CPO and me, 14 years of growing together

Photo provided to China Daily

On beethoven's back

National orchestra to play Latin music

In October 2002, Yu conducted the orchestra together with 900 additional musicians to perform Mahler's Eighth Symphony to realize the real "Symphony of A Thousand". I was terrified that someone would fall off the stage but, thank goodness, they made it, nobody fell and the show was a huge success.

On May 7, 2008, I was one of the few Chinese reporters seated in Vatican City's Paul VI Audience Hall to witness the CPO playing for Pope Benedict XVI.

China and the Vatican has no diplomatic relationship. When Mozart's Requiem was echoing through the packed hall of 7,000 people, it was a landmark for the CPO as well as China's musical history.

In 2009, one of the world's most influential classical music magazines, Gramophone, listed the CPO among the world's "top 10 most inspiring orchestras".

Yu, now 50, is no longer the young man he was when I first met him all those years ago. But the CPO still doesn't have its own hall. They moved from the National Library and borrowed space from the Beijing Exhibition Center.

More than 30 orchestras have been founded throughout the country in the last decade. And many enjoy more funding from the government than the CPO.

The amount the government will give to an orchestra has little to do with the group's quality or reputation. It has much more to do with how intimate the personal relationship is between the head of the orchestra and a certain official.

A lot of Western classical maestros, from Sir Simon Rattle to Lorin Maazel, say that China is the future of classical music. They've come to this conclusion after learning that millions of children are learning to play the piano or violin, inspired by stars such as Lang Lang and Li Yundi.

They don't know parents send their children to learn instruments only because it gives them extra points when they apply for higher education. They don't know a violinist with the CPO can only earn 5,000 yuan ($800) a month, the starting wage of a white-collar job in Beijing.

They don't know the boom of classical music in China is just a bubble. Regulars to classical music concerts are only a small group in big cities.

But I thank my bosses for giving me this job where I have had the opportunity to go to concerts, enjoy music, talk to maestros from around the world and witness how Chinese orchestras have struggled to develop. I feel lucky to have grown together with the CPO. It has many "firsts" in China's music history and keeps going.

On July 19, the CPO will make its BBC Proms debut, launching this year proms' global orchestra series. It is another first for the group.

Happy birthday CPO, and may we celebrate many more.

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