Music gets new meaning

Children practice different musical instruments during a 10-day music camp in Beijing. The non-professionals will give a performance at the Beijing Concert Hall on Monday. FENG YONGBIN/CHINA DAILY

As for Hu, he not only wants to deliver the message that "music is a valuable and enjoyable aspect of life" but also hopes to "produce a new generation of musical ambassadors for the world".

Hu has had the idea of the summer camp and the orchestra for China's music learners for a long time.

His inspiration came from music projects such as El Sistema, the internationally celebrated program from Venezuela, which brings impoverished youth into musical ensembles to enrich their lives and promote social mobility.

"I want to make the project go beyond music. It's about self-realization, self-confidence and more," says Hu.

"By giving the young attendees the experience of learning and performing together in an orchestra, this project instills the values of tolerance, respect, discipline and compassion in the budding musicians," he says in the mission statement for the project.

Born into a musically inclined family in Shanghai, Hu is the third generation of his family to take up a career in music.

His grandfather taught him to play the violin and his parents both played in the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

Hu graduated from China's prestigious Central Conservatory of Music, then studied at Yale University and then at the Juilliard School in New York, where he received a master's degree.

The 60-year-old served as the music director and conductor of the Lincoln (Nebraska) Symphony Orchestra from 1993 to 1998, and with the Duluth (Minnesota) Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2000.

After returning to China in 2000, he served as music director and principal conductor of the Shanghai Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and China National Symphony Orchestra.

In 2009, he took the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra on a US tour, which included Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.