The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is set to deepen its cultural relationship with China by heading off on a seven-city tour of the country, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
The aim of the trip is to showcase the calibre of Australia's contemporary classical music scene and solidify the orchestra's position as the leading cultural ambassador for Australia.
The orchestra also plans to hold workshops for music conservatorium students.
"To have, for example, principle players from the SSO to come across and give them group lessons, or even one-on-one lessons, this is gold dust."
It's not just China that’s set to benefit from the tour. Managing Director, Rory Jeffes says the SSO understands the importance of promoting Australia to customers overseas, especially those in Asia.
"China is a hugely important market for Australia in all sorts of different ways," said Jeffes.
"It's also undergoing a fundamental change with a massive expansion of the middle class in China as living standards rise.
"So there’s a desire to connect with our art form, which effectively means there is an ever growing market in China, it's one of the few places where that's true.”
The instruments - including two harps weighing at 100 kilograms each - are now being meticulously packed ready for the flight over.
There's too many of them to squeeze on to a standard 747, so the freight will have its own cargo plane.
The Orchestra leave on Sunday.
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