Gianluca Zanon at La Fattoria, his favorite Italian restaurant in Beijing. "Italians still don't know about how good the Chinese performers have become," he says. Cui Meng / China Daily

Italian music promoter brings Europe’s top talent to China

There is very good business in cultivating culture, according to Gianluca Zanon, whose job is to bring Europe's top performers to China. "For every one euro you invest in cultural activities, you get a four to 12 euro return on your investment," he says.

"There is the transportation to and from the venue, there is the tourism part, where people come to a city to see a show, then people who see the concerts go out and have dinner.

"Then after the concert you might buy the CD, and if you enjoy the piece you might want to know more about the composer, so you buy a book."

Zanon says he is surprised why so many governments around the world cut their funding of the arts when economic times get tough because "this was such a limited view, economically speaking".

For the past four years, Zanon has been helping write the artistic programming for Wu Promotions choosing European artists to appear at the best concert halls around the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao across a network of 30 Chinese cities.

China opened its doors to wide-scale classical musical tours in 1993 and each year the shows get bigger and better.

Last year Wu Promotions held more than 500 cultural events including piano recitals, chamber music, modern dance, classical ballet, symphony orchestras, choirs, opera productions, theater and jazz shows.

Highlights included the Asian debut of Cologne Opera House production, The Ring of Nibelung at the Shanghai Grand Theater, Don Giovanni at the National Center of Performing Arts in Beijing as well as the on stage collaboration between the Italian Filarmonica della Scala and young Chinese pianist Yuja Wang under the baton of Maestro Bychkov at the Shanghai World Expo.

But some acts play a more diplomatic role, such as the grand performances of Cullberg Ballet of Sweden, Basel Symphony Orchestra of Switzerland and Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir of Denmark, which celebrated their 60th anniversary of relations with China.

Zanon says it takes about 18 months of planning to bring over one artist.

"The artists that I select and sign for touring are then promoted in China and presented in most of the venues that China has to offer," he says.

"As you can imagine it's for me an immense honor as a foreigner to be responsible for such a choice," he says.

But Wu Promotions also takes Chinese performers to Europe and last year Zanon toured with one of China's most famous conductors, Long Lu, and the Guangzhou Sympony Orchestra.

"The Italians still don't know about how good the Chinese performers have become," Zanon says.

"There is still the perception that the Chinese are technically perfect, and that is a wonderful and horrible clich.

"There is one thing to play the notes and there is another to interpret the notes."

But then a violin soloist like Ning Feng comes along and dazzles everyone by his powerful performances of Tchaikovsky.