Modern classics

When he conducts, Jin Yukuang, standing in front of his band members, glows with confidence, enthusiasm and joy.

On Sunday, the 20-year-old conductor, along with young musicians of Novus-Classica Camerata, a dynamic chamber orchestra co-founded by Jin in 2020, made their debut in the capital with a concert held during the ongoing 24th Beijing Music Festival.

As part of the festival's lunchtime concert series, under the title Music at Noon, the concert opened with the first movement of Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly's Serenade, Op 12, and featured programs arranged for chamber music, including the second movement of Beethoven's String Trio Op 3, and Mozart's Divertimento K 136.

"We are happy to introduce ourselves to the audience in Beijing. We are an orchestra that has learned a lot from the tradition of classical music. We are also new, flexible, and open to evolving," Jin said before he ended the concert by leading the orchestra's performance of Summer from The Four Seasons by Vivaldi.