Chinese composer Yikeshan Abudushalamu, also known by his Arabic name Ihsan Abdusalam, is a Uyghur native of Urumqi.
On the second evening of the Shanghai Contemporary Music Festival, his signature piece Repression, received its China premiere by the Ningbo Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Zhao Xiao’ou at Shangyin Opera House on November 18, 2025.
Composed in 2020, Repression is a commission by the Luciano Berio International Composition Competition whose inaugural edition Ihsan won. The piece had been performed by Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Sir Antonio Pappano in Rome, RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Turin and Filarmonica della Scala with Thomas Adès in Milan, galvanizing wide acclaim overseas.
In the first half of the video, Ihsan talked about his piece at a forum in Chengdu on November 3, 2022. This is a Chinese language programme with Chinese subtitles.
