Chamber music and piano recital for Lantern Festival

If you are still undecided on the plans for the Lantern Festival, one of the most romantic Chinese festivals, Shenzhen Concert Hall has music to your ears. On the evening preceding and of the festival, falling on Feb. 24 this year, a chamber music concert will bring contemporary and classical masterpieces, as well as less staged yet authentically beautiful pieces; while acclaimed pianist Yuan Fang will perform some of the most romantic tunes, from both Western and Chinese composers.

Sound of the trumpets

On Feb. 23, Dai Dongyu, Principal Trumpet of Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, his co-trumpeters Li Yang, Liu Jun, and Du Jiajie, pianist Li Jiaqi, violinist Chen Qiumei, as well as Sun Xiao, trumpeter and teacher at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music, will perform a concert featuring perhaps the best repertoire composed for the trumpet, a brass wind instrument loved for its mellow melodic sound. The program will include Robert Foster’s “Blazing Bugles,” Eric Ewazen’s “Triofor Trumpet, Violin and Piano,” Michel Colombier’s “Emmanuel” (the version for Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti and violinist Lucia Micarelli), an aria from Bizet’s “Carmen,” and Gershwin’s fan favorite “Summertime.”

Performers of the Feb. 23 concert. Photos courtesy of Shenzhen Concert Hall

Time: 7:30 p.m., Feb. 23

Tickets: 60-220 yuan

Yuan Fang recital

On Feb. 24, sought-after pianist and pedagogue Yuan Fang will perform a solo concert for local fans.

Yuan Fang

With two doctoral degrees in piano and chamber music from Munich’s University of Music and Performing Arts, Yuan, who’s in her early 40s, has superb skills both on the piano and on the lecturing podium. As a Boesendorfer artist, she released records under the Sony Classic label that topped the Classical Music Top 100 chart in China in 2015. She has performed solo recitals around the world, as well as collaborated with prestigious orchestras conducted by the likes of Zubin Mehta and Lawrence Foster.

Yuan Fang during a recital.

Her program for the Lantern Festival concert will include Beethoven’s masterpiece — “Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor Op. 27, No. 2,” also known as “Moonlight Sonata,” Schubert’s “Three Piano Pieces, D. 946,” Gershwin’s “Preludes for Piano,” Debussy’s “Clair de lune,” Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody, S. 244, No. 2,” and Chinese folk song “In a Place Far Far Away” arranged by Zhang Zhao. The romantic tunes Yuan has handpicked for the evening promise a heartwarming memory for music fans and their loved ones.

Time: 8 p.m., Feb. 24

Tickets: 80-380 yuan

Booking: Official WeChat acccount "深圳音乐厅"

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 E