Renowned American chamber music group to leave for China tour

NEW YORK, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS), one of the largest and most influential chamber music organizations in the world, is leaving for China next week for a six-city, over-two-week tour, adding further momentum to growing people to people exchanges between China and the United States.

"We have been to China many, many times. And it's always my biggest pleasure to bring these great musicians to visit China. I am Chinese myself, So it's a homecoming for me," said pianist Han Wu, co-artistic director of CMS, in an interview with Xinhua on Monday.

"This (the trip) is super important now in 2023 when both countries are trying to have a nice conversation," said Wu, recipient of Musical America's Musician of the Year Award.

"Chamber music is the art form that requires conversation. They (it) require(s) exchange of ideas. So this is the perfect platform for us to see our friends and see our audience in China," she said.

The trip to China, scheduled from Nov. 29 to Dec. 12, is led by Wu and cellist David Finckel, co-artistic director of CMS, who are joined by four stellar artists from CMS's international and intergenerational roster of preeminent chamber musicians: clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester; violinists Chad Hoopes and Kristin Lee; violist Paul Neubauer.

The traveling ensemble is to perform eight concerts in six cities -- Nanjing, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, and conduct four series of master classes for conservatory students in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Tianjin.

The CMS' first tour of China, at the invitation of the Beijing Modern Music Festival, was in 2015, with subsequent visits in 2017, 2018 and 2019 to Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, and Hong Kong.