The National Theater's acclaimed West-End play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, will be staged at the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center from May 24 to 27 during the 18th Meet in Beijing Arts Festival. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Italian musicians, including the Nous Quartet, pianist Axel Trolese and pianist Leonora Armellini, will also perform shows during the festival.

The piano, which evolved from the harpsichord in the early 1700s, was first invented by Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori. An exhibition titled The Italian Keyboard: From Cristofori to Modern Times, which will run from May 15 to June 2 at the China Millennium Monument Hall of Modern Arts, will display keyboards made in Italy between the 1700s and the 1950s, and instrument makers will be on hand to demonstrate the process of making keyboards.

Two other exhibitions, Art, Culture and Daily Life in Renaissance Italy, which will run from March 26 to June 22 at the Capital Museum, and Double Screen: A Survey of Artists' Film and Video in Italy, which runs from May 19 to 20 at the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, will showcase the development of Italian culture and art with a display of precious fine-art pieces from more than 10 institutions, including the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Rome and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.

Li Jinsheng, president of the China Arts and Entertainment Group, the festival's organizer, says that since 2000, the Meet in Beijing Arts Festival has attracted over 30,000 artists from 120 countries and regions. More than 4.2 million audience members have attended over the years.

Li also notes that 2018 marks the fifth year of the Belt and Road Initiative, which was first proposed by China in 2013, with the aim of building an economic and cultural network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along ancient trade routes.

Besides Italy, which "is an important country along the Silk Road", Li says, the festival will also feature international artists from countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland and Greece.