Kids display their songwriting skills at summer camp

A weeklong summer camp aimed at training children to be songwriters ended with a performance at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing on July 24.

The summer camp is part of the ongoing Gateway to Arts 2023 Summer Festival, which from July 2 to Aug 31, stages 76 shows across a wide range of art forms, including classical music, traditional Chinese operas, dance, jazz and puppet shows. The festival also offers amateur art lovers 12 summer camps centering on different fields of musical performance, such as percussion, harp, Peking Opera, and guqin (seven-stringed Chinese zither).

Last year, the festival launched the three-day songwriting summer camp, which was well received by attendees. This year, the summer camp lasted for seven days.

Children aged between 9 and 16 were invited to take part, and were coached by Chen Chao and Han Chenhui, two veteran songwriters.

With a variety of musical instruments, such as guzheng (Chinese zither), piano and pipa (a four-stringed lute), the children presented their musical works, which encompassed many different styles, such as pop, classical, rock and funk.