year’s festival theme, “Future Tradition: Moments and New Voices,” “highlights Beijing’s ability to blend traditional essence with innovation” and “emphasizes its identity as a city steeped in history, yet pulsating with modern energy.”

Opera: From the Baroque to the 20th Century

The world-renowned period-instrument ensemble English Concert, led by harpsichordist Harry Bicket, will perform Handel’s Rinaldo Oct. 14 at Forbidden City Concert Hall. The cast will feature Chinese countertenor Liu Shen.

Charles Dutoit will lead three Chinese ensembles and a full cast in Opera Ballet Vlaanderen’s new production of Berg’s modernist masterpiece Wozzeck, marking the 100th anniversary of the expressionist opera’s historic premiere. Dutoit and director Johan Simons will discuss the opera’s significance at a preview event.

Chinese Composers, Performers in the Spotlight

Among the homegrown artists represented at BMF 2025 will be three Chinese composers with premieres. The Ocean Etched in the Forest is a new work by Du Yun, the 2017 Pulitzer Prize winner and BMF’s 2019 Artist of the Year. Huang Ruo, known for blending contemporary techniques and traditional Chinese motifs, will premiere City of Floating Sounds. Elliot Leung, a rising Hong Kong composer, will introduce Chinese Kitchen: A Feast of Flavors, an orchestral work inspired by – no surprise – Chinese cuisine.

The opening concert with Haochen Zhang and the China Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maestro Long Yu will take place at the National Centre for the Performing Arts. The closing concert on October 24 will again feature the China Philharmonic, this time conducted by Yang Yang and with Gil Shaham and mezzo-soprano Ildikó Komlósi. The concert will include Leung’s Chinese Kitchen and music by Brahms. No fewer than three Chinese ensembles will be part of Wozzeck: the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Beijing Philharmonic Choir, and Shanghai Conservatory of Music Choir.

On October 15, the landmark CITIC Tower will host a recital of classical and contemporary music by Chinese piano prodigy Tianxu An. Four days later, Tianxu will join composer-pianist Mikhail Pletnev and the Rachmaninoff International Orchestra under the baton of Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits in music by Pletnev and Rachmaninoff at Forbidden City Concert Hall.

In two recitals, cellist Tianyou (Daniel) Wang and pianist Huaying (Helen) Meng will interpret through the voice of a new generation music by Chopin, Clara Schumann, Amy Beach and more.

Chinese-born American composer Du Yun collaborated with the Jino people of Yunnan for her new work, co-commissioned by BMF and Lincoln Center. The Ocean Etched in the Forest exemplifies the composer’s mission to preserve endangered cultural heritage. On Oct. 11 she will lead a forum exploring how composers can transform traditional Chinese music in modern composition.

International Luminaries

BMF has hosted countless international artists over the years. Wynton Marsalis, Tan Dun, Hélène Grimaud, Sandbox Percussion, Pinchas Zukerman, Kathleen Battle, Martha Argerich, and Isaac Stern are just a few from past editions.

This year, many luminaries from around the world will be in the mix. Gil Shaham and Ildikó Komlósi will both hold masterclasses in addition to performing at the closing concert. American countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, whose first commercial recording won a 2019 Grammy Award, will sing the lead role in Rinaldi. Swiss conductor Dutoit will helm Wozzeck.

Japanese piano phenom Hayato Sumino, perhaps in the presence of some of his 1.5 million YouTube followers, will be playing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the BBC Philharmonic under Finnish conductor John Storgårds. Additionaly, Sumino will play his own nocturnes and other works, along with music by Chopin, Bach, Ravel, Nikolai Kapustin, and Friedrich Gulda, in a recital at the Poly Theatre.

Child’s Play

From October 6–8, before the festival’s formal start, Beijing Music Industry Park will host a Youth Orchestra Showcase with ensembles of children and university students from around China. On Oct. 18 the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra will present Musical Storyland, a children’s concert that’s also an interactive experience blending storytelling and classical music.

Haochen Zhang spent his own childhood in Shanghai. When I asked him a few years ago about what it felt like to return to his home country and perform in the city where he grew up, he said it was exciting to play in China because of the nation’s “huge and ever-expanding concert demographic that is still in the course of shaping.” The Beijing Music Festival has been a key part of that expansion and shaping for more than a quarter of a century.

Maestro Long Yu founded the Beijing Music Festival in 1998 as an international event with two main purposes: to showcase and create opportunities for young Chinese musicians, and to bridge China and the West. Every fall the city becomes an international music hub, a platform for performance exchanges between up-and-coming and world-famous artists, where young and established musicians from China and the West mingle and draw creative inspiration.

For information about the 2025 BMF visit the festival’s website.