Jazz musicians play at the Blue Note Beijing. Photo: Courtesy of Blue Note Beijing

A pair of concerts titled The Sounds of Italian Renaissance will be held in Beijing this week to mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Italian master artist Leonardo da Vinci.

The concerts, to be staged respectively at the Italian Cultural Institute of the Italian Embassy on Wednesday and the Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA) Museum on Friday, are part of the Beijing Music Festival.

Co-organized by the festival, the Ugo e Olga Levi Foundation, the CAFA Museum and the Italian Cultural Institute, the concerts will perform instrumental and vocal music from the Renaissance.

In addition to 12 works composed by European musicians, including La Spagna and De tous bien plain, three classic Chinese songs including "Jasmine Flower" will also be presented.

The concerts will be played by the Ugo and Olga Levi Venice Ensemble, with conductor Cristian Contadi and his students from the Department of Ancient Music at the Conservatory of Music Benedetto Marcello, an important academy for Renaissance music studies in Venice, Italy.