Music warms hearts amid COVID-19 - Chinese, Egyptian musicians stage virtual performance of Triumphal March

SINCERE COOPERATION

"The key to a virtual performance is remaining aligned and performing in rhythm," said Li Qiu, chief of the Liaoning Symphony Orchestra, who tried such a performance for the first time in over 30 years of his career as a musician.

"Usually, we have a conductor for a performance," Li said, adding that in terms of recording music at home, "it is difficult to step on every beat exactly. Some of us recorded like seven or eight times."

"The video brings me a lovely memory of Egyptian musicians," he said.

"The video-making requires coordination of many technical details," Shi said, adding that they had exchanged many emails and made a lot of phone calls to nail down details.

The time difference of six hours between Egypt and China and the unstable Internet in Cairo made the task even more difficult, Shi said.

It took nearly half a month to finish the complete video, Zhu said, which lasts one minute and 34 seconds.

"We recorded it repeatedly, and finally presented this complete work to everyone," Zhu said.

Saber told Xinhua in an email interview that he was deeply moved by the willingness of the artists of the two countries to jointly complete this performance and overcome all difficulties in a spirit of union and cooperation.

"The cooperation has created a grand feast for the two oldest civilizations in history," Saber said.