Symphony No. 8, Op. 53

Peng-Peng Gong's 8th Symphony was commissioned by the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra. The symphony was composed with a cultural ideal of blending world folk music into a single unity, expressing the composer's deep passion for the respective cultures heard through the ears of a global traveler. The music adopts an all-embracing rhapsodic style with virtuosic orchestration, and each movement pays a homage to a different people. The final movement was written at the ruins of a school building, which collapsed during the deadly 2008 Sichuan Great Earthquake that killed over a hundred thousand people.