Beijing's Gateway to Music festival concludes with series of performances

The National Ballet of China and the symphony orchestra of the company gave a performance at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing on Aug 31, to mark the end of the Gateway to Music festival, one of Beijing's biggest arts festivals for children, which was staged during the summer vacation.

Under the baton of conductor Huang Yi, the symphony orchestra performed pieces including Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major), K. 525 and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48.

Dancers from the National Ballet of China performed extracts from Tchaikovski's classic Swan Lake, Crane Whisperer by the National Ballet of China and China's first original ballet production, the Red Detachment of Women also by the National Ballet of China.

Before the show, the audience watched performances by children who attended the 58-day-long Gateway to Music festival. The festival, first held in 1995, consisting of 11 mini-summer camps, 12 art lectures and 70 live performances, ranging from classical music and traditional Chinese folk music, to Peking Opera and dance, attracted about 100,000 people over the summer.

According to Xu Jian, the general manager of the Forbidden City Concert Hall, the festival also toured four other cities: Baoding; Hengshui; Tangshan in Hebei province, and Tianjin, this year, with the support of the Beijing Poly Theatre Management.