Deputy Party Secretary Liu Yan of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music led a delegation to Kazakhstan and Russia between April 19 and 26.

The team first visited the Kazakh National University of Arts and was received by Rector Aiman Mussakhajayeva. The two sides reviewed the history of cooperation and exchanges on their respective conditions, including school development, curriculums, folk music inheritance and students’ employment.

The delegation also toured the university’s rehearsal classroom, concert hall and school history exhibition and watched a special folk concert.

A cooperation memo was signed during the visit.

Rector Alexei Vasiliev of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Russia’s first professional music institute, welcomed the delegates. Liu said that both academies boast high international reputation and have brought up plenty of talents in the field in China and Russia and exchanges on the senior level means a lot.

Vasiliev said it was an honor to meet with the SHCM group and hoped that they would stick to the mission of cultivating more musicians and enhancing ties between the two schools.

They signed a cooperation memo at the meeting. Chinese Consul General to Saint Petersburg Guo Min was also present.

Liu and Deputy Rector Larissa Slutskaya of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory had a discussion covering issues such as discipline construction, international student exchange and cultivation and high-level master classes. They also expressed the wish to sign a cooperation memo.

The overall visit, on invitation, was deemed fruitful, strengthening SHCM’s friendly relationship with music schools along the Belt and Road countries.