AI to bring Chinese color aesthetics to life in concert

If AI were to illustrate the complexities of traditional Chinese color aesthetics and translate them into music, what a unique experience that would create!

During the Labor Day holiday, the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra will offer audiences precisely such a technologically immersive concert.

Titled "Digital Splendor," the concert will focus on the theme of color and is China's first traditional music performance composed by artificial intelligence.

An AI composition generates diverse musical moods by drawing inspiration from scenes and artistic conceptions described in ancient Chinese poetry.

These inspirations are then paired with traditional instruments, including the sheng, bamboo flute, konghou, guzheng, ruan, erhu, and pipa, before being reinterpreted by musicians for the final presentation.

With contemporary musical arrangements that blend jazz, folk, heavy metal, and electronic styles, along with richly colorful costumes and lighting design, the performance breathes modern vitality into classical Chinese music through technological innovation.

On May 2, the orchestra returns to its roots with "Magnificent China," a five-movement tribute to the depth and brilliance of five millennia of Chinese civilization.

In the second movement, titled "The Landscape," audiences will be immersed in a vibrant soundscape enriched by a diverse array of ethnic instruments.

The experience continues in the third movement, "The Openness," where the indomitable spirit of the music shines through captivating concertos for bamboo flute, erhu, and pipa.

Performance info

Digital Splendour

Date: May 1, 7:30pm

Magnificent China

Date: May 2, 7:30pm

Tickets: 180-280 yuan

Venue: Cadillac Shanghai Concert Hall

Address: 523 Yan'an Rd E