THE School of Music of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-SZ), also known as Shenzhen Conservatory of Music (Provisional), was officially inaugurated Tuesday at CUHK-SZ campus in Longgang District. The school is one of Shenzhen’s 10 new landmark cultural facilities.

The enrollment of its first-batch students concluded with a total of eight students who will start this September, according to the school.

The school’s first batch of teachers were announced at the inauguration ceremony. The faculty includes Hong Kong composer Chan Wing-wah, violinists Xu Weiling and Lu Wei, soprano Zhang Liping, tenor Shi Yijie, bass-baritone Shen Yang, mezzo-soprano Zhu Huiling and pianist Yuan Fang.

The school will also open a senior music workshop this September where lectures from artists from top music conservatories and symphony orchestras such as Baltimore Symphony Orchestra of the U.S., Royal Northern College of Music  of the U.K. and China’s Central Conservatory of Music will be delivered, said Ye Xiaogang, dean of CUHK-SZ School of Music and one of China’s leading contemporary composers.

Xu Yangsheng, president of CUHK-SZ, said at the ceremony that he believed the school under the helm of Ye will contribute to the development of music and art in Shenzhen and even the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The eight students admitted are enrolled majoring in vocal music, piano and violin. The school is planning to have 1,000 students by 2030, according to Ye.

CUHK-SZ was entrusted by the city authorities to build Shenzhen Conservatory of Music at the end of 2018. The music school will be operated by CUHK-SZ during its early stage.

Shenzhen Conservatory of Music’s independent buildings are expected to be put into use in 2024.

The project, covering 73,800 square meters, with a floor area of 129,700 square meters, is one of the city’s 10 new cultural facilities.

Design for the conservatory was unveiled this January. The core design contents include classrooms, practice studios, a library, dormitories, performance auditoriums (including a 700-seat A-level competition theater, a 500-seat music hall and a 200-seat rehearsal hall), and science research space (including a music technology center, music management center and music therapy center).

Shenzhen has taken the worldwide lead in cultural facility construction in 2020, according to a cultural infrastructure index report recently released by AEA Consulting, a global cultural consulting firm.

The 10 new iconic landmarks to be completed in five years, with a total budget of 110.2 billion yuan (US$17.03 billion), means that Shenzhen will achieve the status as a major new cultural capital.

(Wang Jingli)