The first American orchestra to perform in the People’s Republic of China opens its 14th China tour in tropical Hainan: two Haikou concerts, Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto, tickets from 100 yuan.
The first notes of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2026 China tour will not sound in Beijing or Shanghai, they will sound in Haikou, and the cheapest seat costs 100 yuan, about US$15.
The orchestra, one of America’s “Big Five” ensembles, performs at 8pm on 11 and 12 November. The venue is the Grand Theatre of the Haikou Bay Performing Arts Center, at 42 Binhai Avenue on the bayfront.
The concerts open the China leg of the tour, the orchestra’s tour announcement shows. The tour began in South Korea on 5 November and finishes with two Beijing concerts on 14 and 15 November. The 11 November performance is also the orchestra’s debut in the Haikou venue.
Marin Alsop, the orchestra’s principal guest conductor and the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the BBC Proms, leads both nights. It is a reunion: she made her debut with the orchestra in 1990 and conducted its previous China visit in 2024.
The opening night is billed “World-Famous Orchestra · Romantic Night”: Mozart’s overture to The Marriage of Figaro, Jessie Montgomery’s Strum, Mozart’s Symphony No 40 and Beethoven’s First Symphony. The second, “East–West Dialogue · Masters’ Night”, belongs to the pianist Haochen Zhang, a gold medallist at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He plays Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto between Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture and Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony. Zhang first performed with the orchestra in 2006, as winner of its student competition.
A 53-year friendship
The Philadelphia Orchestra was the first American orchestra to perform in the People’s Republic of China, playing under Eugene Ormandy in 1973. This tour is its 14th in China, the most by any American orchestra.
Hainan’s relationship with the orchestra is newer. The first island visit came in November 2024, the first by an American orchestra. The two Haikou concerts sold out quickly.
At the encores the players brought the Hainan Philharmonic Women’s Choir on stage for “Wanquan River Water” (万泉河水), a local favourite. During that visit the two sides signed a cooperation memorandum. This return is an important step in putting that agreement into practice. During its stay the orchestra will also visit Hainan universities.
Hainan’s Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports has cast the concerts as part of the island’s free-trade-port opening. They should sharpen the island’s profile on the global performing-arts map and feed a “performance plus tourism” economy that draws visitors to the island, a department official said.
If you go
- When: 8pm on 11 and 12 November 2026.
- Where: Grand Theatre, Haikou Bay Performing Arts Center, 42 Binhai Avenue, Haikou.
- Tickets: 100, 480, 680, 880 or 1,080 yuan. The published concert announcement advertises a limited-time 20 per cent discount on every tier above 100 yuan. The announcement says tickets cannot be refunded or exchanged; the event’s ticketing terms make exceptions if the performance is changed or cancelled.
- Children under one metre tall are not admitted, and latecomers are let in only between pieces.
From Haikou the orchestra travels to Beijing, for the National Centre for the Performing Arts on 14 November and the Beijing Performing Arts Center on 15 November, another debut venue. The tour’s first China note, though, belongs to Haikou.
Related article: The 29th Hainan Winter Trade Fair opens in Haikou on 3 December
