Conducted by Zhang Guo-yong, artistic director of the Shanghai Opera House and a previous artistic director of the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SSO), the beloved local orchestra will present two concerts this Saturday night to usher in the New Year.

    The 120-minute festive program opens with “Dance of the Golden Snake,” a piece first composed by Nie Er in 1934 based on Chinese folk music and rearranged for a symphony orchestra by Tang Jianping. Familiar to Chinese audiences, the piece was used as background music for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

    The program also includes Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” Sarasate’s “Gypsy Airs,” “Oblivion” and “Libertango” from Astor Piazzolla, folk song “O Sole Mio” as well as excerpts from operas (tenor, “None Shall Sleep” from “Turandot”; duet, “A Brindisi” from “La Traviata”) and works by Chinese composers (soprano, “I Love You, China”; duet, “North Wind Blows” from “White-haired Girl”).

    Collaborating with the SSO will be the best of young Chinese musicians such as pianist Zuo Zhang, violinist Chen Xi, erhu player Lu Yiwen and tenor Zhang Xueliang as well as overseas artists including soprano Katherine Whyte and dancers Fernanda Grosso and Alejandro Ferreyra of the Tango Desire Company from Argentina.

    Zuo, a Shenzhener born in 1988, was a pupil of Dan Zhaoyi at Shenzhen Arts School before she received her master’s degree at The Juilliard School, where she studied with Robert McDonald and Yoheved Kaplinsky.

    Praised by Chinese Gramophone for her performance which was described as “full of enthusiasm and glamour, radiating the vigor of youth,” Zuo was the winner of the Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition in the United States, the Krainev International Piano Competition in Ukraine, and The Juilliard’s 32nd annual William Petschek Piano Recital Award. In 2014, she was selected to join BBC’s flagship New Generation Artist (NGA) program for two seasons.

    A graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Joseph Silverstein, violinist Chen is studying with Hyo Kang at Yale University. At 17, he won the Silver Prize (with no Gold Prize awarded) at the 12th International Tchaikovsky Violin Competition in Moscow. He plays a Guarnerius del Gesu violin “ex-Moeller,” Cremona, 1725, on loan from the Samsung Foundation of Culture of Korea and the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

    Lu is a young erhu player studying at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Named one of the Top 10 Young Erhu Players of China in 2014, Lu won a best new artist award at the 32nd Shanghai Spring International Music Festival a year later. She has collaborated as a soloist with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, among others.

    Tenor Zhang was the winner of the Second Yang Soo Hwa International Voice Competition in South Korea and a multiple medallist in the Golden Bell Award of Chinese Music.

    Time: 8 p.m., 10:45 p.m., Dec. 31

    Tickets: 50-780 yuan

    Booking: 400-610-3721

    Venue: Shenzhen Concert Hall, intersection of Hongli Road and Yitian Road, Futian District (福田区红荔路和益田路交汇处深圳音乐厅)

    Metro: Line 3 or 4, Children’s Palace Station (少年宫站), Exit D(Li Dan)