Music at the journey's end

Chamber music is different.

Listening becomes as important as playing.

So does conversation.

Festival organizers hope those conversations continue beyond the stage. Audiences are encouraged to meet performers over coffee or during talks and workshops before hearing them perform later that evening.

"It's almost magical for someone attending their first classical concert," Shi says. "You realize musicians are ordinary people."

The opening concert will feature programs including Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly's Sonata for Solo Cello, Op 8, Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu's Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola and Czech composer Antonin Dvorak's Piano Quintet No 2 in A Major, Op 81, B 155. Musicians, including violinists Shen Danfeng and Liu Fanglei, pianist Shi, and cellist Chen, will perform at the opening concert.

The following concerts will present works including Divertimento in E-flat Major, K 563, Mozart's celebrated string trio for violin, viola and cello, Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Trio No 1 in C Minor, Op 8 and Piano Trio No 2 in E Minor, Op 67, and Beethoven's Violin Sonata No 9 in A Major, Op 47, Kreutzer in string quintet arrangement.

"It started as my own idea. Slowly, it became everyone's celebration," says Shi, when asked about the process of designing the programs.