Last night we had the opportunity to share our music with the Beijing Audience. The program contained the music of Johannes Brahms, Morten Lauridsen, Stephen Hartke, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Abbie Betinis,Petr Eben, Dale Warland, Stacey V. Gibbs, Matthew Nielsen, Kurt Knecht and Mack Wilberg. I was concerned that audience would think the program was too difficult for this audience to understand or appreciate. I had no reason to have been concerned. The audience was absolutely wonderful. While our performance was not perfect, the USC Chamber Singers delivered a passionate performance in yet another great performing venue, The National Library Concert Hall. I asked several of my graduate students to conduct a number, every time they went up to conduct there was a roar from the audience. Why I thought? Later it was revealed that no conductor in China would allow one of his students to conduct his/her ensemble in a performance. So glad to have shown a different perspective. Afterwards we were greeted like rock stars, a group of 40-50 university students met us at the bus and insisted on taking photos with the entire ensemble. Then they asked to sing for us and sang Witness by Jack Halloran. Humbled by these fans of choral music, by our cultural exchange, and by our art form.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 11:47:36 +0000
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