"Some of the heroes died at a very young age for the country, barely in their early 20s. We want to depict those characters through music, so as to bring them a step closer to the young people of today," he says. "It's a great way to pass the spirit of the heroes down."

The orchestral suite premiered at the Jiangsu Center for the Performing Arts in Nanjing on March 13.

For the Beijing shows, the audience can expect more than 10 solo performances apart from the 100-member chorus and 80-member orchestra.

Baritone Wang Haitao, who will be taking on the role of Deng Zhongxia, one of the leaders of China's early patriotic movements, says the audience will be able to relate to the performance with relative ease.