The Confucius Institute at the Royal Danish Academy of Music

In 2012, the world’s first music Confucius institute with the aim of promoting the education and dissemination of Chinese music and culture was founded by the Central Conservatory of Music in China and the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Since its establishment, the Music Confucius Institute at the Royal Danish Academy of Music has become an important platform for Sino-Danish and even for Sino-Foreign music exchanges. Every year, thousands of Danish students learn about Chinese music through the programs such as "Music Museum", "Distance Learning" and "High School Music Course" run by the Music Confucius Institute. The Danish students have developed a great interest in the profound Chinese music culture via different channels such as personal experience, theoretical study and creative participation.

Influenced by the concept of win-win cooperation, the Central Conservatory of Music in China and the Royal Danish Academy of Music, two music institutes of the highest standards in their respective countries, have carried out extensive cooperation. Musicians from the Music Confucius Institute offer Chinese music composition courses for the Composition Department of the Royal Danish Academy of Music, provide Chinese style instrumental music performance courses for students majoring in the performance of different western musical instruments, and run an annual Sino-Danish project on music composition cooperation with the theme of "Andersen Culture". In addition, since 2017, a batch of cross-music works have been released every year at the Music Confucius Institute of the Royal Danish Academy of Music. These attempts have not only enabled the Danish people to form a deeper understanding of Chinese musical instruments and Chinese music culture, but also contributed to Chinese music in its ongoing internationalization and expanding its influences.

With the Music Confucius Institute at the Royal Danish Academy of Music as an important platform, young Chinese traditional instrumentalists from the Central Conservatory of Music in China appear annually at important concerts in Denmark and other regions of Northern Europe, such as the Spring Festival reception gala hosted by the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Kingdom of Denmark, the annual Spring Festival tour performance in many cities of France, the modern music event "Pulsar Festival of Denmark" which is prestigious in Europe, the graduation concert for the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, etc.

In 2019, a series of activities to celebrate the arrival of Chinese giant pandas in Denmark, namely, the "2019 China-Denmark Giant Panda Cultural Exchange Week & Panda Travelling the World·Denmark", were unveiled in Copenhagen. Part of the activities were the important performances of the panda suite called "Xixixi", which were planned, created and performed by the Music Confucius Institute of the Royal Danish Academy of Music. This world premiere was unanimously acclaimed by about 800 audiences from all walks of life in China and Denmark, and caused a great sensation throughout the world.

Panda Suite "Xixix"

The Music Confucius Institute at the Royal Danish Academy of Music closely links Chinese folk music with Danish society and people’s livelihood, and add up more connotations to the overseas spreading of Chinese music. The Music Confucius Institute cooperated with Aalborg University and nursing homes in Denmark to establish the "Chinese Music Therapy Project", hold concerts with the theme of "Chinese Music Entering Nursing Homes in Denmark", and participate in the wake-up treatment for local people with senile dementia, during which the volunteers guided the elderly to sing or enjoy Chinese and Danish music in order to evoke their mutual emotional connection and stimulate their awareness. As a brand-new attempt made by the Music Confucius Institute to exploit an international exchange platform for Chinese music, this cooperation not only demonstrates the harmonious integration of Chinese music into Western humane society, but is also a clinical collaboration between the Chinese music community and overseas music therapy professions. Moreover, in this process, volunteer teachers from the Music Confucius Institute directly participated in the music therapy, which was also a beneficial practice for the overseas Chinese music talents to enrich their comprehensive abilities.

With the help of the distance education platform of the Royal Danish Academy, the Music Confucius Institute delivers many online music teaching lectures to people in many countries including the United States and Sweden every year. Teachers of the Music Confucius Institute share and exchange with global teachers and students creative achievements, creative ideas, the application of Chinese music materials and musical instruments, and creative experience through the distance education platform, which has stimulated high enthusiasm among the attendees.

At the closing ceremony of Milan World Expo, by means of modern remote technology, Chinese folk musicians in Denmark collaborated remotely with Italian musicians in Italy on an "ensemble". When the "ensemble" of musicians from two countries was projected through technical synthesis on the big screen of the square , the scene was very thrilling.

Nowadays, the Music Confucius Institute at the Royal Danish Academy of Music has entered a stage of vigorous development. Under the invitation of the Danish royal family, the Music Confucius Institute has held concerts many times for the Queen of Denmark and other members of the royal family. With Denmark as a base and being welcomed by the whole Europe, the Music Confucius Institute at the Royal Danish Academy of Music has won high praise from Western society for its professional performance, and has now developed into a renowned channel for the spread of Chinese music.