Debra Li

debra_lidan@163.com

RESEMBLING several giant pieces of diamonds embedded in Shenzhen’s CBD area in Futian District, Shenzhen Concert Hall yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of its official opening.

In the past 15 years, the concert hall has presented some 4,000 performances for 5 million audience members, making the venue a spiritual home for music fans and a frontier explorer in popularizing classical music.

Designed by avant-grade Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, the modern professional concert hall adopts red, yellow, black, white and green colors in its exterior, symbolic of the Chinese five elements. The canyon-terraced Symphony Hall with a large-scale pipe organ and 1,680 seats provides pure natural acoustics for music performances and a live recording-studio experience for audiences.

Colorful events

Despite the interruptions brought by the flare-up of COVID pandemic in the city, the concert hall has managed to arrange for a variety of shows for this year. The Shanghai Quartet, pianist Luo Wei, zheng (Chinese plucked board zither) player Chang Jing, flutist Zhang Weiliang and bass baritone Shen Yang are among the top talents who will perform on the stage of Shenzhen Concert Hall during the rest of this year. Six New Year’s concerts of distinctive styles promise to rock music fans. And for the first time, the concert hall will invite a fan club member to perform together with Shen Lu during a concert exclusive for the members. For this special occasion, the venue also launched a space on its second floor where fans can buy merchandises such as mugs and stationery.

Music for all

For 15 years. “Beautiful Sunday” and “Afternoon Music Time,” two public-benefit series at the concert hall, have arranged for several thousand artists to perform over 1,000 free concerts and lectures for citizens.

One of the longest-lasting free performance series in China, “Beautiful Sunday” concerts, staged at 3 p.m. on Sundays, have consistently provided high-quality shows and contributed 30% of the time at each event for lecturing and expositions to serve as a bridge between entrance-level listeners and classical music. The Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra and its current artistic director Lin Daye, pianists Lang Lang and Chen Sa, pop music producer Gao Xiaosong, among others, have all given free shows and lectures on this platform.

“Afternoon Music Time,” meeting the audiences on Saturday afternoons, not just provides citizens with a variety of music, but has become a stage where local young musicians show their talent and get to build up their live performing experience.

The concert hall has also launched its Music Lovers Club, where members not only get discounted tickets but have the opportunity to attend workshops, meet musicians, sit at rehearsals and enjoy exclusive concerts. On Children’s Day this year, the concert hall started Project Young Inspired to offer preferential tickets, master classes, theater workshops and other events to reach out to young music fans.

15 years of glory

In the past 15 years, the management of the venue has planned a large number of top-caliber concerts, inviting Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic and other top orchestras to perform for the local audiences. Conductors Zubin Mehta, Gustavo Dudamel and Christoph Eschenbach, violinists Isaac Perlman, Joshua Bell and Anne-Sophie Mutter, cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Mischa Maisky, tenor Jonas Kaufmann, as well as Chinese pianists Lang Lang and Wang Yujia, have all graced the stage of Shenzhen Concert Hall.

In addition to quality classical music events, the concert hall has been expanding its efforts to present different genres of music to the local market. Starting in 2015, the venue has been hosting an annual a cappella festival, inviting bands from around the world to perform and providing workshops and summer camps to train local fans.

To carry on traditional culture and cater to the trends of “China Chic,” the concert hall in recent years has put forth special effort to introduce crossover concerts featuring Chinese instruments with Western instruments. Audiences got to hear ethnic minority songs, Tang Dynasty (618-907) poetry set to music and the beautiful duet of erhu (Chinese string instrument) and piano.

Shenzhen Concert Hall has provided locals with numerous memorable moments in the past 15 years.

“I can still remember the first time I walked into the concert hall to sit at a ‘Beautiful Sunday’ concert in 2008,” said Wang Cailian, a white-collar worker living in Futian. “Like the line inscribed on the wall of the concert hall, people feel uniquely touched by music, and that magic sensation happens nowhere else but in the concert hall.”