NEW YORK—Spring is in the air in Manhattan, and with spring comes renewal, revival, and rebirth.
For classical musicians, then, this may be a good time to start thinking about New Tang Dynasty's Chinese International Violin Competition, which will run from July 25-27, 2008 at New York City's Town Hall Foundation, located on 123 West 43rd St.
After all, the violin as we know it today—a four-stringed instrument which, with its high range of pitches, can serve either as a beautiful solo instrument, or provide the main melody in a string ensemble—is known to have originated during the Italian Renaissance, the period of "rebirth" for Western civilization.
If you hold with the likes of the first composers of classical music—Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven—classical music is understood to be passed on by God, which gives it potential to inspire composers to transcend human limits in music, and leave its listeners with a sense of awe, beauty, and hope.
Studies have shown that kids who study or listen to classical music will do better in school, and many parents often encourage their children to study classical music. They believe that having their children study a classical instrument will provide unparalleled structure and discipline in the child's upbringing, allow for creative and artistic expression, and enhance the child's intellect.
That's essentially what the organizers at NTDTV are hoping to bring to their contestants as well as their listeners. Like the other competitions in this series, the Chinese International Violin Competition is designed to provide Chinese and Chinese-American people around the world with a platform to communicate through traditional arts and music.
As its name suggests, New Tang Dynasty was inspired by the classical antiquity of the height of Chinese civilization, the Tang Dynasty. Chinese people from outside China founded the company in 2004 to provide an independent voice in Chinese media. [Aside from NTDTV and its partners, Chinese media is otherwise entirely controlled by the communist regime in Mainland China.]
The violin competition is the first of nine Chinese competitions that NTDTV will host in 2008, including Piano, Martial Arts, Oil Painting, Culinary Arts, Photography, Han Couture, Dance, and Vocal.
The violin competition is open to professionals and music students above the age of 16. Contestants will perform in three rounds: Prelimiaries, Semi-finals, and Finals. Each performer will choose and prepare selections from Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Wieniawski, and Paganini. (For a complete listing of the competition repertoire, please visit http://violin.ntdtv.com/eng/.)
As in NTDTV's other competitions, prizes for the International Violin Competition will include monetary sums of $10,000, $3,000, and $1000 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners, respectively.
The competition will be the first Chinese International Violin Competition to be held by overseas Chinese.
For more information about the Chinese International Violin Competition, please visit http://violin.ntdtv.com/eng/.
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