Mix of old and new

[Photo provided to China Daily]

Zhao said earlier the orchestra's rehearsals, concert themes and music seasons were of a "high standard" and "the best among all the orchestras specializing in Chinese music".

In the past two decades, the orchestra has not only given recitals regularly at concert halls, schools and community centers in Hong Kong, with an annual average of nearly 200 shows, but also has been involved in music education and the promotion of traditional Chinese culture.

To cater to the youth, the orchestra launched two platforms－the Hong Kong Children's Chinese Orchestra and the Hong Kong Junior Chinese Orchestra－in 2003.

Competitions on conducting, composing and instrument performances have been held by Yan's orchestra to discover young talent.

In 2001, the orchestra gathered 1,000 amateur erhu players from Hong Kong and recorded the largest number of people performing the two-stringed bowed instrument at the same time at a show titled Music From a Thousand Strings.

"Classical music is often regarded as high art. Many young musicians experiment in this field to develop the genre. Why not traditional Chinese music?" says Yan. "We not only want to preserve tradition but also be creative and offer new material to our audience."

Yan was born in a village in Heyang county in Northwest China's Shaanxi province to a family of farmers. Inspired by an older brother, who is a folk music lover, Yan learned a number of traditional Chinese instruments, such as the Chinese flute and sanxian (a three-stringed instrument), as a child.