The official opening show for the festival on Oct 19 will be a multimedia concert titled Ode to the Silk Road presented by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. The troupe has chosen three music pieces about the Silk Road that were created by three Chinese composers from different periods.

The first piece is Duo, a concerto commissioned by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra in 2012. Inspired by Datang Xiyu Ji (Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty) by Xuan Zang (602-664), a record of a Buddhist monk's pilgrimage from Chang'an (today's Xi'an), Shaanxi province, to India, Zhao Lin created a harmonious dialogue between the cello and sheng, a traditional Chinese wind instrument.

The second piece is Silk Road Reverie, which was created by Zhu Jian'er in 2000 for the Silk Road Ensemble. Zhu had in 2008 adapted the piece for the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and retained the use of the five Chinese folk instruments.