Youth Music Culture
the Greater Bay Area
Youth Music Culture The Greater Bay Area, known as YMCG, is an annual education program and classical music festival that provides opportunities for young musicians in China to work with accomplished professionals. Since 2017, YMCG has become an essential component of music education for students in China.
Presented under the auspices of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province, YMCG was founded by the renowned Maestro Long Yu, who serves as chairman of the festival’s Artistic Committee.
Daniel Harding, Music Director
“I believe that any musician or artist should not only be technically proficient, but also be mindful of the power of their art and the need for it in their world. It is with this in mind that I invite people to participate in the first YMCG.”
The festival was founded in 2017 and held for six consecutive years with world-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma serving as artistic director. In 2023, it was expanded and renamed (previously Youth Music and Culture Guangdong); the festival has garnered national recognition, having won the China Music Arts Promotion Award. Having reached a higher level, YMCG now extends beyond Guangdong Province into the Greater Bay Area, deepening and extending its outreach, and reinforcing its original aspiration — to ensure that stories from China, the Greater Bay Area and Guangdong reach the four corners of the world.
In 2024, the British conductor Daniel Harding — Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and music director of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia — took the reins from Yo-Yo Ma as artistic director. Following the expansion, the festival is now co-organized by five internationally-renowned music music organizations in the Greater Bay Area: the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Xinghai Concert Hall, and Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra in Guangdong Province; the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra from the Hong Kong SAR, and the Macao Orchestra from the Macao SAR. The new YMCG continues to have its founder, Maestro Long Yu, heading its Artistic Committee, while Maestro Harding serves as music director until 2028.
At the inaugural YMCG in 2017, China’s Music Weekly heralded the event as “opening a new page in the Chinese symphonic world.” Since then, YMCG has attracted much international attention. Stories about the festival have been published on Strings magazine, The Violin Channel, The Strad, Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine (UK), and Limelight (Australia).
