"If the concert tonight can be illustrated as a picture, then this picture is from the Appalachian Mountains to the Great Wall. Through this picture, everyone can feel the connection between the cultures," says Cai in an interview with China Daily. "Music indeed is a very good art form for communication. Putting aside politics, economy and idealism, communication between people is the most important. And music is the best way to communicate."
The concert, which included performances by US musicians, provided the audience with the opportunity to get to know traditional Chinese music. By performing traditional Chinese music, Cai says the musicians will try to interpret it themselves.
"During our rehearsals, I already heard someone say, 'Whoa, Chinese traditional music is so beautiful'," Cai says.
Many enjoyed Chinese traditional music at the concert.
"It's very different from Western music, absolutely. Especially when you listen to how the soloists play, you can hear a lot of different inflections and styles of playing that are not traditionally done in Western music, which I thought is really interesting," says concertgoer Wesley Michalski to China Daily.
Shenghua Hu, the violinist who played the Butterfly Lovers violin concerto, says he felt proud to play Eastern music in the Lincoln Center, an iconic venue in New York City and one of the world's leading performing arts centers.
"Music is the universal language of mankind. Music helps peoples and nations communicate through means that are more efficient than words, because it touches the core of humanity by awakening empathy and compassion," Hu says.
Holly Flack, a coloratura soprano who sang songs derived from ancient Chinese poems A Night Mooring by the Maple Bridge, Ode to the Goose and Song of Snow, says the concert brought hope to people in China and the US, with the world still battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
