The launch conference of the 19th BMF. [Photo/btv.btime.com]

The 19th Beijing Music Festival (BMF) will be held from October 9-29. The festival was announced at a conference hosted by the BMF organizing committee. Festival performers and highlights were also revealed during the conference.

The 21-day festival will present 30 shows covering a wide range of music genres such as opera, symphony, ethnic music, crossover, and more. Like previous years, there will be public activities that include children's musical, urban musical, Chinese music concert, as well as music-themed seminars, lectures and dialogues.

Keeping its theme "Musial Legacy and Innovation" in mind, the festival plans to demonstrate the development of classical music in the 21st century. The traditional values of classical music will not only be safeguarded, but also delivered in a novel way.

As for "Innovation", spectators will get the chance to admire the opera A Midsummer Night's Dream, adapted by British composer Benjamin Britten, as well as the 3D mini opera Blank Out written and directed by Michelle van der Ar from the Netherlands. Moreover, Mozart's opera masterpiece Giovanni will be presented in an unprecedented way. It will be a site-specific immersive production with revolutionary visual technology and stage effect. To top it off, the multimedia music theatre - The Fugitive - will be a new rendition of Schubert's vocality series Winterreise.