Drumming to a global beat

A drumbeat can travel a long way — from the Amazon rainforest to a Chinese temple, from a concert hall to an outdoor stage.

This autumn, Beijing will hear percussion in all its forms as the 2026 NCPA Percussion Festival brings together Brazilian body percussion, traditional Chinese drums, contemporary concert works and some of the world's leading percussionists.

Running from Sept 25 to Oct 6 under the theme "Striking the World", the festival will present eight performances across the National Centre for the Performing Arts and the Beijing Performing Arts Centre, offering a broad look at an art form that is often associated with rhythm but extends far beyond it.

The festival opened on Friday, bringing together more than a dozen young prizewinning percussionists, including Bai Weiqi, third prize winner at the 68th ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Germany, and marimba player Zhang Boyang, the second prize winner at the 8th World Marimba Competition.

They will perform alongside percussion principals from the NCPA Orchestra, the Macao Chinese Orchestra and the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra.

At the center of the festival is Li Biao, founder and artistic director of the event and one of China's most prominent percussionists. Known internationally as a leading figure in Asian percussion, Li will appear both as a performer and conductor, leading several of the festival's concerts.

The festival will also venture beyond the conventional concert format.

On Saturday, Barbatuques, which performed at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics and contributed music to the animated film Rio 2, will make its Beijing debut with a concert named Amazon Rhythms.

Barbatuques is a Brazilian musical group best known for body percussion — making music with the human body rather than conventional instruments: clapping, finger snapping, chest and thigh slapping, stomping, vocal sounds and other body movements. Founded in Sao Paulo in 1995 by musician Fernando Barba, it has become one of Brazil's best-known body-percussion ensembles.

Chinese musical traditions will take center stage on Thursday. The concert titled Drums and Bells in Harmony will be staged at the Beijing Performing Arts Centre. Led by Li, the Beijing Chinese Orchestra will join percussion soloists to perform new works by six Chinese composers. From Drums and Bells in Harmony, featuring five large Chinese drums and orchestra, to the double-percussion concerto Phoenix Spreading Its Wings, the program will showcase the expressive range of Chinese percussion tradition. Festival Overture and Eternal Flame will further mark National Day and the 90th anniversary of the Red Army's Long March.

From Thursday to Saturday, three representative traditional drum ensembles recognized as intangible cultural heritage will perform outdoors at the Beijing Performing Arts Centre, bringing centuries-old Chinese rhythms into a contemporary arts venue.

Changshan war drums, one of China's four major drum traditions, will be performed by the ensemble of Zhang Shushe, a national-level inheritor of the tradition. There will be Ansai waist drums from northern Shaanxi province, and a drum ensemble from Xi'an, Shaanxi province, whose repertoire preserves a musical tradition dating to the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

The festival will also offer a family concert by the Li Biao Youth Percussion Group on Friday and a concert by the Li Biao Percussion Group on Saturday. The closing concert on Oct 6 will see Li conduct the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra in works including Tan Dun's The Tears of Nature and Bach's Harpsichord Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052.

The festival, founded in 2010, has grown from a niche event into one with a devoted following, Li says.

"For 16 years, we have brought some of the world's finest percussionists and ensembles to the NCPA," Li adds. "Each edition should present outstanding and creative works. That is the real value of a percussion festival."