'Music from the Sea' brings Mid-Autumn melodies to Europe

Shanghai Chinese Orchestra's acclaimed original concert production Music from the Sea (Haishang Sheng Minyue) toured Malta, Sweden and Denmark from Aug 31 to Sept 10, in celebration of the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival.

The production, refined over a decade, was staged at historic venues including Malta's 18th-century Manoel Theatre, the Stockholm Concert Hall, which is home to the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, and the Copenhagen China Cultural Center, using contemporary Shanghai-style folk music to open a window into Chinese culture for European audiences.

The tour drew full houses and enthusiastic ovations across all three countries. Chinese ambassador to Malta Zhang Zuo, said at the concert on Sept 3 that amid a turbulent and shifting international landscape, "we use music to cross mountains and seas, symphony to seek resonance, and melody to celebrate peace."

The Times of Malta reported that "in the hands of accomplished musicians, their distinctive voices moved effortlessly between delicate, graceful melodies and passages of breathtaking speed and energy. Applause and cheers punctuated the evening, before the musicians were ultimately greeted by a standing ovation from the entire theatre."

The orchestra embraced cross-cultural exchange at every stop, adapting local classics and collaborating with local artists. In Sweden, erhu artist Dong Shiluan and Swedish violinist Semmy Stahlhammer performed China Moon, a work composed by Robert Wells after visiting the Great Wall, blending Eastern and Western bowed string instruments to highlight long-standing cultural ties.

As a flagship program for promoting Chinese music overseas, Music from the Sea has toured 52 cities across 15 countries and regions, performing at world-renowned venues including London's Barbican Centre, the Philharmonie de Paris, and the Berlin Philharmonie.