Classical music lovers will have their pick of an international crop over the next few days.

The China Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra and the Austrian Festival Orchestra are all putting on New Year concerts.

Under the baton of artistic director of Yu Long, China Philharmonic Orchestra's concerts at Poly Theatre on December 31, January 1 and 2, continue a New Year's tone started three years ago.

The programme includes Liszt's "Les Preludes," Respighi's "Pines of Rome" and some popular operatic arias.

The featured soloists are tenors Marren Mok, Zheng Yong and pop soprano Cheng Fangyuan.

The Great Hall of the People's concerts on December 31 and January 1 will feature cross-cultural flavors between Chinese and British musicians.

Conductor Alexander Briger will share the baton with Tan Lihua, artistic director of the Beijing Symphony Orchestra.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has exhilarated audiences with performances by world renowned conductors and soloists since its foundation in 1932 by Sir Thomas Beecham.

The orchestra's versatility and reputation for artistic excellence are evident in its pioneering education work and community projects, its many acclaimed recordings and its trail-blazing international tours.

Its tour of China in 1956 was the first by a Western orchestra.

It will present a mixed programme including Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Award Algar, Vaughan Williams, Rossini Beethoven and Chinese composer Bao Yuankai and Fang Kejie.

British soprano Sara Dinan and Canadian tenor John Mac Master will sing from "Phantom of Opera" and then join with Chinese baritone Liao Changyong for the fourth movement of Beethoven's ''No 9 Symphony.''

Liao himself will sing some Chinese folk songs and his trademark aria from "The Barber of Seville."

The concert will also feature 26-year-old Shanghai-born Canadian violinist Yi-jia Susanne Hou.

What sets Hou apart from her many brilliant contemporaries is a style of playing that combines the excellent skill of today's best with the expressiveness of violinists 50 to 150 years ago.

Hou began learning the violin with her father at the age of four. At nine she was invited by the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto as a scholarship student.

Hou has had scholarships and fellowships at the Aspen Music Festival for nine summers, as well as The Juilliard School where she received her Bachelor of music as a student of Dorothy DeLay and Naoko Tanaka in 2000.

She then earned a Masters and completed the highly acclaimed Artist Diploma Programme in Juilliard with Cho Liang Lin and Naoko Tanaka.

She has left her mark in music history by capturing three Gold Medals with unanimous decisions at international violin competitions including Concours International Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud (France, 1999), Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition (Italy, 1999) and Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition (Spain, 1997).

The Austrian Festival Orchestra will play two concerts at the Haidian Theatre on December 30 and 31 to celebrate the New Year.

The image of Austrian Festival Orchestra is tightly connected with the traditional culture of Vienna, Salzburg and Munich.

The orchestra's performance is rich in Austrian features, interpreting the lively, brilliant and exquisite classic and post-romantic works in a passionate and bright style.

To listen to it playing Strauss' waltz is like watching a Viennese painting while the polkas remind one of Viennese Bonbons.

Since 1988, it has been to many countries including France, Spain, Canada and Switzerland, participating in more than 100 performances for music festivals and art festivals.

(China Daily December 25, 2003)