A music concert "Echoes of Ancient Tang Poems" jointly performed by iSING! Suzhou and the Philadelphia Orchestra was staged at Kimmel Performing Arts Center in Philadelphia on Jan 6.
Another concert featuring Tang poetry was held at the Lincoln Center in New York on Jan 7. Fifteen iSING! Suzhou singers from 10 countries led by Liao Guomin, former assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, performed songs written by young composers from 6 countries. The songs included many well-known poems from the Tang Dynasty(618-907), such as Luo Binwang's Singing of Goose and Li Bai's Dink to Me and Quiet Thoughts by Night.
iSING! Suzhou International Young Singers Art Festival was established in Suzhou in 2014 as China's first international vocal art festival. Over the past eight years, the festival has recruited outstanding young singers from all over the world, disseminated and promoted Chinese and classical music, and enhanced cultural exchanges between China and the West, becoming a cultural card for Suzhou to go global.
The performances were also held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Philadelphia Orchestra's China tour in 1973. The Philadelphia Orchestra, as the first American orchestra to visit China, bridged the two nations in the field of culture.
Huang Ping, Chinese consul-general in New York, Dwight Evans, US Congressman, Jim Kenney, Philadelphia mayor, attended the event along with many representatives and government officials.
The concerts were supported by the China International Culture Association, the Chinese Consulate-General in New York, and the Chinese Permanent Mission to the United Nations. The video of the concert will be released during the 2023 "Happy Chinese New Year" celebrations.
