Summer classics

A poster for this year's MISA Photos: Courtesy of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

This year's MISA sees collaborations across continents and musical genres

Since it was founded in 2010, the MISA (Music In the Summer Air) annual classical music festival has focused on cross-border collaboration between artists from a wide range of genres, both within and outside the world of classical music.

For as long as two weeks every July, each MISA fuses classical music with animation, folk, pop and jazz. This year, social media has been added to the mix.

WeChat Symphony

The WeChat Symphony formed one section of MISA's opening concert last Friday. Composer Tan Dun asked audience members to follow his WeChat account and download a voice recording of him singing the melody of "Long Li Ge Long," a well-known song from traditional Chinese opera.

At the concert - which was relocated to the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (SYO) on Fuxing Road Middle from Pudong Double Tower Plaza in Pudong New Area due to rain - Tan asked audience members to play the recording en masse and sing along to it, while at the same time the SYO played an accompanying piece composed by Tan.

"The piece has never been played together with a full symphony orchestra before. It was a significant performance, as it involved professional musicians, ordinary audience members and a popular social media platform, which was turned into a musical instrument. The Internet is interactive, social media is interactive. I believe classical music should also be interactive," Tan said.

The symphony was also a birthday present for Tan's good friend, Yu Long, the artistic director of the SYO and MISA who invited Tan to join this year's event.

Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov, who also performed at the opening concert, told the Global Times that the piece created "a mysterious sense of harmony."

East and West

Vengerov and British trumpet player Alison Balsom played works with Chinese elements at the concert. Vengerov played Tambourin Chinois, Op.3, a composition written in 1910 by Austrian-born violinist and composer Fritze Kreisier. The idea for the piece came to the composer after a visit to the Chinese theater in San Francisco.

Balsom played Eternal Joy, the latest work by Chinese composer Cheng Qigang that was specifically created for trumpet. The piece shares its title with an important qupai (leading tune) in Kunqu Opera. The tune is delicate and graceful, yet also has an unyielding, instantly identifiable character.

"Joy, tension and release … this work indeed contains colorful emotions," Balsom told the Global Times. "It includes traditional Chinese melodies and also covers abundant techniques for the trumpet soloist. It is really a wonderful meeting between East and West."

Another MISA concert on Tuesday, Dame Evelyn Glennie & Shanghai Chinese Orchestra (7:30 pm, Pudong Double Tower Plaza) brings together Scottish percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and players of various traditional Chinese instruments from the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, including pipa (a two-stringed bowed musical instrument), banhu (a two-stringed fiddle with a coconut resonator and wooden face) and bamboo flute.

Profoundly deaf since the age of 12, Glennie became one of the world's most innovative percussionists, and has won two Grammy awards. She also took a lead role in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

She will perform The Shaman, a newly written piece by Chinese composer He Zhiyang. The composer said he has always been fascinated with indigenous cultures and the belief systems surrounding shamans. He likened the role of the musician to that of the shaman, mending souls by connecting people to supernatural realms.

The Shaman consists of three movements, Ritual, Fantasia-Nostalgia and Fire Dance. Glennie will have a marimba solo in the second movement.

Swedish symphony

Another highlight during this year's MISA comes from Swedish musician Jens Lekman, who will be accompanied by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Lekman's music is guitar-based pop which features samples, strings and witty lyrics.

At the two shows Friday and Saturday (7:30 pm, Shanghai Urban Music Lawn on Yan'an Road East), Lekman will work with a symphony orchestra to perform some of his songs, with arrangements by American composer Van Dyke Parks.

"I've been a huge Van Dyke Parks fan since I was a teenager. Working with him really blew my mind," Lekman told local media. "Actually, I was listening to the arrangements the other day and they sound like classic symphonies, masterpieces with some annoying guy singing in the background. I'm going to ask the sound guy to turn down my voice during those songs."

For tickets, call 4008-210-522 or visit http://www.misa.org.cn/.