Youth orchestra sets the tone

Some of the greatest names in classical music gather every July at the mountain town of Verbier, Switzerland, for an exceptional concert series featuring choirs, orchestras, and intimate recitals.

This year, marking its 30th anniversary, for the first time, the two-week-long Verbier Festival invited a Chinese symphony orchestra.

The Guangzhou Symphony Youth Orchestra, one of China's premier youth ensembles and an affiliate of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, performed on Thursday under the baton of conductor Jing Huan at the festival's main concert hall Salle des Combins.

The orchestra, featuring more than 100 musicians, aged from 11 to 18, performed works by two contemporary composers: Grammy-nominated Chinese American composer Zhou Tian's Metropolis and the famous Chinese French composer Chen Qigang's Reflet d'un temps disparu (Reflection of a vanished time) for cello and orchestra, as well as Spanish composer Manuel de Falla's El Sombrero de tres picos, Suite No 1 and El Sombrero de tres picos, Suite No 2.

With the enthusiastic feedback from the audience, the youth orchestra returned to the stage to play the popular Chinese music piece Jasmine Flower, Tico-Tico, which is an enduring international hit composed in by Zequinha de Abreu, and Spanish Dance No 1 from Manuel de Falla's opera, La Vida Breve.