Sunset at Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China (Photo: Benjamin Chris via Unsplash)
BEIJING (AP) — China’s first classical music festival since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic is featuring musicians from the former epicenter of Wuhan. Zou Ye, a composer from the central Chinese city where the virus was first detected late last year, says Saturday night’s concert is part of an effort to work through frustration and helplessness on the way toward love and tolerance and, hopefully, some meaning to what he calls “nature’s tremendous revenge.” Musicians from the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra will present a choral symphony “To 2020” dedicated to the victims of COVID-19, co-written by Zou and two partners. More than 11 million people in Wuhan and its surrounding area underwent a draconian 76-day lockdown at the start of the pandemic.
