A world of music

Lyu, 57, was born in Shanghai and studied conducting at the University of Arts in Berlin in 1988 after graduating from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

In the same year, he won the golden prize and "favorite conductor "award at the Antonio Pedrotti international conducting competition in Trento, Italy. Then, in 1991, he was appointed as the chief conductor of the Italian opera house, Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi, making him not only the opera house's first chief conductor from Asia, but also its youngest. In 2011, he returned to China and served as the artistic director of the National Center for the Performing Arts and the China NCPA Orchestra's chief conductor.

Lyu adds that among the performers of the concert held in Sanlitun are winners of China Youth Music Competition－Hummingbird Music Award, which is a competition and an award established in 2015 and is based on the German Music Council's Jugend Musiziert, the most well-known music competition for young performers in Germany, which was first held in 1963.

Winners of the two competitions visit each other's countries and are offered a week of training and the opportunity to perform.

Zhang Yong, the founder and organizer of the China Youth Music Competition－Hummingbird Music Award, says it aims to promote amateur music education, especially in chamber music, so applicants are not necessarily in full-time music training institutes.