One evening in 1926, Mei Baiqi conducted the Band of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (the predecessor of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra) to perform in Hongkou Park. If we count from this earliest recorded open-air concert, Shanghai’s tradition of enjoying summer with music has been around for about a century. .
In 2024, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra will celebrate its 145th anniversary, and the Shanghai Summer Music Festival (misa) will also enter its 15th year. From July 1 to 15, this year’s MISA will bring 24 live performances, more than 20 “online MISA” performances, 13 city-wide symphonies, 5 “MISA talks” and 3 “MISA walks” to the Shanghai audience. ” and rich performances and activities such as Tai Chi experience, Shaolin Kung Fu demonstration, and World Coffee Tour.
The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra will gather together again at misa. In addition, 5 music groups, 5 student art groups, and nearly 50 conductors and solo artists will also take turns to perform at the Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall and Shanghai City Lawn Music Square. From diverse stages such as Venice at Night, American Impressions, Gypsy Songs, and South American Style, to the focus on musical instruments of different styles such as harmonica, accordion, and saxophone, the audience will continue to experience the infinite charm of music this summer.
html On July 1, the opening concert will be themed "Music and Friends". Four generations of conductors from the "post-60s" to the "post-90s" will appear on the same stage together with the violinist Yu Long, Yang Yang, Huang Yi and Sun Yifan. Artists such as Ning Feng and cellist Wang Jian performed classic works by Tchaikovsky, Chopin and other masters.After appearing at the opening performance of misa last year, young composer Liang Haoyi will continue to light up the musical friendship among friends with "Eternal Friendship Overture".
On July 2nd and 3rd, the outgoing music director conductor Jaap van Zweden will lead the New York Philharmonic to return to MISA for the first time in five years, performing Mahler, Mozart, and Brahms We will also present the Chinese premiere of "Light" by Nina Shekhar, a composer born in the 1990s.
On July 4th, twin pianists Shi Wei and Shi Rong, Zhou Leping and Zhou Leting, will collaborate for the first time at MISA to perform Mozart’s smart melodies and Alensky’s Russian romance. Shi Shucheng will also present Shi Shucheng’s arrangement of eight pieces for two pianos. World premiere of the hand-operated version of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons".
On July 11, the Italian Resonance Ancient Orchestra and the Shanghai Chaconne Ancient Orchestra will take the audience through time and space to recreate the sound of Baroque. On the city lawn that night, the new generation conductor Jin Yukuang led the neoclassical chamber orchestra and took over the baton with pianist Wang Yalun to play the "new voice" of classical music: from the spicy and passionate Shostakovich to the swaying Kapustin , Piazzolla, together they set off a cross-era classical dialogue in Shanghai.
On July 12, young mezzo-soprano Wu Hongni and Russian pianist Sergei Rybin will jointly lift "Carmen's Veil" to experience the mysterious and ancient Gypsy style.
In misa, music fans can not only hear the majestic sound created by the symphony orchestra, but also hear many instruments that rarely contribute "voice" in the symphony. This year, the harmonica, accordion, and saxophone will become the "absolute protagonists" and present a series of colorful and enjoyable "instrument expos" to the public.
"I am very happy to be back in Shanghai. I have been waiting for this call for ten years." Italian harmonica master Gianluca Litra was very excited when he received the invitation from misa. On July 5, Zhang Lu and the string players of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra will collaborate with this musician who is proficient in both classical and jazz performance to perform Gordon Jacobs's "Five Pieces" and Morico's Film soundtracks and other popular works are included.
Accordionist Sidorova will also take the stage at the Huangpu Lawn City Music Square on July 7th to explore tango music from around the world with the performers of the Shanghai Friends Chamber Orchestra; the Italian Saxophone Quartet will also play the tango music on the green field. No. Rota's classic film music; and clarinetist Hergo will show the charming charm of the orchestra's "orator" through the works of composers such as Wolf, Weber and John Williams.
It is worth mentioning that misa’s stage not only gave birth to four student art groups including the Shanghai Student Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Student Choir, Shanghai Student Traditional Orchestra, and Shanghai Summer Music Festival Student Festival Band, but also attracted a large number of youth groups to participate. Among them, from audiences to volunteers, as young people continue to join in, misa has also become an important stage for young people's music dreams to bloom every summer.
This year, in addition to the four student art groups, the award-winning Spring Youth Chorus will also take the stage, letting the world hear the youthful voices of teenagers.