Events By Genre

The illustrious Class of 1978, the first graduating class from music conservatories after the Cultural Revolution, included composers who would revitalize Chinese contemporary music. This concert includes chamber music by this extraordinary generation of composers.

In 1978, after the Cultural Revolution, Chinese music conservatories once again opened their doors to a new generation of composers. This program features chamber music by these extraordinary figures who have since revitalized contemporary Chinese music.

Tan Dun’s film score Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won both an Oscar and a Grammy, while his music for the concert hall has won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award. His work can sound ghostly, irresistibly rhythmic, and highly melodic. This all–Tan Dun concert under the composer’s leadership features the distinguished soloist Cho-Liang Lin performing a world premiere.

The performance starts on the edge of the Pacific with music by an eclectic American who employs Chinese, Korean, and Mexican instruments. Then hear a new piece by a miraculous Chinese composer whose music trembles at the edge of silence and ecstasy. And lastly Mahler breathes the air of eternity in his late masterpiece.

It’s a cultural phenomenon: traditional Chinese instruments placed in a Western orchestral configuration. The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra is one of the most famous of these groups, known for performing everything from folk music to newly commissioned classical works.

With their colorful orchestral suites, Bartók and Stravinsky depict the China of fairytales. A more realistic China—but equally evocative—emerges in music by Bright Sheng and Tan Dun. In Tan Dun’s concerto, percussion soloist Colin Currie makes intoxicating sounds, plunging his hands quite literally into water.

Stravinsky’s complete opera The Nightingale unfolds with playful, shining music that tells the story of a beautiful fable. Yo-Yo Ma begins the evening with a new cello concerto by Angel Lam, a young composer whose work sounds both Chinese and Western, contemporary but also timeless.

This program features works by composers living and working in China today.