Arts fest announces 2024 extravaganzas

The China Shanghai International Arts Festival recently announced its plans for this year, including multiple shows by Germany's Berliner Philharmoniker and the Beijing People's Art Theater.

It also named 10 winning productions of the 2023 CSIAF Impact Index Awards and announced that this year's 23rd installment of the festival will take place from Oct 18 to Nov 17.

Internationally acclaimed companies, such as Austria's Wiener Philharmoniker, the London Symphony Orchestra, Germany's Munchner Philharmoniker, Russia's Bolshoi Theatre and Mariinsky Ballet, and Ballets de Monte-Carlo "have all received our invitation and are expected to perform in Shanghai in the autumn", says CSIAF Center president Li Ming.

"Aside from the main festival that takes place every year in the autumn, we have been actively exploring new possibilities to further enrich the artistic life in Shanghai throughout the whole year," says the center's deputy president Yang Jialu.

For example, the Berliner Philharmoniker will arrive in Shanghai in June, she says. It will present four symphony concerts at Shanghai Grand Theatre, led by its chief conductor Kirill Petrenko and pianist Yuja Wang. The company will have an exclusive residential program in Shanghai, which also consists of a series of chamber music performances and educational events. Tickets will be available by the end of February, Yang says.

One of the most esteemed theater companies in China, the Beijing People's Art Theatre, will present five productions during the upcoming festival, including its celebrated repertoire, The Tea House.

"Last year, we presented Old Fashioned Comedy at the festival. And the vivid performances by our leading artists, Li Youbin and Shi Lanya, won praise from audiences in Shanghai," says the company's president, Qin Xinchun.

"The play by Russian author Aleksei Arbuzov premiered at our experimental theater in 2019, and the Shanghai tour marked its first show outside of Beijing."

Since its founding in 1952, the Beijing People's Art Theatre has made landmark tours in Shanghai in 1961,1988, 2012 and 2014, she says.