The Western Classical Music Industry in Twenty-First Century China: A Dialectical Crescendo - Routledge Research in Music (March 2025）
Weida Wang
Music management has been a central part of my professional journey, shaping my work across artistic production, cultural research, and international collaboration. Early in my career, I served as Project Manager and Programme Curator at the Central Conservatory of Music Festival, and later joined the Beijing Music Festival, where I coordinated the China premiere of Parsifal in collaboration with the Salzburg Easter Festival. These formative experiences deepened my understanding of large (orchestras, opera,music festival and choir) and small-scale (ensemble, chamber music, Jazz gigs) music planning and institutional coordination.
Since then, I have worked extensively with global music organisations and agencies—including IMG Artists, Kajimoto Music, Harrison Parrott, and Jazzy Sport—on concert programming, artist touring, and cross-cultural partnerships between Europe and Asia. My curatorial work often bridges classical and experimental music, exploring how creative collaboration and cultural dialogue can foster new modes of audience engagement.
Alongside my management practice, I teach and research at universities such as Liverpool, Heidelberg, and Point Blank (Middlesex University), integrating theory and practice to cultivate sustainable, globally minded approaches to music management and curatorial innovation.
Cross-cultural practices
Since 2010, I have managed and produced over a hundred classical music, popular music and performing arts events across China, the UK, and Europe—ranging from conceptual design and repertoire curation to performance innovation, venue management, touring coordination, and dramaturgy. My work includes the China premiere of Wagner’s Parsifal with the Salzburg Easter Festival and the Beijing Music Festival, and collaborations with international artists, orchestras, and agencies that bridge classical, experimental, and cross-cultural music practices.
Vision
My work extends across music, media art, and theatre, reflecting an ongoing commitment to interdisciplinary creation. In 2022, I served as Music Advisor for Chris Zhongtian Yuan’s film essay All Trace Is Gone, No Clamour for a Kiss, a poetic exploration of decolonisation, migration, and cultural memory. I also worked as dramaturg for choreographer Wang Jing’s virtual-reality theatre project The End of Time, contributing to the conceptual and sonic development of the production.More recently, I have collaborated with a Butoh theatre company in London as a music curator, further expanding my practice at the intersection of movement, sound, and visual performance. These projects reflect my approach to music as a cross-disciplinary field—one that bridges classical, experimental, and contemporary genres while engaging in dialogue with other art forms and cultural narratives.
Global Touring and Intercultural Collaboration