New Zealand Symphony Orchestra to perform in Beijing
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has been invited to perform at the Olympic Cultural Festival in Beijing as part of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in August.
The NZSO will give concerts at the Forbidden City Concert Hall and the National Centre for the Performing Arts.
The programme for the Festival will provide an extraordinary showcase for New Zealand talent. John Psathas’ Olympic Music, which will be world-premiered in Beijing, is a suite based on the music that he composed for the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympics. Gareth Farr’s Te Papa incorporates a Māori Karanga, and features world-class New Zealand singers Deborah Wai-Kapohe and Simon O’Neill. Li Wei, a highly successful Chinese cellist, will perform as a soloist with the orchestra to celebrate the relationship between China and New Zealand.
The concerts will be conducted by the NZSO’s highly-acclaimed Music Director, Pietari Inkinen.
NZSO Chief Executive, Peter Walls, says: “We are all thrilled about this opportunity. Beijing has hosted other great orchestras this year and the Chinese are used to hearing the very best in classical music”.