Top Chinese violinists, including Lyu Siqing and Liu Yunzhi, will gather in Beijing to give a concert commemorating the life of their late compatriot, Sheng Zhongguo, who died of a heart attack in Beijing on Sept 9, 2018, at the age of 77.

The concert will be held at the Forbidden City Concert Hall on Sunday.

Sheng, considered one of China's most talented violinists, was known for his interpretation of the Butterfly Lovers violin concerto, composed in 1959 by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang when they were students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Initiated by Sheng's wife, Japanese pianist Hiroko Seta, the concert, with four sections, will feature repertoires including Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano by French composer Cesar Franck, Pastoral Song by Chinese composer Han Shakun, and The Spring of Xinjiang by Chinese composers Ma Yaoxian and Li Zhonghan.

Chinese violinist Liu Yunzhi will open the concert with Meditation, the famous violin piece from French composer Jules Massenet's opera, Thais. The concert will close with the Butterfly Lovers violin concerto, performed jointly by all of the violinists.

"My husband believed that musicians are like warriors and the stage is like a battlefield. He took each of his performance seriously and the best way to pay tribute to him is through music," said Seta in Beijing on Thursday, who will perform at the concert alongside the Chinese violinists.

Since 1987, Sheng had been performing at annual concerts held in Japan, where he donated part of the proceeds to medical foundations for overseas students. It was there that he met his wife, with whom he performed at the concerts. During the upcoming commemoration concert, Seta will "share the stage" with her husband through his previous recordings.

"I came to China with my husband about 30 years ago and I've witnessed the development of China's classical music scene. He was very excited about the younger generation and taught many students," the pianist adds.

During the concert, six of those students will perform music pieces adapted from Romanian Folk Dances, a suite of six short piano pieces composed by Hungarian composer Bela Bartok in 1915.

"We miss him, not only for his solid technique as a violinist, but also as a great teacher. I can still recall when, ahead of my concerts, Sheng would invite me to his home and let me use his violins, which are very valuable," says Xie Nan, one of Sheng's former students performing at the concert.

Born in Chongqing, Sheng began studying the violin at the age of 5, taking lessons from his father, Sheng Xue. He gave his first public performance at 7, and at 9, he made his first solo recording with the Wuhan People's Broadcasting Station, playing music by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.

In 1954, Sheng Zhongguo began studying at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and, in 1960, furthered his musical studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow under the great Russian violinist, Leonid Kogan. After returning to China in 1964, Sheng gave concerts as a soloist with the China National Symphony Orchestra.