The poster for the Project Spring Bird Photo: Xiao Qian

China's Generation Z classical music season kicked off Saturday with a concert in Shanghai aimed at creating a "revolution" among young Chinese classical musicians and boosting their careers.

On Saturday night, innovative music season Project Spring Bird kicked off with a concert performed by the Neo-Classical Chamber Ensemble, a band formed by a group of young Chinese artists together with young pianist Wang Yalun.

Unlike traditional music competitions across the country, this music season will no longer adhere to a certain competition format or stipulate a repertoire list for its competitors.

Instead, it will be the competitors themselves who decide on the process of the competition and the time for each of their performances.

For example, the concert was led and implemented by the group of young artists from its creative planning to the selection of the music pieces and the performance venue and even ticket checking.

As the opening concert contained jazz elements, the young decision makers arranged the performance for night time to cater to the vibe.

The idea for the unusual music season came from Chinese conductor Yu Long. As a high-profile Chinese conductor, Yu expressed that he didn't want young Chinese musicians to lose their enthusiasm for music while attending numerous competitions that all have the same format.

"I don't want to see young artists wear away the two most precious things, enthusiasm and self-confidence, because of various difficulties when they first start out."

The music season will consist of a number of individual performances by young artists playing both classical Western and Chinese masterpieces ranging from Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn to those of well-known Chinese musicians such as Ma Sicong and A Kejian.

"We insist on giving young musicians a high degree of freedom and as much support as possible, so that talented performers can concentrate on their performances instead of having to worry about some commercial and practical factors at the beginning of their pursuit of art, which may influence their understanding of music creation," said Yu.