From 8 to 26 May 2026, the Music Department at Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University presented Ensemble Series, a four-concert showcase bringing together chamber music, free improvisation, vocal performance, and instrumental ensemble work.

The series featured Cantabile Dialogue, Free Improvisation, Vivacity, and Resonance. Presented as part of the department’s ensemble curriculum, the concerts offered students a sustained platform to develop collaborative musicianship, stage awareness, and artistic communication through live performance.

The series opened on 8 May with Cantabile Dialogue, a chamber recital performed by Dr. Leonie Xuying Li, Ms. Roy Ruoyi Zhang, and student cellist Mr. Junius Jun Lyu. The programme included Arensky’s Piano Trio, Piazzolla’s Café 1930, and Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, moving across Romantic, tango-inflected, and French lyrical sound worlds. In the intimate setting of violin, cello, and piano, the recital highlighted the sensitivity, balance, and expressive interplay central to chamber music.

Strings and piano in dialogue during Cantabile Dialogue

Professor Mao Yaqing with Music Department faculty members, students, and guests after Cantabile Dialogue

On 18 May, Free Improvisation offered a contrasting approach to ensemble practice. Organised and led by Professor Matthew Sansom, Head of the Music Department, the performance brought together Ms. Roy Ruoyi Zhang and students Esther Mingke Hou, Wendy Jingwen Lu, Stella Yayu Liang, and Victor Yankai Gao.

Rather than working from a fixed score or predetermined musical structure, the performers created the work in real time through listening, response, and shared attention to sound. The performance explored how musical ideas can emerge from silence, gesture, texture, and the changing relationships between performers in the moment.

To support this mode of listening, the space was deliberately pared back: the lights were turned off, curtains were drawn, and ambient noise was reduced as far as possible. In this focused environment, the audience was invited to experience sound as something unfolding, shifting, and disappearing in real time — a defining quality of free improvisation.

Performance scene from Free Improvisation

Professor Matthew Sansom, Head of the Music Department, with faculty members and students after Free Improvisation

The final two concerts, Vivacity and Resonance, were presented on 25 and 26 May respectively.

Vivacity was performed by Year Four Music students. With its varied ensemble settings and confident stage presence, the concert reflected the students’ maturity as performers and the vitality of their artistic work at the final stage of undergraduate study.

Performance scene from Vivacity

Year Four Music students present a vibrant ensemble performance

Resonance was presented by Year Three Music students. Bringing together vocal and instrumental works, the concert explored resonance not only as an acoustic phenomenon, but also as a form of musical exchange — between parts, performers, space, and audience.

Performance scene from Resonance

Taken as a whole, Ensemble Series presented the outcomes of the ensemble curriculum not as a single end-of-semester event, but as a connected sequence of performances. Across four distinct concerts, students engaged with different modes of collaboration, listening, and musical communication. The series also reflected the department’s ongoing commitment to integrating teaching, performance, and audience engagement, allowing musical learning to take shape in a shared public setting.