The United Kingdom celebrates its National Pavilion Day today with a gala concert.

Themed "Building on the Past, Shaping our Future," the UK pavilion is also known as the "Seed Cathedral" as it stores seeds from the Royal Botanic Gardens.

The pavilion organizers hope to raise awareness of the Millennium Seed Bank Project, an international conservation project launched by the Royal Botanic Gardens in 2000.

Visitors can travel through four UK cities — Belfast, Cardiff, London and Edinburgh. Large "green maps" of the cities enable visitors to "erase" all the buildings and streets to see how much greenery there really is.

The London Symphony Orchestra will perform in a gala concert tonight at the Expo Center.

The orchestra will stage at Shanghai Oriental Art Center on Thursday and Friday.

The orchestra, under the baton on Kristjan Jarvi, will collaborate with cellist Wang Jian and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

The concert will open the China tour of the Rolls-Royce London Symphony Orchestra, which will also perform in

Beijing. Jarvi is making his China debut.

"We have prepared many different programs for the encore. and I hope to bring audiences fresh elements," Jarvi said. "A concert should be an unknown course to carve out."

Estonian-born Jarvi is known for pushing classical music borders with fresh ideas, combining his classical roots and affinity for traditional repertoire with an enthusiasm for creating original programs.

The New York Times has called Jarvi "a kinetic force on the podium, like Leonard Bernstein reborn."

The London Symphony Orchestra is considered the most successful music label of its kind.

This will be the third time that the orchestra has staged in Shanghai.

Source: Shanghai Daily