After two challenging years of living under the pandemic, it’s time to welcome a new year and hope for the best. To celebrate a fresh start, the beloved Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SZSO) is inviting fans to usher in 2022 with cheerful heart-warming music.

Classic and contemporary

On Thursday evening, led by SZSO artistic director Lin Daye, the orchestra will present an unconventional concert presenting familiar tunes from Johann Strauss Junior, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Ravel and Piazzolla as well as popular pieces from contemporary composers such as Arturo Márquez and Bela Kovács. Collaborating soloists will include cellist Karen Kocharyan, clarinetist Yi Cheng, violinist Wu Qian and soprano Wang Lida. Sisi Qiu and Hu Siyi will perform ballet accompanied by Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” and Shostakovich’s “Waltz No. 2.”

After “The Bat Overture,” a traditional New Year’s concert repertoire choice from Strauss Junior, audiences will hear “Sholem Alekhem, Rov Feidman!” (“Peace Be With You, Master Feidman”) from Hungarian clarinetist and composer Kovács. The delightful piece is a tribute to the amazing tradition of Klezmer, the music of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe. This piece is also a salute to Klezmer master Giora Feidman.

The program includes two pieces from Mexican composer Márquez, who wrote “The Danzones,” a fusion of dance music from Cuba and the Veracruz region of Mexico. The “Danzón No. 2” thrills audiences with its entrancing, seductive rhythms, and because of its popularity, it is often called the second national anthem of Mexico. His other piece, translated as “Conga of Fire,” is bursting with color and conga rhythms.

Another festive piece is Richard Hayman’s “Pops Hoedown,” where the composer strings together 10 traditional fiddle tunes into a rousing number that makes you want to “put the hoe down” and start dancing.

In addition to Piazzolla’s “Grand Tango,” Kocharyan will perform “You and Me,” the song Chinese composer Chen Qigang wrote for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Soprano Wang will sing two Chinese songs: “Liuyang River” and “Mount Yimeng, My Mom.”

Time: 8 p.m., Dec. 30

Tickets: 180-980 yuan

Festive tunes

Part of the program and performers will be the same for this concert as for the first, with some changes making it more balanced between Chinese and Western music choices.

Tenors Wang Chuanliang and Ma Teng, baritone Wang Yunpeng, mezzo soprano Wang Hongyao and suona (Chinese woodwind instrument) player Liu Wenwen will collaborate, together with violinist Wu, cellist Kocharyan and clarinetist Yi.

The program will include more Chinese pieces such as “A Hundred Birds Flying Towards the Phoenix” and “Ode to the Red Flag.”

Time: 7:30 p.m., Dec. 31

Tickets: 180-1080 yuan

Lyrical and festive

Most of the program and performers for this concert will be the same as Thursday’s, except that tenor Shi Yijie will sing “Don’t Forget About Me” by Italian composer Ernesto De Curtis and an artistic song by Chinese composer Ye Xiaogang. Mezzo soprano Wang Hongyao will perform two songs respectively from Bizet’s “Carmen” and Rossini’s “Barber of Seville.”

Time: 10:30 p.m., Dec. 31

Tickets: 180-980 yuan

Venue: Shenzhen Concert Hall, Futian District (福田区深圳音乐厅)

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

(Li Dan)