Beijing

When a music festival is not purely about music, it becomes a carnival of diversified art. From March 9 to 25, Jue Music and Art Festival 2012 will be held in Beijing and Shanghai. In its fourth year, organized by Split Works, Jue will celebrate local creative communities and invite bands from home and abroad to join in.

The program includes film screenings, a street-art show, workshops, photo exhibitions and live music in both cities.

Grammy nominee Death Cab for Cutie (above), the popular American alternative rock band behind such hits as I Will Follow You Into The Dark and A Movie Script Ending, will be playing in Beijing and Shanghai, with a Beijing-based band, Travelers, opening the concerts.

In addition to their records, Death Cab for Cutie has contributed songs to TV and films including The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Scrubs and Six Feet Under.

Summer Lei, dubbed a "musical poet of Taiwan", will also share the stage. She's known as a leader of the new generation of indie-folk singers.

Other musicians include Louis Warynski, a young French violin virtuoso who is classically trained, Eatliz, an Israeli alternative rock group, and American tenor saxophone player Steve Mackay.

Jue: Next Gen, a photography competition for amateur and professional photographers from all over China, will be on show in Shanghai's Central Studio throughout the two-week event. A warm-up event to Jue will be at Beijing's 798 art zone on March 10.

You may contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn.

China Daily