Under the baton of Gilles Gambus, assistant to Mauriat, the orchestra will play a variety of his hits from the past four decades at Beijing's Great Hall of the People on December 7.

Similar to James Last and Glauco Mantovani, the music style of Mauriat is called "easy pop" or "instrumental pop." The first type describes a strand of easy listening that relies on light instrument-only arrangements of pop hits while the latter is purely an easy listening style, most often performed by orchestras, which may feature symphonic or big-band-jazz instrumentation.

Many instrumental pop recordings draw upon an already existing repertoire of traditional pop standards, as well as jazz and rock songs that can be adapted to fit the easy-listening style. This approach emphasizes the skills of the conductor and arranger, since the audience will likely be familiar with the melodies.

Mauriat is just such a talented and classically-trained arranger and conductor who knows well how to deal with the original music.

Though Mauriat himself left the stage in 1998 and will probably no longer tour, he still contributes his wonderful arranging and composing skills to the genre.

Never having toured the Chinese mainland, Mauriat visited Hong Kong and Taiwan several times. He also arranged and wrote a few pop songs for Chinese singers such as Olive Tree for Qi Yu (1984), No Other Choice But Parting for Huang Yingying (1985) and Song for Taipei for Tong An'ge (1986).

This time, the orchestra will play a few Chinese songs to treat local audiences.

Born from a family of classical musicians in France in 1925, Mauriat originally planned to follow in his ancestors' footsteps, beginning to learn classic music at the age of four and enrolling in the Conservatory in Paris when he was 10 years old.

As a teenager, however, he became infatuated with jazz and pop music, which made him stray from his initial ambition to become a classical pianist.

At the age of 17, he formed an orchestra and began touring concert halls throughout Europe. It was these concerts that attracted Charles Aznavour, one of the most renowned French composers and managers in the entertainment field, who hired Mauriat as an arranger and conductor.

Through Aznavour, Mauriat began working with a variety of French artists in the 1940s and the 1950s.

Mauriat's career as a composer and arranger started in 1962 when he scored the song Chariot, using the pseudonym of Del Roma. It soon became a big hit in Europe when British star Petula Clark sang it.

One year later the song was taken to the top of the US charts by pop singer Little Peggy March after its French lyrics were translated into English and it was retitled I Will Follow Him.

Mauriat's real success in the United States was sparked in 1968, when his hit work L'Amour Est Bleu (Love Is Blue), Luxembourg's entry in the 1963 Eurovision Song contest, stayed five weeks at No 1 on the Billboard and Cashbox charts.

Although Mauriat's popularity dipped in the 1970s and he only had two hit singles in the United States, Love in Every Room and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, he continued to sell respectably throughout the world, particularly in Europe, including Memories of Russia, Rhythm and Blues and A Touch of Paul Mauriat.

In the 1980's and 1990's, Mauriat led his Grand Orchestra to tour North and Latin America, Europe and Japan. The orchestra also made television appearances in several countries.

(China Daily November 25, 2002)