In May 2018, Chinese composer and conductor Guan Xia announced his retirement as the director of the China National Symphony Orchestra, a position which he had held for 14 years. However, this hasn't slowed down his career as a composer.

During a concert held at the Kaifeng Museum in Henan province, on Oct 17, the Orchestra Academia China, a symphony orchestra of the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing, performed seven of Guan's compositional works, under the baton of conductor Shao En.

As the opening concert of the 37th Chrysanthemum Culture Festival, an annual event held in Kaifeng, the concert was broadcast live by Wiener Staatsoper in 53 countries, including Russia, South Korea, Japan and Italy. The concert was watched by an audience of over 1.2 million viewers.

"I have more time to write music after retirement and for me, composing is a process of communicating with myself," Guan, 62, says.

Born and raised in Kaifeng, Guan dedicated the concert to his hometown.

"The repertoires I chose represented different stages of my career. It felt like I was looking back on my career during a very personal moment sitting among the audience rather than performing onstage," he adds.

The opening piece was a new sonata, The Glory of the New Era, which was written by Guan to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix Marriage, based on a popular folk song of the same title written by suona player Ren Tongxiang, was adapted by Guan into a symphonic piece for suona and orchestra. Suona player Liu Wenwen was featured in the piece. Guan also blended elements of folk music from Henan into the piece.

"I grew up listening to traditional Chinese folk music, which I was introduced to by my parents, who were both music lovers. Throughout my career, I have been trying to introduce traditional folk music using a symphonic music vocabulary," says Guan, who started learning to play the banhu (two-stringed spike fiddle) with his father at the age of 5.