The Beijing Forum for Symphonic Music 2025 opened on Wednesday at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) with the theme "Diversity Ignites Brilliance, Pioneering Elevates Excellence."

As one of the three major forums of the World Association for Performing Arts (WAPA), the event brings together more than 300 representatives from over 190 performing arts organizations across 30 countries and regions, charting a new chapter for global symphonic music development.

Wang Ning, president of the NCPA and chairperson of the WAPA, said in his keynote speech that as the external environment continues to evolve and new technologies advance rapidly, symphonic music is showing new characteristics and trends. Performances and exchanges remain vibrant, while the empowering of new technologies is creating fresh possibilities for new performance scenarios as well as new challenges. 

Wang added that symphony audiences are becoming more artistically discerning and younger, and that education and talent-training systems in the field are steadily improving. "The development of symphonic music cannot be achieved without strong support from the society," he said.

Throughout Thursday's sessions, performing arts institutions from around the world exchanged views on four key topics: arts festivals and performance seasons, symphonic music in the digital age and its intelligent development, the localization of symphonic music, and making symphonic music more interdisciplinary and diverse.

The forum will conclude on Friday with the release of the "Beijing Consensus" at the closing ceremony.