Beijing Music Festival Celebrates 12th Year of World-Renowned Classical Music From...

Beijing Music Festival Celebrates 12th Year of World-Renowned Classical Music
From October 10th - 30th, 2009
Festival to feature From Mao to Mozart tribute to legendary violinist Isaac
Stern

NEW YORK, July 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2009 Beijing Music Festival opens on
October 10th and runs through October 30th, celebrating its 12th year as a
preeminent classical music festival. The 2009 festival features a diverse
program of renowned musicians from around the globe, including China, Japan,
Germany, Australia, the US, Africa, Russia and the UK. Led by world-famous
conductor Long Yu, co-founder and Artistic Director of the China Philharmonic,
and founder and Artistic Director of the Beijing Music Festival, this year's
festival cements China's role at the forefront of classical music in the 21st
century.

The festival gala will open with Verdi's Macbeth, featuring Finland's
Savonlinna Opera Festival and the China Philharmonic - recently crowned one of
"the world's 10 most inspiring orchestras," by Gramophone magazine. Highlights
of the festival include an evening of chamber music with violinist Cho-Liang
Lin, pianist Jon Kimura Parker, violist Maxim Rysanov and cellist Mischa
Maisky, joined by famed violinist Vera Tsu; a symphony performance by the
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, featuring extraordinary violinist Sarah
Chang; and a violin concerto by Midori. Other featured performances include
Russian repertoire from the Sydney Symphony with conductor Vladmir Ashkenazy,
a classic concerti showcase featuring violin virtuoso Pinchas Zukerman, a
piano recital by the eminent Gary Graffman; and a three night celebration of
Haydn, honoring the composer 200 years after his death. Other variety programs
include a recital showcasing the emerging new talent of the 2009 Gold Medalist
Winner of the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and New
Contemporary works by New York's Bang on a Can.

The festival culminates in a 30th anniversary tribute to the late celebrated
violinist and master Isaac Stern, who visited China in 1979 to collaborate
with the China Central Philharmonic. The festival performance - From Mao to
Mozart - pays homage to the Oscar-winning documentary of the same name, which
followed Stern across China. Stern's landmark visit occurred three years after
the official end of the Cultural Revolution, and was critical to US-Sino
relations and for introducing Western classical music to the East. The
violinist's son David Stern will conduct the performance, which features Isaac
Stern's prodigy, internationally renowned cellist Jian Wang.

The festival's founder and Artistic Director Long Yu has appeared with a
prestigious list of orchestras and opera companies around the world, including
the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic,
National Symphony (Washington DC), Hamburg State Opera, Rundfunk
Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Radio Symphony Orchestra of Leipzig, Sydney
Symphony, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. This fall, Long Yu will be featured
in Carnegie Hall's festival Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: Celebrating Chinese
Culture.

For a complete program of the Beijing Music Festival, please visit
www.bmf.org.cn

For more information, please contact Pamela Murphy at Align Entertainment
Group:
pamela@aligneg.com or 212-334-6116

SOURCE Beijing Music Festival

Pamela Murphy, Align Entertainment Group, +1-212-334-6116, pamela@aligneg.com