Presented under the auspices of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province and organized by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Xinghai Concert Hall with renowned Maestro Long Yu heading its Artistic Committee, Youth Music Culture Guangdong (YMCG) launched in 2017 and was held for six consecutive years (2017–2022) with cellist Yo-Yo Ma serving as Artistic Director. In 2023, Youth Music Culture Guangdong was upgraded and renamed Youth Music Culture the Greater Bay Area (retaining the acronym YMCG); it has also garnered national recognition, having won the China Music Arts Promotion Award. YMCG now extends beyond Guangdong Province into the Greater Bay Area, deepening and expanding outreach and dissemination, reinforcing the original aspiration of ensuring that Chinese stories, Greater Bay Area stories and Guangdong stories reach the four corners of the world.

Beginning in 2024, YMCG will be co-organized by five internationally-renowned music institutions based in the Greater Bay Area: the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra (GSO), Xinghai Concert Hall and Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra in Guangdong Province; the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra from the Hong Kong SAR and the Macao Orchestra from the Macao SAR. The new YMCG continues to have its founder Maestro Long Yu heading its Artistic Committee, while Maestro Daniel Harding serves as incoming Music Director and will continue this role until 2028.

At the inaugural YMCG in 2017, China’s Music Weekly heralded the event as “opening a new page in the Chinese symphonic world.” Since then, YMCG has attracted much international attention. Writers have visited Guangzhou to report on YMCG, having published stories in such outlets as Strings and The Violin Channel (USA), The Strad, Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine (UK) and Limelight (Australia).