Art beat in October

Soul of Spain

Swinging their long skirts, flamenco dancers from the Spanish National Ballet look like bullfighters waving capes on the stage. Having delivered a stirring performance at Guangzhou Opera House in 2011, the world's top flamenco dance troupe will come back to the city on Oct 11 with their classic Grito and new production Suite Sevilla. The former is a nostalgia piece with live singing and guitar accompaniment, while the latter is a fiery mix of flamenco, ballet and bullfighting dance.

8 pm, Oct 11-12. Opera Hall of Guangzhou Opera House, Exit B1 of Zhujiang New Town subway station, the interchange of Line 3 and 5, Guangzhou. 020-3839-2888.

Leehom sets to impress

Tank, air corridor and a piano hanging in mid-air, Leehom Wang will transport his fans to a sci-fi world at his concert in Guangzhou this Saturday. The pop star from Taiwan is ready to offer a feast for the ears and eyes. The state-of-the-art 3-D technologies enable Wang to play martial arts through a "bamboo forest" on stage and deliver an a cappella chorus with another six "Leehom Wangs" created by 3-D projection. The singer-songwriter loves mixing Chinese folk music elements with hip-hop and R&B, a music genre he calls "chinked-out". Accompanying him is a group of 30 players of Chinese traditional musical instruments.

8 pm, Oct 12. Tianhe Stadium, exit Sports Center station of subway Line 1 or Linhexi station of subway Line 3. 400-610-3721.

Softer side of jazz

Four-time billboard chart-topping trumpet player Chris Botti (above) will make his Beijing debut on Sunday, performing jazz and classically-inspired music with his band. Botti won a Grammy award for his 2012 album Impressions. The New York Times says, "Chris Botti has a trumpet sound that suggests the softer side of luminosity, the realm of sunsets and half-moons." A charismatic performer in his own right, Botti has shared the stage with such popular stars as Paul Smith, Sting and most recently, Barbra Streisand. He will perform his signature works including When I Fall in Love, Flamenco Sketches, The Very Thought of You and the rendition of Puccini's Nessun Dorma. He has been invited to China by the Beijing Music Festival.

7:30 pm, Oct 13. The Orange, Sanlitun, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-6507-1833/2833.

Experience the magic of European folk music

Spark, a multi-national band from Europe, will present two concerts named Folk Tunes in Shanghai. The band has cultural roots in Germany, Switzerland, Hungary and Slovakia, and presents folk-inspired classical masterworks blended with the group's unique arrangements, and works by an international cast of renowned composers. The band fuses popular ballads and dances with classical music, avant-garde, minimal music and art pop. Devoted to their classical roots and, yet, with a constant eye on innovation, these five musical pioneers are heading off to explore the magic of European folk music.

7:45 pm, Oct 13, 14. Shanghai Oriental Art Center, 425 Dingxiang Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai. 400-650-5050.

Calligraphic characters

Cui Xianji's latest installation The Great Kuangcao at his solo exhibition continues his decadelong experiment with kuangcao, or the wild cursive style of Chinese calligraphy. The work consists of four parts in which figures of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Chairman Mao and Mona Lisa are surrounded by calligraphic characters of German, Russian, Chinese and Italian that are hung in midair. His other classic works of the same motif are also on show. Cui applies an art language that is anti-knowledge, anti-experience and anti-logic, and the many symbols in his works convey the message that people should rely on their instinct rather than pure knowledge.

More photos, here

10:30 am-5:30 pm, closed on Mondays, until Oct 13. Yuan Art Museum, 112 Lize Xiyuan, Guangshun Bei Road, Wangjing, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-6475-5926. Ticket: 10 yuan.

Solitude on display

Some 18 years ago, Yu Zhenli, then a rising contemporary artist, gave up a promising future of fame and success, and started a life of solitude in the mountains near his hometown Dalian, Liaoning province. He utilized stones, construction wastes and household garbage in art creation, by which he reflected upon the craze for rapid urbanization. His abstract works are on display at his solo show, Self-deportation, together with diaries in which he reviewed social issues during seclusion, as well as posters he created in the 1970s.

10 am-6 pm, until Oct 14. Today Art Museum, 32 Baiziwan Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-5876-0600.

Mexican abstract works

Mexican contemporary artist Oscar Gutman is going to decode his abstract paintings at a public lecture at Fangsuo Commune this Sunday. The artist's works are poetic and colorful. Lines cut off the paintings into blocks of imaginative shapes, showing the influence of his working experience in sculpture, china molding and colored glass design.

9 am-5 pm, Sept 17-Oct 16. The EMG Art Center, C5, Redtory, 128 Yuancun Siheng Road, Tianhe district, Guangzhou. 020-3878-5650.

Ink painting retrospective

Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum is holding a retrospective show of professor and artist Zhang Lichen who has spent 40 years teaching Chinese ink painting. The show displays 150 pieces of big scroll ink paintings mainly focused on birds and flowers, for which Zhang is known. Zhang learned Chinese ink painting from Pan Tianshou (1897-1971). He has advocated freehand brushwork in traditional Chinese painting for years and has published many books and papers on the concept.

9:30 am-5:30 pm, until Oct 16. Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum, No 8, South Huajiadi street, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-6477-1575.

New interpretations

American classical and jazz pianist Uri Caine will give his debut concert in Shanghai. This is part of his global tour with his rearrangement of Gershwin's work Rhapsody in Blue. Caine was born in 1956 and has played professionally since 1981. In 2009 he was nominated for the Grammy award for "best classical crossover album" for his work The Othello Syndrome, which reimagined the opera Othello as a modern piece starring soul singer Bunny Sigler. Caine has recorded 16 albums and is celebrated for his inventive interpretations of classical repertoire, involving Gustav Mahler, Mozart, Wagner and more.

7:30 pm, Oct 17. Qianshuiwan Culture and Arts Center, 179 Yichang Road, Shanghai. 021-6266-1110.