The Eighth Music Festival of the Central Conservatory of Music opened on the weekend, featuring American conductor Steven Davis, Chinese violinist Liu Xiao (pictured) and the China Youth Symphony Orchestra, who premiered American-Chinese composer Chen Yi's Violin Concerto and American composer Steven Stucky's Son et Lumire.

The festival will present 16 concerts at the concert halls of the conservatory, its attached middle school, and the National Center for the Performing Arts, until Jan 3.

Besides students of the conservatory, a number of established musicians from the conservatory's faculty will also perform at the festival, including violinist Xu Weiling, soprano Ke Luwa and pianist Sheng Yuan.

More information is available at the website of the Central Conservatory of Music: www.ccom.edu.cn.

(China Daily December 24, 2008)