Lineup revealed for Shanghai summer music festival

Photo: Courtesy of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (SSO) has announced the program for its 15th annual Music in the Summer Air Festival (MISA), which will mark the orchestra's 145th anniversary. The orchestra will host performances by visiting artists and ensembles from around the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Benjamin Appl, La Risonanza and Ning Feng. 

In addition to performances in the Concert Hall and Chamber Hall at the Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall, MISA also includes seven free Open Air events, five cultural talks and 13 "Across the City" activities which will see musicians performing at landmarks around Shanghai.

The festival opens on the main stage of the Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall on July 1 with the SSO performing a program featuring music by Chopin, Brahms, Strauss, Mendelssohn and more under the batons of the orchestra's music director Yu Long, Yang Yang, Huang Yi and Sun Yifan and with soloists Ning Feng, Wang Jian, Qin Liwei, Zhang Haochen and Serena Wang. 

A following night sees the return of the New York Philharmonic, which returns to Shanghai with the full orchestra for the first time since 2019. Jaap van Zweden will conduct the orchestra in two concerts of music by Mahler and Brahms with soloist Thomas Hampson on July 2 followed by Mozart and Copland symphonies on July 3.

On July 15, Yu and the SSO return to the main stage for the MISA closing concert, where they will perform Chinese composer Tan Dun's Hero Concerto from his Martial Arts Trilogy alongside the world premiere of Elliot Leung's Wuxia, co-commissioned by SSO, the Chengdu Symphony Orchestra and the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of famous novelist Louis Cha, who died in 2018.

"MISA allows every citizen living here and friends from afar to feel the vibrant music life of this city. It is a window to the world's music culture, as well as the 'musical entry point' for the world to reach Shanghai," said Yu.