06 / NEWS
The 2024 Jianli Marimba Arts Festival Will Open with a Marimba Celebration at Sea
From July 29 to August 3, the 2024 Jianli Marimba Art Festival, co-hosted by Music Weekly and Jianli Percussion Art Center, will be held on the Ida Madou cruise ship, presenting a performance with the theme of the sound of the ocean.
Drum musician and Central Conservatory of Music percussion professor Zhang Jingli serves as the artistic director of this art festival. Photo provided by the organizer.
Marimba (marimba) is a widely popular and beloved melodic percussion instrument in the world. Jianli Percussion has successfully held 16 editions so far, two of which are themed on Marimba. The last art festival was held under the natural cliff in Qizhou District, Tianjin. This art festival will continue the characteristic of combining music with nature. It will depart from Shanghai by cruise ship, stop in South Korea and Japan, and participants will experience different regional cultures over five nights and six days. During the art festival, a total of 8 Marimba concerts and 8 Marimba master classes will be organized, and every student participating in the art festival will perform on stage.
The master classes organized by the art festival are taught by experts from more than 10 top music colleges in China and China National Symphony Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. The specially invited experts of the master classes include Luo Lin, a percussion teacher in the orchestral department of Xi'an Music College, Mo Hanyin, an associate professor in the percussion major of Sichuan Music College, and Gu Kai, the percussion department head of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Percussionists and Central Conservatory of Music percussion professors Zhang Jingli continue to serve as the artistic directors of this art festival.
The organizing committee of the art festival also carefully selected more than 160 Marimba ensemble sheet music, most of which have never been performed in China. These pieces are mainly in two-, three-, and four-part ensembles, with extremely high artistic value, and also take into account different levels of difficulty. The pre-intervention training of the concert mentors is also a highlight of this art festival. After the students register, the sheet music will be distributed as soon as possible, and the conductor of each concert will also track the students' practice online and give professional guidance and suggestions. Teachers and students will always maintain communication and interaction before the performance. The organizers hope to bring a colorful summer cultural life to music students in the form of the Maritime Marimba art festival.