Chinese, U.S. musicians celebrate Lunar New Year with annual concert

Photo taken on Feb. 8, 2021 shows artists rehearsing for "The Sound of Spring", an online concert for the Chinese New Year, at Bard College Conservatory of Music in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, the United States. The U.S.-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music on Feb. 13 staged its second annual concert of symphonic music to celebrate the Lunar New Year. (Photo by Hsiao-Fang Lin/Xinhua)

NEW YORK, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music here on Saturday evening staged its second annual concert of symphonic music to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

The concert, titled "The Sound of Spring," featured a new performance at the Fisher Center at Bard by the conservatory's pre-professional orchestra and master's degree program The Orchestra Now, and was joined by special guests from the Central Conservatory of Music Chinese Chamber Orchestra, the China National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra.

The event, live-streamed for free, began with Chinese artist Tan Dun's Internet Symphony "Eroica" to honor the numerous heroes worldwide who are working to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. It also offered a sampling of traditional and contemporary Chinese symphonic, chamber, solo and theatrical music, showcasing different regional folk traditions, as well as blending Chinese and Western instruments and musical forms.

"The Lunar New Year is celebrated by people all around the world. This is the Year of the Ox, which symbolizes strength and determination," said Cai Jindong, director of the institute.

"We created this year's program to give people some feelings of hope and of looking forward to the future. We hope through music we can give you inspiration," said Cai, also conductor of the concert.

The U.S.-China Music Institute was founded in 2018 by Cai and Robert Martin, founding director of the conservatory, with a mission to promote the study, performance, and appreciation of music from contemporary China and to support musical exchanges between the United States and China. Enditem