The United States National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) will perform at The National Center for the Performing Arts next Thursday and Friday.

Founded in 1931, the NSO takes part in various important national and international events and has played at presidential inaugurations and holiday celebrations.

The concerts will feature world-famous conductor Ivan Fischer, the founder of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. "Every concert is equally important. Each one feels like the most important one," he says. Fischer is impressed that Chinese people are interested in Western music and hopes to add China to his list of frequent destinations.

Violinist Leonidas Kavakos, who has worked with many big names, including the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra, will be in Beijing, too. Says Fischer: "He is one of the best, a great violinist and what is more important: an exceptional musician." Kavakos will play Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major Op 35.

Among the orchestra's Thursday's program will be Dvorak's Symphony No 7 in D Minor Op 70 and Western Skies by the American, Daniel Kellogg. Kellogg is still a stranger to most Chinese but Fischer describes him as "a painter who composes with a brush". "The result is a very atmospheric sound combination," he says. "You should listen to it as you would look at visual art."

Friday's concert will include Wagner's Overture to Die Meistersinger, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor Op 64, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 5 in E Minor Op 64.

7:30 pm, June 11, 12
The National Center for the Performing Arts, West of Tian'anmen Square, Beijing
8528-2222

(China Daily June 5, 2009)