The 23rd Macao International Music Festival (MIMF) will be held here between October 9 and November 8,which will feature performances by world-renowned artists, Macao' s Cultural Affairs Bureau announced Tuesday.

This year's festival embraces opera, symphonic, choral and chamber music, as well as contemporary, folk, pop, fusion and jazz music, which will be presented by artists from United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal, the United States, Argentina, Venezuela, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Chinese mainland and Macao SAR, according to the bureau.

Headlining and opening the program of the MIMF is the Macao Orchestra's The Butterfly Lovers Concert, performed in commemoration of both the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China and the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Macao Special Administrative Region.

The German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of its Principal Conductor Christopher Poppen, will bring the symphonic program of the festival to an end.

This year the festival also features fusion music, with the American group Flexible Music and the Berlin-based contemporary jazz Ensemble "Link Together" performing on October 20.

The Cultural Affairs Bureau said that the festival will be accompanied by workshops and conferences with the aim of stimulating public interest in the arts.

(Global Times July 22, 2009)