A concert featuring several remarkable events in Chinese history was held Sunday in Lincoln Center, New York City.
Starting from 3 p.m., the two-hour concert began with the symphony "Humen 1839." Jointly composed by Pulitzer Prize-winning Chinese composer Zhou Long and the highly accomplished violinist and composer Chen Yi, the work is a musical portrait of the heroic effort to confiscate and burn imported opium.
The concert also highlighted Chinese composer Ye Xiaogang's "My faraway Nanjing" for cello and orchestra, and composer Tony Fok and writer Su Wei's joint work "Ask the sky and the earth".
The whole program confronts three significant events in Chinese history: the first Opium War of 1839-42, the Nanjing Massacre of 1937, and what is now known as the "sent-down youth" movement during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76.
The performance won thunderous applause. "The music is beautiful and the percussion is impressive," Suzanne Mark, a New York resident told Xinhua, adding that this kind of Chinese history-themed melody helped her understand more about Chinese culture.
The event was part of the 2018 China Now Music Festival presented by the U.S.-China Music Institute of Bard College Conservatory of Music in collaboration with Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) in Beijing. It is dedicated to promoting an understanding and appreciation of music from contemporary China through an annual series of concerts and academic activities, according to the institute director Jindong Cai.
"Chinese composers all have the strong sense of responsibility with the society. They always want to communicate with the society through music, so this concert mainly reflects how Chinese composers have looked into the past," said Cai during the preconcert lecture on Sunday.
The inaugural season of the China Now Music Festival is under way in New York from Oct. 19 to Oct. 22, with theme "Facing the Past, Looking to the Future: Chinese Composers in the 21st Century."
