Beginning next Tuesday (December 19), New Tang Dynasty TV (NTDTV) will be presenting its Holiday Wonders at the Beacon Theater on Broadway for six days running. According to NTDTV President Lee Zhong, this is the first comprehensive Chinese arts performance ever to play on Broadway in New York during the Christmas Season.
Over the past three years, NTDTV has staged very successful global Chinese New Year Spectaculars . This year the Holiday Wonders is for the first time presenting a premier Chinese culture program aimed for popular consumption during the Christmas season. The orchestra's conductor, Chen Rutang, said the Celestial Melody Orchestra was specifically formed to ensure the success of the Holiday Wonders performances.
Combining West and East
Chen Rutang, a veteran Chinese musician and China's first class cellist, is former director of Chinese National Symphony Orchestra and chief artistic director for the 2006 NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectacular.
Chen said, "The Beacon Theater is the palace of opera, and Westerners enjoy live music accompanying theater. This will be the first occasion for a Chinese symphony orchestra to accompany a performance in the Beacon Theater. Audiences will experience both the splendor of Western symphony and the style of Chinese folk instruments."
"One of Celestial Melody's talents is the combination of Western and Eastern instruments; we mainly use orchestral instruments, but also include Chinese traditional instruments such as erhu, biwa (pipa), guzheng (Chinese zither), and the Chinese flute. The theater has excellent acoustics and the audience will experience a world premier performance of original music," said Chen.
Chen says that the orchestra has 50 performers, and many of them are award winning musicians and first class national artists from China. Although the orchestra was formed less than one year ago, everyone has worked very hard and their music is in perfect unison and harmony.
To Promote True Chinese Culture
First cellist Deng Yu graduated from Conservatory of Guangzhou, and was a member of Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra before migrating to the U.S. Deng also has a Master's degree in music from the U.S. and specializes in cello performances.
Deng said, "After three years of NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectaculars, we felt that overseas Chinese were missing their traditional Chinese culture. We wanted to help spread the Chinese culture around the world, so we established the Celestial Melody Orchestra and under very difficult conditions and with much practice, we are confident that we will bring the audience a high standard of excellence in our performance."
"We are all very devoted because we have the same understanding about Chinese culture and we want to present our understanding to the audience. And I think this is the reason why our orchestra progressed so quickly," said Deng.
Different Performance Experience
U.S.-based Taiwanese violinist Lin Jiaqi began to learn violin at three years of age. Lin has studied in the Rice University Shepherd School of Music and Johns Hopkins University Peabody Conservatory of Music, and worked in University of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for the past 15 years.
Lin said that although she has had many performance experiences, she can feel a harmony of one's body and spirit in performing with the Celestial Melody Orchestra that is unique. Lin said, "Chinese music often has profound inner meanings, its performance comes out from one's heart. And western music has a very mature development in skill and technique and is very systematic. Celestial Melody combines the technique of Western music with the meaning of Chinese music. In other words, China's musical soul is presented by the Western skill and technique, which is a perfect union and form in its presentation.
Harmony Is the Soul
Erhu artist Qi Xiaochun started to practice when she was six years old and her teacher is the famous Chinese erhu artist Wang Yongde. Qi is also an award winner of Shanghai Spring International Erhu Competition in 1991. Critics praised Qi's solo erhu works in the last three NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectaculars as rarely seen masterpieces.
Qi said, "To perfect the combination of Western and Eastern instruments, we all worked very hard, especially on the instrumentation and the music's composition. Traditional Chinese music often uses main rhythm to express a tone color change. Although many main rhythms in our performance are based on traditional Chinese music, the collective performance is most important. The performance stands out because the whole orchestra is in harmony."
