Riding the waves of symphonic music

By Chen Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-18 09:55

Art and advertising have been closely connected for sometime now. Graphic designer Seb Jarnot drew up the Nike ads; musician Jose Gonzalez sang Heartbeat for Sony Bravia TV.

Art and advertising have been closely connected for sometime now. Graphic designer Seb Jarnot drew up the Nike ads; musician Jose Gonzalez sang Heartbeat for Sony Bravia TV; and Hong Kong movie director Wong Kar Wai made an ad film for Philips Aurea.

Next month in Shanghai, the China Philharmonic Orchestra and multi-media artists Bauhouse from Berlin will perform a 35-minute live commercial for carmaker Audi.

Bauhouse, that includes visual artist Fabian Grobe and sound artists Clemens Wittkowski and Arno Kraehahn, will stand on podiums and work the screens behind them from laptops while accompanied by the orchestra. The visual will comprise entirely of Audi related footage.

"I was so excited when I got the video that I decided to change my program to conduct this one," says Yu Long, artistic director of China Philharmonic Orchestra who will conduct Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in the second half of the concert at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center on July 16 and 17. The first half will have the Audi Symphony.

"I never imagined music, motion picture and advertising could be combined so naturally and comfortably. Yes, it is an advertising film, but the music sounds novel and inspirational and the video part is smartly shot and edited," says Yu.

"It's interesting to create music for cars. Audi represents a certain spirit and tradition of Germany and symphonic music is also a tradition of Germany. We are combining them in a novel way that we hope people will appreciate," says Clemens Wittkowski.

The Audi Symphony concert in Shanghai is not only the highlight event of celebrations to mark the company's 100th anniversary, but is also part of the 2009 Audi Summer Music Festival. The festival includes a series of music classes held in Peking University, Tsinghua University and the Communication University of China, through June and July.

It will also feature lectures by famous cellist Zhu Yibing, guqin artist Huang Mei, musicologist Xie Jiaxing, music psychologist Hu Tao and other experts in music.

The annual Audi Summer Festival is funded by the Beijing Music Festival Fund and the Audi Cultural Fund. The box-office earnings from every year's festival go to the Audi Young Musicians Plan that supports talented young Chinese musicians.