Celebrating 15 harmonious years

He Rui was relieved that he could rehearse again with the Guangzhou Symphony Youth Orchestra after finishing zhongkao, the grueling senior high school entrance exam. The top-tier, free-to-attend youth orchestra was created by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra in 2011, the same year the 15-year-old was born.

To commemorate the orchestra's 15th anniversary, a packed welcome-home reunion event and a sold-out concert were held on July 23 and 24 at the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra complex and the neighboring Xinghai Concert Hall. For over a decade, more than 2,000 students have been part of this unique orchestra and its affiliated elementary and junior programs since Yu Qikeng, former president of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, turned a formative idea into reality.

The July 23 reunion event was held in the fully lit grand rehearsal hall where all full-ensemble rehearsals take place. Alumni dressed in colorful attire joined current members who wore purple T-shirts featuring a "GSYO" monogram. With the youngest being just 12, nearly 90 percent of the orchestra members are still in middle school. Yu, gray-haired and in a black orchestra T-shirt, was seldom left alone, as groups of boys and girls asked him for photos.

Since July 2011, the youth orchestra and its joint programs have been enhancing music education among young school students. They have trained local youth in and near Guangzhou with a classical repertoire in a full orchestral setting guided by senior musicians from the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra.

Among the alumni, there are violinists who now hold PhD degrees in biomedical science in Bad Nauheim, Germany, and international relations in Boston, the United States. There are also woodwind and brass musicians who are in MBA programs in Chicago or working as investment bankers.

"Before joining the orchestra, I had never been a true music lover," says Long Junxiang, who was one of the earliest members of the youth orchestra.

In the summer of 2011, Long auditioned and became a member while still in sixth grade. She has kept playing as a second violinist throughout her years in middle school and her eight years at Sun Yat-sen University's Zhongshan School of Medicine — 15 years in total.

"I've developed a deep connection with music during the countless rehearsals. The program led me into the vast world of a musical life," adds Long, who has also found a passion for chamber music recently. Joined by three orchestra members at the reunion event, she performed a moving first movement from Felix Mendelssohn's String Quartet in A Minor, Op 13.

To enter the program, students' families don't pay any tuition fees, which were previously covered by government funding. Despite this, the training is actually more rigorous than other extracurricular orchestral programs. The students, selected from thousands of applicants, need to learn fast and bring out their best.

Over the years, under its music director and established conductor Jing Huan, the youth orchestra has performed a classical symphonic repertoire from Richard Strauss' Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche to Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird Suite, as well as subtle contemporary works by renowned composer Chen Qigang. The program has attracted collaborations from celebrated artists like cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Wang Jian, composer Tan Dun, conductor Yu Long, and pianist Zhang Haochen.