The Beijing Music Festival will run, as every year, in October, albeit in a modified and abbreviated form in concert halls and in a fresh way, online.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made 2020 a very different and historic year. Social distancing has changed the way people interact, and their cultural lifestyles have been curtailed severely.

When the coronavirus broke out in China in February, Yu Long, chairman of Beijing Music Festival, and Zou Shuang, BMF's artistic director, started to think of a Plan B.

As the pandemic began to spread throughout the world in March, they decided to change most of the programs, including developing an app to livestream music during the festival.

Now the outbreak is under control in China and people are gradually returning to normal life, the BMF has decided to host 20 live concerts between Oct 10 and 20.

"The music must go on－we made it our slogan this year," says Yu, who founded the festival 20 years ago. "Music is not decoration. It relieves pain and gives us the courage to face challenges.

"Musicians expect to play side by side, while audiences hope to return to the concert halls. That's also the way to display we are recovering."

He says the pandemic changed too many things, including the classical music industry. Musicians could not perform live concerts, which are an important way for them to make a living. He recommends the music stream on the BMF Club app.

"The more than 240 hours of nonstop broadcasting will become a unique carnival for music lovers," he says, "although online music can never replace the experience that a live performance provides."

For artistic director Zou, the pandemic not only pushed her to find a solution to continue the festival, but also to answer a question. Since she joined the festival as an associate program director in 2016 with a background in music, theater and films, the 37-year-old says she has been asking herself,"How can I take classical music to a newer, younger audience?"

In 2016, she initiated the "new wave program" with immersive, site-specific opera and music-theater productions. The program has been welcomed by the international opera community and a new generation of Beijing audiences. In 2018, she succeeded Yu as BMF's artistic director.

"I have always thought of how people spend their leisure time in the digital age. The pandemic has changed people's social lives, so at what time and under what circumstances do people like to enjoy music?

"We provide 24 hours of music streaming daily during the festival, and the audience can choose to listen to the music at their convenience and based on their mood, either at breakfast or while driving," says Zou.

The festival management has also approached Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Naxos China to get the copyrights of music by Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Strauss, Puccini and Wagner, performed by leading orchestras, and also once performed at BMF.

This year, through the app, leading Chinese musicians, including Chen Qigang, Ye Xiaogang, Guo Wenjing, Zhou Long, Wang Jian, Xu Weilin and others will talk about those pieces, their creation and Chinese music in the world.

"I'd like to say how glad we are to see that BMF is back. It is one of the greatest events in the classical music world and is internationally famous," says Dickon Stainer, president and CEO, Global Classics and Jazz, a division of Universal Music Group.

"It is a great innovation to re-create the festival digitally in this extraordinary year. We would like to support maestro Yu and the BMF. May the powerful music move all of us in Beijing, Berlin and all over the world," says Clemens Trautmann, president of Deutsche Grammophon.

"Yu and his team have come up with the interesting program combining live concerts with online music. We are delighted to contribute many tracks to the online program. I hope music lovers will enjoy them," says Klaus Heymann, president of Naxos Music Group, who has been following the BMF for the last 20 years.

COVID-19 has changed people's lives in 2020, and the BMF's program will factor that in.

The opening concert at Beijing's Poly Theater on Oct 10 will be devoted to the year. The BMF, China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra jointly commissioned composer Zou Ye, a Wuhan native, to create Dedicated to 2020, a symphony for soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra.

The Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra and the China Philharmonic Orchestra will present the world premiere of the piece under the baton of Zou Ye. Other musicians from the city－soprano Zhang Liping, baritone He Leiming and members of the Wuhan Conservatory chorus－will take part in the concert.

"It's not only an honor for our orchestra to open the festival, but we would also like to express our thanks to those who helped Wuhan during the pandemic. We'll show our gratitude through the performance and tell everyone that Wuhan is safe, healthy and lively," says Zhang Shouzhong, director of the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra.

Zhang says the orchestra resumed rehearsals and gave online performances in May. On June 26, they dedicated the first live concert after the long break to doctors, nurses and volunteers in Wuhan.

This year is the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. From Oct 10 to 20, fans can enjoy the great composer's five piano concertos, 10 violin sonatas and all nine symphonies either online or in person. On Oct 12,13 and 14, upcoming Chinese violinists, born in the 1990s and 2000s, will each play one of Beethoven's 10 violin sonatas at the Poly Theater.

The closing concert will be a late birthday gift to the China Philharmonic Orchestra that was established in May 2000. The celebration concert was postponed because of the pandemic. Yu, who is also musical director of the orchestra, invited five musicians born the same year as its foundation, to perform with the orchestra.

Contact the writer at chenjie@chinadaily.com.cn