On August 9, the BPAFFC received a visit from Alun Huw Davies, Acting Managing Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) and his accompany, who came to discuss how to further promote music and arts exchanges between Beijing and the UK. The delegation has been in Beijing to hold a concert tour at the invitation of China’s National Center for the Performing Arts.
Zhang Qian, Executive Vice President of the BPAFFC, met with the delegation. She briefed them on Beijing’s progress as the national cultural center and center for international exchanges, and introduced the history, main functions, flagship events, and the new council of the BPAFFC. She said that the BPAFFC is willing to serve as a bridge and carry out practical cooperation with the Orchestra in culture and arts, thus making greater contributions to a closer China-Britain friendship.
Alun Huw Davies thanked Zhang for her hospitality and introduced the Orchestra’s crew composition, management model, and core concepts as well as the plan for its concert tour in China. He said that while staging premium performances, the Orchestra pays high attention to cooperation with local communities and educational institutions around the world, and hopes to strengthen mutual understanding among people from different countries and cultures by engaging in public interest activities and leveraging the role of arts in nurturing people and elevating their emotional landscape.
The two sides also shared the practices of Beijing and the UK in youth arts education, respectively, and conducted an in-depth exchange of views on how to promote bilateral arts exchanges between the two regions.
About the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1946 and was officially given the title “Royal” by the Queen in 1966. With the patronage of His Majesty King Charles III, it has been recognized as one of the world’s most open-minded, forward-thinking, and accessible symphony orchestras.
The Orchestra is proud to embrace a broad repertoire while also recording video game, film, and television soundtracks and working with pop stars. The Orchestra typically performs approximately 200 concerts a year, including those in London’s Royal Albert Hall, the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, and Cadogan Hall, with a worldwide live and online audience of more than 60 million people.
