The New York concert attracted an audience of about 30,000. [China Daily]

 

MISA has also invited actor Pu Cunxin to give a lecture on music and drama, writer Yu Qiuyu to talk about music and literature and oil painter Wang Xiangmin to share his views on music and fine art.

It's a pity, Yu could not bring the concerts back to Fuxing Park and could not find an ideal alternative. Hence, a 50-meter-long, 30-meter-wide and 10-meter-high huge tent is being constructed at the corner of the crossing of Huaihai Road and Fenyang Road.

It is not that simple to have an orchestra playing outdoors, according to Yu.

"The summer is scorching and humid both in Shanghai and Beijing and the orchestra would find it hard to concentrate without air conditioners.

"And without good acoustic equipment, you cannot really assess the sound, texture and balance of an orchestra at an outdoor amplified concert," he adds.

Yu sounds more comfortable with the venue of the Audi On Stage summer concert in Beijing.

On Aug 24, Yu will conduct the China Philharmonic Orchestra at the Temple of Heaven. Lang Lang will play Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, the Central Park piece, and Broadway singers Debbie Gravitte, Christiane Noll and Doug LaBrecque will perform popular musical arias.

"Temple of Heaven is a great location. The concert here will be a dialogue between East and West and between history and the contemporary," says Tu Song, program director of Beijing Music Festival, who is also assisting Yu to produce the Audi On Stage festival.

But it too has problems. As an important historic venue, it is difficult to get permission to perform there from the Beijing municipal government and it is impossible to return there every summer, Tu says.

Inspired by Tanglewood and the New York Philharmonic's other summer residency at the Vail Valley in the Colorado Rockies, Yu opened an international summer music academy in 2005, at the Butterfly Valley, a 40-minute drive from Guangzhou, Guangdong province. It was the first professional summer academy in China.

Dutoit served as its music director. The academy aimed to provide young talent from both China and other Asian countries with a unique opportunity to make music with world-renowned artists such as Dutoit, Chantal Juillet and Kirill Gerstein.

The academy did well in the first three years when the provincial culture bureau of Guangdong provided financial support. But after the government canceled the budget in 2008, the academy had to close down. Dutoit, Juillet and Gerstein then moved to Shanghai this summer with Yu.

Yu is known not only for his conducting but his wide network and personal relationships in the music world and in government.

Wray Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of Armstrong Arts Ltd, which is collaborating as executive producer for 2010 MISA, tells China Daily, "In the past 12 years since I first visited China, the Western classical music scene has grown at an unbelievably fast pace and Yu is always behind the great classical music events."

"People always say we should promote Chinese culture, but in my eyes most of what we send aboard is only 'Chinatown culture'. I don't say Chinatown is not good, I love Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, but that cannot represent all Chinese culture today.

"Classical music is the mainstream culture and we should let Westerners know that we have such great soloist as Lang Lang, outstanding orchestras as well as unique festivals that draw large appreciative audiences," Yu says.