Remembering Xiao Youmei

To mark the 70th anniversary of the death of Chinese music educator and composer Xiao Youmei (1884-1940), a bronze statue of Xiao was recently erected at the Beijing Concert Hall by the Central Conservatory of Music, China National Symphony Orchestra and China Symphony Development Foundation.

Having earned his doctorate in Germany, Xiao founded China's first institute of higher education in music, the former National Conservatory, in 1927 in Nanjing.

Xiao was also one of the first Chinese composers to use Western composition techniques. He composed more than 100 songs and a number of symphonic and chamber music pieces.