The award-winning Cape Town Opera Chorus from South Africa staged Horizons, a concert of African choral music on Thursday at the more than 600-year-old Divine Music Administration inside the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, as part of the ongoing 27th Beijing Music Festival.

Under the baton of conductor and pianist Jose Dias, the ensemble seamlessly moved from the bel canto to the transparency of sacred music and the earthiness of jazz, taking the mesmerized audience on a journey to explore the expansive landscape of South African choral music, a vibrant and uplifting genre which combines traditional African rhythms and harmonies with modern gospel influences.

The program features seven of South Africa's 12 official languages, offering an overview of the country's rich heritage of singing, said Magdalene Minnaar, artistic director of Cape Town Opera, during a press conference on Thursday.

The concert is one of the two co-productions of the Beijing Music Festival, the KT Wong Foundation and Cape Town Opera for this year's festival. On Saturday and Sunday, the three organizations will present the China premiere of a new semi-staged version of Porgy and Bess, a 20th-century classic opera by George Gershwin at the Poly Theatre, to close the festival.