Shanghai will host some big-name artists from all over the world at an upcoming music festival, with the premiere of new compositions and arrangements.

Music in the Summer Air, or MISA, is a festival held by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, which will take place from Monday to July 15.

The 24 live concerts and an extensive collection of other music events around Shanghai will feature artists and ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, cellists Wang Jian and Qin Liwei, violinist Ning Feng, pianist Zhang Haochen, harpsichordist Fabio Bonizzoni and the Makoto Ozone Jazz Quartet.

A vintage program card in the archives of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra shows that Mario Paci, then director of the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra, conducted the orchestra and played a concert at Hongkew Park, now known as Lu Xun Park, on a summer evening in 1926.

The program card is the earliest documentation of summer outdoor concerts in Shanghai, says Zhou Ping, director of the orchestra.

"If we count from that concert, the tradition of summer outdoor concerts has carried on for almost a century in Shanghai."

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is celebrating its 145th birthday this year and its 15th installment of the MISA festival.

"The orchestra has come a long way, following the development of urban civilization in Shanghai. Step-by-step, we have helped to bring people and music closer, which has become an indispensable part of everyday life in the city," Zhou says.

MISA, jointly hosted by the orchestra and the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, is a cross-genre music festival centered on classical music committed to integrating it into the urban lifestyle and cultural scenes.

This year, in addition to performances in the concert hall and chamber hall at the Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall, the MISA program also includes seven free open-air events, five cultural talks and 13"Across the City" activities, which will see musicians performing at landmarks around the city.

The opening gala concert will take place on the main stage of the Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall on Monday under the batons of four conductors — Yu Long, music director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Yang Yang, Huang Yi and Sun Yifan — performing with some of the most celebrated Chinese soloists in the global music scene.

The New York Philharmonic, in its long-term strategic partnership with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the MISA festival, will be returning to Shanghai with the full orchestra for the first time since 2019.

Music director Jaap van Zweden will conduct the orchestra in two concerts at the MISA festival. The first show on Tuesday will feature baritone Thomas Hampson, who will sing selections from Mahler's song cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

Also, a new composition titled Lumina by Nina Shekhar will make its China premiere at the concert. The young female composer has been praised as "tart and compelling" by The New York Times and a "rare composer who opens our ears a little wider each time" by the Chicago Tribune.

Some instruments that are less heard in symphony concerts, such as the harmonica, accordion and saxophone, will take center stage at MISA this year.

"I've waited for 10 years for this phone call inviting me to perform again in Shanghai," Gianluca Littera, a renowned Italian harmonica performer, says about his excitement for the concert with conductor Zhang Lu and string players of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra on July 5. Together they will present a free concert at the Shanghai Urban Music Lawn Gordon Jacob's Five Pieces for Harmonica and Strings, as well as some of the most popular film music by Ennio Morricone.

On July 15, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra will conclude this year's MISA with a concert celebrating the centennial commemoration of martial arts novelist Louis Cha.

Yu Long will join hands with violinist Wang Jing and Chinese zhudi (bamboo flute) player Feng Tianshi to present Wu Xia (Martial Art Heroes), a new composition celebrating Cha's life and art, by Liang Haoyi, alongside violin concerto Hero by Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun.

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