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The China National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) Orchestra kick-started its USA Tour in Chicago on Saturday with a showcase of its unique combination of Western and Chinese music.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the NCPA and the orchestra will perform concerts in multiple US cities to celebrate the friendship between both nations through music, said Chen Ping, president of NCPA.
The concert, performed at Chicago's Symphony Center, started with Chinese composer Zhao Jiping's Violin Concerto No. 1, with Ning Feng as the soloist.
Zhao's piece was commissioned by the orchestra and just had its world premiere in Beijing a couple of weeks ago, said Lu Jia, music director and chief conductor of the NCPA Orchestra.
NCPA Orchestra on stage with chief conductor Lu Jia
"Zhao's music is fantastic," Lu said, in praise of its harmonious combination of Western music and Chinese elements.
Zhao is one of the best-known composers in China. He gained his international fame for his music scores in films, such as "Farewell My Concubine," directed by Chen Kaige in 1993, and "Raise the Red Lantern" and "To Live," directed by Zhang Yimou in 1991 and 1994 respectively.
The concert also features the use of pipa, a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument, with world-renowned pipa virtuoso Wu Man as the soloist. Wu played American composer Lou Harrison's "Pipa Concerto with String Orchestra," which was commissioned for her in 1997.
Wu said she had played Harrison's piece hundreds of times with foreign orchestras in Europe and the United States, but Saturday night's concert marked her first time she play it with a touring Chinese orchestra outside China.
A screenshot of the NCPA Orchestra USA Tour
The audience so enthusiastically greeted Wu's performance that she had to return to the stage with an encore of "White Snow in Spring," a famous traditional pipa score that enabled her to demonstrate more playing skills.
Chicago is the first leg of the current tour of the NCPA Orchestra. The orchestra will make its debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and will stop by in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chapel Hill and Ann Arbor.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
