San Bao at his Direct Influence Symphony Concert on December 12 this year at Yulan Theater, Dongguan, Guangdong. [Global Times]

China's world of music has never been short of talent, and San Bao is one of the nation's most spectacular success stories, an outstanding composer and conductor whose specialty is a fusion of both pop and classical music.

After a period of silence, San Bao is scheduled to present a concert of his movie soundtrack themes for Beijing audiences on December 31 at Poly Theater.

Often referred to as the Godfather of movie music, San Bao has collaborated with many brilliant directors including Zhang Yimou and Feng Xiaogang and adds vigor to the movies with his soundtrack compositions.

The concert, titled, "Direct Influence-San Bao's Symphony Concert," will present about 20 original scores he wrote for classic movies. San Bao will take up the baton leading the China Film Symphony Orchestra.

"San Bao is a prominent figure in the promotion of movie music over the past 20 years, and apart from his talent in composing music, he is also a master holding the baton," said Wang Shuwei, president of China Broadcasting Performing Arts Troupe.

"The concert will feature movie episodes set to music to make the atmosphere vivid and easy to understand, which will also bring back memories of a specific time for audiences who enjoy the movies," said San Bao during a press conference early this month.

It will be a comeback concert for the composer who suffered a heart attack two years ago and has not performed on stage since 2007. During his recovery, San Bao said he gained a deep understanding of life and wants to incorporate his feelings into the music.

"Life seems meaningless for a man restricted to bed no matter what possessions he has, and after the illness, I am lucky to stand on the stage and perform for myself and my audiences," said San Bao.

"I have recovered very well and during my illness I realized the meaning of life and death, and the audiences will feel my understanding of life during the concert," he added.

Given the original name Na Risong, San Bao was born into a musical family in Inner Mongolia. His mother is famous for her representative work "Gadameilin," a well known epic in Inner Mongolia.

He began studying the violin at age four and the piano seven years later. Exhibiting enormous talent at an early age, he entered the Central Music Conservatory in 1986 to study conducting.

As a prolific composer of more than a thousand musical works, the majority written for TV serials and films, San Bao has collaborated with acclaimed artists from the US, Germany, and France.

Recently, San Bao has endeavored to gain wider audiences for symphonic music by incorporating pop elements in classical motifs.

"Movie music is more popular compared with classical music, and it is a prime medium to promote classical music through movie music," said San Bao,

"In the future, I will devote my time and energy to the creation of musical drama and opera and will not compose movie music, so this concert will end my ten years of music production."

"For many years I have been cherishing the dream of incorporating classical music elements into pop music in a bid to attract more audiences to classical music and the symphony," said San Bao. He said it will be a bumpy road, but he will carry on to his goal because it is his untiring dream.

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