Bridging continents in musical harmony

The distance between Beijing and Sao Paulo is about 17,500 kilometers. On Sept 3, it was measured instead in bows, breaths and beats.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, musicians from the China NCPA Orchestra, the resident symphony orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, joined the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra for a concert under the baton of conductor Zhang Xian that turned cultural exchange into a musical conversation.

At Sala Sao Paulo, home to the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, musicians from China sat alongside players from the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, forming one ensemble for a program that moved from a Chinese folk melody to Prokofiev and, finally, to the classic piece, Pictures at an Exhibition, which was originally composed as a piano suite by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1874, and was orchestrated by Maurice Ravel in 1922.

For Carlos Filipe Flor de Carvalho, a member of the local audience, the evening offered both a first encounter with a familiar name and a glimpse into a musical culture he wanted to know better.

"I feel very excited today," he said after the concert on Sept 3. It was his first time hearing Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No 2, a work he had encountered through reviews rather than live performance.

"It's been such an amazing experience," he said, adding that the music was "absolutely beautiful". Even without having heard the concerto before, he found it "very gentle and sweet".

The Chinese music that opened the program made an equally strong impression.

Asked whether he would seek out more Chinese music after the concert, he did not hesitate.

"Absolutely," he said. "I think China has an incredibly rich and wonderful culture, and I'd love to learn more about it."

His next step, he added, would be to look for more Chinese music online.

That sense of discovery was at the heart of the concert, which was part of the official program of the 2026 China-Brazil Year of Culture.

But rather than simply placing Chinese and Brazilian works side by side, the project asked musicians from both countries to become colleagues on the same stage and, for the duration of the concert, members of the same orchestra.

The collaboration was the latest chapter in a two-way exchange between the China NCPA Orchestra and the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, which has been a member of the Beijing Forum for Performing Arts since 2020, initiated by the NCPA.

The Brazilian musicians traveled to Beijing on Aug 22, where they joined their Chinese counterparts for a concert combining documentary footage of the Amazon rainforest with orchestral music, offering audiences in Beijing an immersive audiovisual experience.

Chinese composer Bao Yuankai's The Sun Comes Out, a spirited orchestral reimagining of a Sichuan folk song, brought the concert to a close. The melody carries the uncomplicated joy of a song meant to be sung aloud, while the orchestra gives it a sweeping, sunlit energy. This exuberant farewell sent the musicians and audience out on a note of optimism.

Less than two weeks later, the Chinese musicians arrived in Sao Paulo.

This time, on Sept 3, Bao's music opened the program. His piece, Bamboo-Flute Tune, from his orchestral suite Chinese Sights and Sounds, is based on a Jiangnan (the area south of the lower Yangtze River) folk tune. Its compact form and graceful melody offered listeners in Sao Paulo an introduction to a distinctly Chinese sound before the concert turned toward the European repertoire.

For Wang Yubing, principal trumpet and deputy managing director of the China NCPA Orchestra, the juxtaposition also raised a broader question: how can Chinese musicians bring their own identity to a repertoire largely shaped by Western musical traditions?

He answered that the two things do not need to be separated.

"As musicians, of course, we deeply respect Western musical traditions," Wang said. "But at the same time, we also bring our own sensibility, our understanding and our cultural background into the music."

That does not mean changing the music itself, he emphasized.

"We do not alter any notes of the classical works. We simply integrate our own cultural identity into the performance. That is the core of our interpretation."

The principle was tested immediately after Bao's Bamboo-Flute Tune, when violinist Tai Murray took the stage for Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No 2 in G Minor, Op 63.

For Wang, the most important point for the audience was not to arrive at the concert with preconceived notions of what Chinese music is supposed to sound like.

"You don't need to have prior knowledge of China or Chinese culture," he said, addressing Brazilian listeners who may be encountering Chinese music for the first time.

"All you need is to come with an open mind and an open heart. I believe you will truly fall in love with this music."

The concerto moves through sharply contrasting worlds: the lyrical and unsettled first movement; the introspective Andante; and the restless, rhythmically charged finale. Murray brought a supple yet concentrated sound to the solo part, while the combined orchestra responded with precision and flexibility.

The concert's second half turned to another work built around the transformation of one art form into another: Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, in Ravel's celebrated orchestration.

Inspired by paintings by Russian artist Viktor Hartmann, the work leads listeners through a gallery of imaginary scenes.

In Sao Paulo, the work acquired an additional layer. Two orchestras that had begun as visitors to each other's countries were now sharing one musical body.

Ravel's orchestration gave the ensemble a vast palette, from delicate woodwind colors to the increasingly imposing brass and percussion. By the final movement, the orchestra had reached a monumental scale, with the two groups of musicians sounding less like separate institutions and more like a single ensemble.

For Wang, working with the Sao Paulo musicians was one of the most striking aspects of the tour. Before coming to Brazil, he had heard recordings and read positive reviews of the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra. Hearing them in person, however, was another matter.

The two orchestras continued their performances in Sao Paulo on Sept 4 and 5.