NYC concert brings together East, West

East met West at a delightful concert in New York City that showcased the best in music from Chinese and American artists in collaboration with the New Jersey Symphony.

Image China – East/West Symphonic Concert with Maestro Xian Zhang at the Lincoln Center in Manhattan was presented Wednesday by the China Arts and Entertainment Group alongside the New Jersey Symphony.

The evening aimed to unveil the beauty of Chinese music to Western audiences featuring a concert that effortlessly blended masterful, soulful renditions of classical American songs along with the delicate, tranquil, folksy, joyful sounds of Chinese classical music.

"I loved it! The first three pieces were outstanding," Steve Rolston of Long Island, New York, told China Daily after the concert. "It was so nice to dip my toe into Chinese classical music. It was as joyful as all classical music. I really enjoyed it."

The concert was sold out, with at least 900 people in attendance at Alice Tully Hall, a concert hall at Lincoln Center.

Maestro Xian Zhang, a renowned conductor, and music director of the New Jersey Symphony effortlessly led the orchestra through a series of songs that showcased the best of each culture.

Zhang told China Daily: "The key is to use this opportunity to really let people come together through art. And right now, it's a very conflicting time. But I think with music, we're able to come together, and we have a hall full of people, of Americans and Chinese, both of which is fantastic."

Huang Ping, consul general of the Chinese Consulate General in New York said in a statement: "Music has the unique power to bridge peoples from different countries, races and cultural backgrounds. … Tonight's performance will touch our hearts and bring us closer for a better future."

The suite featured two musical themes from Image China productions performed over the past decade, including Soaring Wings and Confucius.

The program delighted audiences with living composer Chen Qigang's Er Huang Piano Concerto.

Chelsea Guo, an internationally acclaimed pianist who has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, and in London, Austria, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, China, Japan and Canada dazzled the audience with her skill and passion while praising the composition.

Guo told China Daily: "One of the most important things for me personally is everything comes from the belief, really, that all these composers, everyone who creates, creates something from human experience and from the human heart.

"And at the end of the day, all these notes and all of these expressions on paper are really just a way to notate something that's much deeper within."

The night also featured the classic Appalachian Spring by American composer Aaron Copland. It was first performed in Washington DC in 1944. The orchestra breathed new life into the classic.

The hall then filled with Violin Concerto No. 1 by Zhao Jiping, one of China's most prominent composers.

Nancy Zhou, a talented violinist, who won the 2018 Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin competition used a Ceruti violin from 1815 on stage.

Zhou said it was important for her work to reflect her Chinese heritage and the fact that she was born in the United States to Chinese immigrant parents.

She explained that her violin offered a lot of girth in sound so there were both masculine and feminine aspects to it that she "cherished". She added that she thoroughly enjoyed working with the New Jersey Symphony and Maestro Zhang.

"I have heard [the New Jersey symphony] before live a couple of times and I have been a fan of Maestro Xian Zhang for a long time. And so, to have this opportunity tonight to present music alongside them is very, very precious to me," she told China Daily.

The night came to a crescendo featuring the Song of Yangtze River, a traditional Chinese song, originally composed by Wang Shiguang/ Hu Hongwei in 1984. The song captures a flowing river and the exquisite scenery of the Yangtze River. It expresses the deep love Chinese people have for their country.

In the final moments of the concert, Esther Maureen Kelly, an American soprano, who has performed both Western opera and Chinese art songs, joined forces with Yongzhao Yu, a tenor, who in the current season sings for the Arizona Opera.

Kelly told China Daily: "It so important to [showcase the music of each country.] I think that the fact that we have this opportunity to present Chinese music in collaboration with western music on such a major American stage is wonderful. I think it would be great if it became more common in repertoire to see all sorts of people singing Chinese music because it is such quality material."