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The BBC Concert Orchestra, led by Ellie Slorach Perform Huang Ruo's City of Floating Sounds at the Southbank Centre

Apr. 25, 2025

On April 30, the BBC Concert Orchestra, led by Ellie Slorach, will perform Huang Ruo's City of Floating Sounds at London's Southbank Centre. In this innovative performance, audience members choose from six different starting points around the city to connect with other participants and begin the experience. A special mobile app will select one of 12 strands of the piece to play aloud, and guide each person to follow their chosen route, layering with the music played by each audience member. The path that each person takes as well as the other audience members each person meets will change what is heard, meaning no two performances are the same.

The experience culminates in a full, live orchestral performance of the piece in the Royal Festival Hall, alongside compositions from Advaith Jagannath, whose work was performed as part of the BBC Proms Young Composer performance this year, and Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.

In addition, a recording of Huang Ruo's opera, Book of Mountains and Seas, was released on Naxos on April 25. The album features Gert Mortensen, Hsiao-Tung Yuan, and Michael Murphy, and Ars Nova Copenhagen, conducted by Paul Hillier. In Book of Mountains and Seas, Huang Ruo has taken the awe-inspiring imagery of four traditional Chinese creation myths and transformed their truly remarkable landscapes and creatures into vibrant music and drama. The work ultimately expresses the creation of the universe and the power of nature over destruction, including a warning of mankind’s responsibility to care for the environment. Stream/purchase the album here.


Huang Ruo/Book of Mountains and Seas, Scene 1: The Legend of Pangu

Additionally, Huang Ruo was recently awarded a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship.

To learn more about Huang Ruo, visit schott-music.com.

Huang Ruo
City of Floating Sounds (2024)
2.2.2.2-2.2.2.1-str(min 2.2.2.2.1)
42'

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