The China National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) Orchestra made its North America debut at Chicago Symphony Center on Sunday, the ensemble's first-ever North America tour.
The concert started with Wu Xing (The Five Elements) composed by Chinese composer Chen Qigang, who is most widely known for his role as the music director of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony.
The work, composed in 2001, is a collection of contrasting movements symbolizing the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) which, according to Chinese tradition, constitute the universe.
Internationally acclaimed pianist Wang Yuja joined the performance as a soloist, presenting to the audience Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major. Wang has performed with many of the world's prestigious orchestras. She is now an artist-in-residence with Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra.
The hour-long performance was scheduled to conclude with Dvorak's bucolic and intimate Symphony No.8, but minutes-long applause brought the Chinese artist back to perform another piece, Dvorak's Slavonic Dance in A-flat Major.
Babara Darro drove more than an hour and half from Indiana to the concert. "This is a wonderful concert," she said, lauding all the pianist, conductor and orchestra as "wonderful."
She described the Chinese composer of the first piece (the Five Elements) as very modern and contemporary, hoping the Chinese orchestra would come again.
Rosemary especially liked the pianist because of her very nice techniques, and her friend Conny Gaihhan said the concert was "really enjoyable."
Symphony is a kind of art language in the West, said Lv Jia, chief conductor of the orchestra. "We are trying to use the Western art language to express what's inside Chinese people." "Music is the best media of cultural exchange."
Lv told Xinhua that most of the artists of the orchestra were born after 1980, and more than half of them have the experience of studying and performing abroad. They are the representatives of the new-generation artists in China.
Ren Xiaolong, managing director of China NCPA Orchestra, said in an interview with Xinhua that 2014 marks the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and the United States, and it is an honor for China NCPA Orchestra to take part in the celebrations.
"An orchestra is a cultural ambassador," Ren said, hoping American people will have a better understanding of Chinese people through his orchestra's performances.
Chicago is the first leg of the orchestra's 12-day tour of seven cities in North America. The orchestra will also perform in Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York before going to Canada to perform in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.
Established in 2010, the China NCPA Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts of China in Beijing. It has so far staged more than 800 performances worldwide.