Xi'an orchestra launches online streaming concerts

He adds that because of the viral outbreak, the orchestra has canceled or postponed all of its shows at Xi'an Concert Hall, home of the Xi'an Symphony Orchestra, since late January. On March 27, musicians of the XSO held the first online concert on Bilibili.

"With the first online concert, we've seen many fans, who may have never listened to classical music, become interested in the genre. It's an efficient way to get classical music closer to more people," Cao says.

Founded in 2012, the Xi'an orchestra has recruited musicians from around the country, mostly those younger than 30. To bring classical music closer to the public, it has been looking at different types of performances.

One of the musicians of the orchestra who performed during the online concert on Saturday is clarinetist, Tian Tiantian, who played two pieces: Homage to J.S. Bach for solo clarinet by composer Bela Kovacs and Clarinet Sonata in E Flat Major, Op 120, No 2(1. Allegro amabile) by Johannes Brahms.

"These two pieces are classic works and are played a great deal by musicians from around the world. I decided to play these two pieces after I visited the Shaanxi History Museum and saw the cultural relics displayed there. The colors and emotions expressed with the pieces matched my imagination about the cultural relics, which inspired me," says Tian, 27, who was born and raised in Xi'an and started to learn to play clarinet at the age of 8. He graduated from Xi'an Conservatory of Music and furthered his music study in Paris, France before he joined the Xi'an orchestra in 2016.

According to Qin Zhifeng, the manager of the orchestra, all the repertories performed during the When Museum Meets XSO series are very well-known and timeless classical music pieces, which are just like the cultural relics in the museums.