2026 Beijing Traditional Music Festival will kick off, focusing on folk song inheritance and innovation

China News Service, Beijing, October 5 (Reporter Ying Ni) The 2026 Beijing Traditional Music Festival with the theme of "Making Folk Songs Alive" will kick off at the China Conservatory of Music in the golden autumn of October. A series of activities will be carried out from October 13 to December 4.

This year's music festival focuses on Chinese folk songs, setting up theme performances, tours, inheritance workshops, forums and other sections, and launches the "Yansheng" collection of vocal works adapted from Chinese folk songs and exhibition of results. 15 theme performances, 3 tour stops, 11 inheritance workshops and a series of special forums will be launched from multiple dimensions such as stage presentation, talent training, inheritance practice, work creation and academic research.

The theme performance will present the rich and colorful artistic forms of Chinese folk songs from different dimensions: traditional songs rooted in the countryside and carrying regional cultural memories, as well as teaching and talent training achievements accumulated over a long period of time in professional colleges and universities. It will not only present the distinctive folk song traditions of different ethnic groups and regions, but also focus on the innovative expression of traditional folk songs on the contemporary stage.

The tour will further expand the communication space of the music festival, allowing folk songs to go beyond campus and meet more audiences in different cities.

The inheritance workshop puts inheritance into concrete practice. Folk song inheritors and representative singers go to campus and communicate face-to-face with young students. From language, voice, accent to style control, through demonstration, explanation and practice, they pass on those singing experiences and cultural connotations that are difficult to completely record on music scores to the younger generation, and promote the connection between folk inheritance and professional music education.

The special forum will conduct exchanges and discussions around topics such as folk song inheritance, education and teaching, stage performance, adaptation creation and contemporary communication, explore practical issues in the contemporary inheritance and development of folk songs, and provide a professional exchange platform for folk song talent training, creative practice and communication development.

As a key content of this music festival, "Yansheng" collects and performs vocal works adapted from Chinese folk songs. Based on the traditional folk songs of various ethnic groups in China, it promotes the integration of traditional folk song resources into contemporary vocal music creation through collection of works, professional selection, rehearsal practice and stage presentation.

This music festival is hosted by the Beijing Municipal Education Commission and hosted by the China Conservatory of Music and the Beijing Musicians Association.