Celebrated conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Berlin Philharmonic kicked off an international music festival in Northwest China's Shaanxi province recently.

The 17th Xi'an International Music Festival, opened on Nov 20 in the provincial capital Xi'an, and will run for two months.

Dudamel and Berlin Philharmonic performed American composer Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No 1 at the Xi'an Concert Hall as the opening performance of the festival, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the great composer's birth.

Their performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No 5 in the second half also received thunderous applause.

"This was the most anticipated concert of the year for me," says Mao Xiao, an undergraduate studying in neighboring Sichuan province.

She traveled three hours by train and waited six hours to get a ticket.

The music festival will see more than 500 artists from 16 countries to give around 30 performances.

Participating musicians include Croatian pianist Ivo Pogorelich and Italian baritone Leo Nucci.

Besides concerts, the festival will also see a series of activities such as lectures, to bring classical music to common people.

The first festival was held in 2002. And, so far, more than 370 performances have been organized, and over 6,400 artists from across the world have participated.

The event has become one of the most influential music festivals in central and western China.