A celebration of traditional music

"I felt like being introduced into a new world of music, which is totally different from the world I have been living in for decades. All of those musical instruments, like percussions, pipa and erhu, are very versatile," says Lyu.

Like Lyu, Li is also a classically trained musician and he felt nervous before doing rehearsals with the orchestra.

"The difference between playing music works of traditional Chinese music and Western classical music is like reading sentences with two different tones," says Li. "It's also like communicating with two people with different personalities. But music is all about emotions and expression, which is mutual." Li also performed composer Zhao Jiping's music piece Guo Feng with the orchestra during the concert.

Li mentions that conductor Liu was very supportive throughout the rehearsals. They were both trained by Chinese conductor Xu Xin.

Back in 1994, Liu, then a middle school student living in Jinan, Shandong province, read an article about Li, who won the first prize at a national conducting competition, from a music magazine. At that time, Liu, who was introduced to music by his father, a flutist and composer of Shandong Liuzi Opera Troupe, dreamed of becoming a conductor.