A chance to conduct yourself

Those interested in music and performing arts were in for a treat at the Open Day Festival of the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Dec 22, which offered diverse cultural experiences, some innovative and interactive, and others that were nourishing for the mind.

One of the highlights was the Art Reinvented — NCPA Digital Artworks exhibition, which opened at the festival and will run until Nov 30 this year, offering an overview of the center's efforts in integrating art and technology.

There, visitors can indulge their musical fantasies like being a master conductor at an interactive video installation. It features a giant curved screen displaying a virtual orchestra and creating an immersive onstage experience, where participants can ascend a podium and pick up the baton.

After completing a brief tutorial session under a staff member's guidance, they can then wave the baton in sync with directional arrows on the screen and lead the virtual orchestra to perform excerpts of two classical pieces, the Chinese symphony piece Ode to the Red Flag or Beethoven's Symphony No 9.

"Many children were so eager to participate that even though some couldn't meet the height requirement, they were lifted up by their parents so they could take part," says He Meiling, a curator of the NCPA.

"While many participants were unfamiliar with conducting, they could gradually get a feel for it during the experience and begin to naturally wave the baton. Some even started moving their bodies along with the music."

Launched by the NCPA this year, the installation integrates motion-sensing technology and sound mapping. The virtual orchestra is not simply video footage — each member is a motion capture of a real musician, including detailed body gestures, facial expressions and the mouth movements of the choir singers.

Recordings of the two music pieces are provided by the music label NCPA Classics, which were captured during live performances at the NCPA concert hall. The installation adopts surround sound to re-create the rich timbre and spatial depth of the concert hall, providing the participants with an authentic experience.

"This reflects one of our initial intentions when planning this project — to allow people with no prior knowledge to easily experience the charm of conducting," she says.

"We all know that the conductor plays a pivotal role in a choir or an orchestra, guiding the dynamics, tempo, and the nuances of a piece. We've worked to incorporate all these different gestures into the installation."

The exhibition includes a range of artworks that seek to reinterpret performing arts genres, such as music, dance and traditional Chinese opera, with digital technology, which allows viewers to interact with art and even take part in creating personalized pieces.

Other works include an installation co-created by artist Fei Jun and psychologist Liu Zhengkui that offers a personalized music therapy experience by detecting users' emotions, interactions with the NCPA's virtual employee Art Goose, and a digital screen that allows users to paint Peking Opera makeup and display video excerpts in accordance with the role painted.

"With the core idea that art has endless possibilities, this exhibition aims to present the NCPA's work in performing arts through technological formats," says Sheng Lei, another curator from the NCPA.

"All content in the exhibition hall is digital and interactive, and at the same time, we showcase content from our original productions enhanced by technology. Each project offers in-depth participation and personalized experiences."

Themed "Art for the People, Three Locations in Same Splendor", the Open Day Festival celebrates the 17th anniversary of the NCPA's inauguration, and the first year of the center as a cultural institution of three sites — the NCPA, the Beijing Performing Arts Centre and the NCPA Taihu Stage Art Centre.

With a total of five sessions offering free online booking, the three sites hosted 15 performances and more than 50 cultural activities.

On the day, visitors could attend a variety of live performances. The traditional Chinese performances included xiangsheng (cross-talk), pingshu (storytelling), yangge (a type of Chinese folk dance) from Shaanxi province, and folk songs and dances from Yunnan province.

At the NCPA concert hall, the morning sessions featured two concerts of traditional Chinese orchestra and the afternoon saw two symphony concerts. Visitors could encounter performances of a jazz quartet, a children's choir and flash mob dances in the NCPA's public areas.

They could also attend screenings of recorded stage productions, browse products at the book market and cultural creative merchandise market, and listen to experts sharing their thoughts in panel talks. A session highlighted the theater works written by Nobel Prize in literature laureate Mo Yan, who also held a book signing on the day.

For those who could not attend the festival in person, the NCPA also launched an online program in the evening, recapping the festival's highlights and bringing on an online chorus and orchestra concert.

"For the NCPA, 2024 marked a milestone as it became an organization of three sites, which are unique in their positioning and operations," says Zhu Jing, vice-president of the NCPA.

"Upholding the goal of serving the people, cultural confidence, openness and inclusivity, integrity and innovation, we have been introducing a broader variety of cultural and artistic offerings, meeting the demands of audiences and the market."

Over the past 17 years, the NCPA has hosted around 14,000 performances, produced 112 original productions, as well as organized around 650 exhibitions and 15,000 art popularization activities.

In the month or so following the festival, the China NCPA Orchestra, China NCPA Chorus and NCPA resident singers are hosting multiple concerts. The NCPA Chorus celebrated the 15th anniversary of its founding on Dec 8.

Jiao Miao, the chorus' resident conductor, says that the chorus has staged 73 opera productions with more than 1,600 performances, giving young artists a platform of endless potential to consistently improve themselves and exercise their creativity.

"When December approaches each year, all staff members of the NCPA enter a state of excitement, frenzy and anticipation, because we have all kinds of events to celebrate the anniversary and the upcoming New Year," Jiao says.

"It is amid such a joyous and cheerful atmosphere that we are bringing a lineup of events, with the hope that audience members from all walks of life can come to the NCPA and experience the brilliance of stage art."