Celebrating 15 harmonious years

At the reunion, members shared fresh memories of the 2023 tour at Barcelona's L'Auditori concert hall, where local audience members left their seats and danced to the orchestra's carnivalesque performance of Zequinha de Abreu's Tico-Tico no Fuba. Others remember the awe of performing under The Apotheosis of Music fresco ceiling at the Hungarian State Opera House, painted by 19th-century artist Karoly Lotz.

"It's not what you can learn from books," says Li Qingfeng, associate principal horn of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and a mentor of the youth orchestra for more than a decade.

"Plus, the orchestra also serves as a youthful ambassador for Guangzhou and China," Li adds. "Many of them have rehearsed together since primary school. Now, they are attending different middle schools on weekdays and playing Strauss and Shostakovich together on the weekends. How rare is that!"

The youth orchestra has been invited to tour the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, performing at prestigious venues such as Tokyo's Suntory Hall and Berlin's Konzerthaus Berlin. It also received a sought-after invitation from Martin Engstroem, founder of the world-famous Verbier Festival in the Swiss Alps. After watching their recorded performance, Engstroem wrote and invited them to perform in summer 2023, according to the orchestra.

"Just look at the Alps," Li recalls telling his horn students who visited Verbier and shared the stage with renowned cellist Wang Jian for Chen Qigang's Reflet d'un temps disparu. "Now you see why Richard Strauss wrote for 20 horns on and off the stage in his An Alpine Symphony."

In many respects, the youth orchestra's 11 musical seasons and tours since 2015 are its distinct features, but due to some inevitable financial difficulties, the orchestra has not toured overseas since 2024.

However, talent cannot be ignored. At the July 24 concert at Xinghai Concert Hall, the orchestra played with panache before an appreciative audience. Featuring Finnish composer Jean Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op 47, the orchestra collaborated with 18-year-old violinist Zhang Aozhe, who rose to fame after winning the 58th edition of the Premio Paganini International Competition in 2025.

On stage, both Zhang and music director Jing Huan paid special tribute to individual student musicians who played brilliantly under pressure that evening. "This is not just a concerto, but a symphonic work," said Jing, speaking of Sibelius' violin concerto. "It's a real testament to the tenacity of this youthful group, and it's simply astonishing that a group of serious musicians entering diverse college majors are playing Sibelius on stage."

The student musicians demonstrated their versatility by opening the concert with the heroic tone poem Finlandia, written by Sibelius around 1900. Then, in the second half, they brilliantly displayed the magical elements in selections from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and the frantic absurdity in the Allegro movement from Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No 10 in E Minor.

After the Guangzhou concert, the orchestra toured Zhuhai and Dongguan in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, showcasing the same program, although typhoon precautions canceled their performance at Shenzhen Concert Hall. The anniversary will come to a grand finale at the Macao Cultural Center in September, as youth orchestras from Guangzhou and Macao stage a joint concert.

He, a flutist in the orchestra and a student from Guangzhou Tieyi Middle School, did not make it to the concerts this time. But back in April, he wrote a four-minute composition on his computer and posted it online. The work, titled Five Thousand Years of Chinese History, attracted 3 million views within one week.

Tens of thousands of likes and comments filled up He's account. The musically talented student had to write a comment to calm his fans: "I've banned myself from social media before the exam (in June). Everyone has been so generous toward my work. I shall return."

And he did. After the big test, in which he scored 721 out of 810, he posted new works for his flute and his home piano.

After all, as cellist Yo-Yo Ma said, this youth orchestra is nurturing citizens of the future. In early January 2020, Ma performed at various Guangzhou landmarks for the public, joined by both the youth orchestra and the affiliated junior and elementary ensembles. This summer, auditions are underway for the new 9 — to 19-year-old members of this legendary group.

The author is a freelance writer for China Daily.