Promotional material of "music one world" concert Photo: Courtesy of Sina Weibo

The dean of the Shanghai Opera House Chen Zhong will launch a 12-hour-long online classical music concert featuring nearly 100 musicians and famous orchestras from more than 10 countries and regions on Earth Day, which will be held on Wednesday.

According to Chen, the performance will start with musicians in Australia and then move on to performers from Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Israel, Germany, the UK, France, Switzerland, the US and finally end with China. A total of 63 musicians from the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Suzhou Symphony Orchestra and other major orchestras from all over the world will perform Salut d'Amour from the British composer Edward Elgar during the livestream, Chinese news site The Paper reported on Monday.

Chen noted that planning for the event took less than 10 days, and that "99 percent of those invited said 'yes'" despite the differences in time zones.

"Their participation shows that they recognize Chinese classical music and how they hope to convey their inner love for music during these unusual times," Chen said, adding that many musicians in China are expecting to return to the stage soon.

The event will run from 8 am to 8 pm Beijing time on various Chinese audio and video platforms including the official account of Shanghai Opera House on Bilibili, Youku and Knews. Chen also said a three-hour abridged edition may also be released on some major music companies and websites in Europe.

After the 8-hour online event "One World: Together At Home" saw the participation of the world's top stars on Sunday, online music concerts are emerging as a trend in China. In addition, to this classic music concert, Chinese composer, songwriter and music producer Gao Xiaosong and singer Lap Lang launched a concert online on Monday and Sunday respectively to cheer people on and pay tribute to those who died during the pandemic.

"Some short performances and dazzling skills have been fully expressed during the epidemic, but how to hold truly high-quality online performances still needs to be explored," Chen noted.