Project honors Austrian composer

The new season will also see premieres of some new commissioned works, including Phaenomena for the sheng and orchestra by Austrian composer Bernd Richard Deutsch, who was inspired by the traditional Chinese musical instrument, the sheng (a free reed wind instrument), Roosters of Dawn by composer Bright Sheng and The Butterfly Exchange by composer Huang Ruo.

According to Ren, the China NCPA Orchestra will expand by adding more musicians since the orchestra will have a new home, the Beijing Performing Arts Centre, where test runs will be conducted later this month.

Located in the east side of the capital, the new venue will become a new hub for music lovers.

"Now the China NCPA Orchestra has about 110 musicians. We will increase the number of our musicians to 170, meeting the demand for more performances at our three venues," says Ren.

The orchestra now performs at two venues: the NCPA and the NCPA Taihu Stage Art Center in Beijing's Tongzhou district.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn