2025 marked the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II. The whole year, Vienna has been offering an impressive variety of Johann Strauss events under the title “Vienna goes Strauss”, including concerts, operettas, theater, films, dances, art exhibitions, cultural picknicks, and other forms of performances.
To commemorate this anniversary of Johann Strauss II’s, Shanghai Jiaotong University (Below as Jiaoda) organized a two-day international symposium this October on “Johann Strauss and Contemporary Music Culture”, a first-time and well-implemented cooperation between Jiaoda’s Institute of Humanities and Arts, and the Golden July Music Festival Vienna. Hosted by Jiaoda’s School of Humanities, the symposium saw a collection of high-qualitied speeches by music experts and academic scholars home and abroad.
With the General Office Hall of Jiaoda’s Xuhui Campus as the venue, the symposium from 11thto 12th of October 2025 offered a space for professional presentations and hot discussions. The event was jointly opened by Prof. Wang Ning, Dean of the Institute of Humanities and Arts in Jiaoda, and Prof. Edwin Vanecek from the University of Music and Arts Vienna (MUK).
More than a dozen of keynote speeches was delivered during the two-day symposium, amongst which were “The Classical Power Revealed in the Value Reconstruction of Viennese Dances: Reflections on Johann Strauss II and Related Compositions” by Wang Xueqing from Shanghai Conservatory of Music Director, Faculty and Research Services; “The Influences and Implications of Johann Strauss’s Operettas in China”by Diao Ke, tenor, Professor at Wuhan Conservatory of Music; “Johann Strauss in Film” by Qu Shifei, screenwriter, Professor of the Department of Dramatic Literature, Central Academy of Drama; “Johann Strauss – between Magician und Strauss Schani” by Edwin Vanecek, Professor at University of Music and Arts Vienna;
“Johann Strauss and the Sound of Vienna: Tradition, Identity, and New Horizons” by William Walker, Concertmaster of the Vienna New Stars Orchestra; “The Significance of the Waltz Culture in Europe: J. Strauss Dynasty as Social Influencer” by Helena CHANG, Researcher of OSS International Collaboration Center and Vienna-based Music Critic; “Dancefloor Remix: DJ Strauss Steps into the Booth” by Byron Yue, Professor and Head of the Piano Department at Franz Schubert Music Academy; “Blue Danube” by Jura Margulis, Professor at University of Music and Arts Vienna; “Johann Strauss and China” by Chen Zonghua, Professor at Henan University; “Ballroom, Library, Archive: Musical Exoticism in the Vienna of Strauss and Ambros” by Xu Lufan, Shanghai Conservatory of Music; “The Order of Jokes: On the Musical Narration and Comic Aesthetic Value of the Light Opera ‘The Bat’ and the Kun Opera ‘The Kite Mistake’ ” by Qin Zhen, PhD candidate at Shanghai Jiao Tong University; “On the Enhancement of Urban Civilization by Musical Culture” by Wang Ning, Dean of the Humanities and Arts Research Institute at Jiaoda, Changjiang Scholar, Foreign Member of the European Academy of Sciences; “The Reception of Johann Strauss II in China: A Study on Its Influence on Chinese Musical Creation” by Huang Sai, PhD candidate at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany;
“The significance of Johann Strauss for Contempory Musical Culture – Through the eyes of a Soprano, a Pianist and a Storyteller” by Claudia Puhr (soprano), Byron Yue (Pianist) and John Herzog (Vice-President of the Austrian Journalist Club); “Johann Strauss as a Violin Phenomenon” by Karen Murray, United States International School in Vienna; and “Dialogue Between Human Voice and Instrument: The Artistic Transformation of the Vocal Version of ‘Voices of Spring’ Waltz” by Gui Nan, Opera Department of Central Academy of Drama in Beijing.
The afternoon of the 12. October magnified another highlight of the symposium: A concert at JinJue Ballroom, Crowne Plaza Shanghai with Claudia Puhr as soprano, Byron Yue as pianist and Karen Murray as violinist, joined by Gui Nan the soprano and Diao Ke the tenor. Xue Yuan, Professor and Head of German Department in Jiaoda’s School of Foreign Languages, moderated the concert.
As the host, Prof. Wang Ning summarized the two-day Johann Strauss Symposium in Shanghai Jiaotong University with enthusiastic closing remarks, praising the event as an academic richness imbued with much rhythmical beauty, and defining it as another show case for the open-mindedness and cultural diversity of the cosmopolitan Shanghai. The successful cooperation between Jiaoda’s Institute of Humanities and Arts, and the Golden July Music Festival Vienna has been opening and shall continue opening more opportunities for music and cultural exchanges in the future, he concluded.
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