A conductor who's a one-man band

It is very rare for the conductor and percussionist to be the same person at a concert.

I don't think that when the Brazil percussionist and composer Ney Rosauro composed Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra, he expected one man would conduct the orchestra while he played the marimba, too.

The first ambitious person to do so is Li Biao (pictured right).

He will conduct Beijing Symphony Orchestra and play the most popular marimba concerto of all time on Friday. The concerto is superbly written for the unique timbre and virtuoso technical qualities of the marimba.

Under his baton, the orchestra will also play Wagner's Tannhauser overture and Beethoven's Symphony No 7.

The 41-year-old learned percussion at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Munich Conservatory. He is one of the few exceptional solo percussionists in the international music scene and his own band tours the world's most famous festivals.

7:30 pm March 16. Forbidden City Concert Hall inside Zhongshan Park, Beijing. 010-6559-8285.