Upgraded high-tech adjustments invigorate the great concert hall

The 91-year-old Shanghai Concert Hall is embracing more technology with a season of new shows starting this fall.

Announced this week, the program includes a 3D mapping projection on its iconic wall, a new multimedia residency concert presented by the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, and an immersive exhibit featuring traditional Chinese musical instruments.

The new residency show, “Traditional Music Rises from the Sea Horizon”, is an enhanced multimedia version of the concert. The Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, which performed the original concert in 2016, has performed it in more than 30 cities around the world.

The new version, starting in October, will make 100 performances over a year, which is quite rare for a concert of traditional music.

“Many spectators have told us that they want to visit Shanghai and China after our performances, so we are really delighted that the concert is now improved and returning as a residency show in the city,” said Luo Xiaoci, director. of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra.

She added that the new version will incorporate the characteristic designs of the historic building through multimedia and lighting technology.

The Shanghai Concert Hall is a rare surviving example of a Western classical building designed by Chinese architects in old Shanghai, originally built as a cinema in the 1930s.

Its iconic interiors include the huge dome, elegantly tinted with gold and ocean blue, classic Corinthian columns, and marble staircases, among others.

“China is a great land of poetry, so I hope every note in the show will be poetic,” Luo said, adding that a “clash” between traditional Shanghai-style Chinese music and classical Western architecture would be one. intriguing harmony.

Also starting in October, an eight-minute 3D projection mapping show is expected to transform the concert hall into flowing musical notes. The digital team behind the show performed a series of lighting shows around the city, including the 4D Countdown on the Bund.

An immersive art exhibition featuring traditional Chinese musical instruments will open on the 4th floor of the concert hall on September 21 and run for six months.

“An architecture that has stories to tell and a city that has warmth. The Shanghai Concert Hall will become a new hot spot where visitors, domestic and foreign, can comprehensively experience the city and regional culture, ”said Fang Liang, general manager of the concert hall.