Centenary compositions

After months Yang finished an 18-minute symphonic piece, titled The Fathers, in which he portrays his respect for the older generations who witnessed and contributed to the country's development.

On Thursday, the work made its debut at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and was performed by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor Yu Feng.

"It's a very personal piece because when I worked on it, the images of my father and my grandfather came to my mind. Many memories came back, such as old photos of my family and my grandfather, who died earlier this year, in his 90s," Yang adds.

In 1997, he enrolled to study at the middle school affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with musicians, including Deng Erfu and Ju Wenpei. In 2002, Yang studied at the conservatory's composition department, where he graduated in 2008. In the same year, he traveled to Beijing to further his study at the Central Conservatory of Music, where he gained his master's degree in art in 2011. Now, he works as a composer with the China National Symphony Orchestra.

The composer says the music piece was also inspired by his composition for dance drama, The Eternal Wave, which was adapted from a classic 1950s film of the same title. Revolving around a Communist telegrapher who works undercover to fight enemies, the dance drama, directed by Zhou Liya, premiered in 2018 and has been staged more than 100 times nationwide.

Yang is among four composers whose works were premiered during the concert at the NCPA in Beijing on Thursday.