Bard College's US-China Music institute to present Lunar New Year concert

The US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music will present its third annual Chinese New Year Concert The Sound of Spring on Friday and Sunday.

The concert will be conducted by institute director Jindong Cai with Bard's The Orchestra Now (TōN) performing.

The Friday concert will be held at 8 pm in the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, and the concert on Sunday will be at 3 pm in the Rose Theater of Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City.

The annual event marks the Chinese Lunar New Year, and this year's concert will celebrate the Year of the Tiger. It will showcase the diversity and artistry of Chinese symphonic music and will feature some of the best Chinese American artists and solo artists in the US today, along with traditional instruments.

Cai will share the stage with guest conductor Chen Bing and Chinese instrument masters from the world-renowned faculty of the Central Conservatory of Music, China.

Highlights of the concert will include the spectacular Yellow River piano concerto, performed by Julliard's Ju Xiaofu; the gorgeous Apsaras of the Silk Road for pipa and orchestra, featuring New York-based pipa soloist Zhou Yi, and the operatic medley From Jasmine to Turandot, which combines Puccini's famous Chinese-influenced opera score with the main source of his inspiration, the popular folk song Jasmine Flower.

"This program represents a selection of pieces that show how Chinese music and Western music can interact with one another, from the formal elements of the traditional instruments and the modern Western orchestra, to the musical elements of diverse compositional styles, to the thematic elements of setting, history and story-telling," said Cai.