When music connects

Canada's National Arts Center CEO Peter Herrndorf speaks exclusively to China Daily. Provided to China Daily

Video: Canadian National Orchestra tours in BJ

Music connects Canada and China

Peter Herrndorf, the doyen of Canadian culture, is leading a seven-city tour of China. He tells Joseph Catanzaro that the string of concerts is an overture to closer cultural ties between China and Canada.

There is an unbridled passion in Peter Herrndorf's voice when he speaks about the power of music to capture and captivate people, to transform their interactions into something approaching the symphonic. "Music is a powerful way of connecting people," he says. "Sometimes language is a way of separating people; music is a way of bringing them together."

He should know.

Almost 200 years after renowned American poet H.B. Longfellow famously penned the phrase "music is the universal language of mankind", Herrndorf has put the substance behind that sentiment to the test.

And the doyen of Canadian culture says it has not been found wanting.

This month, Canada's National Arts Center Orchestra made its debut foray into China.

Herrndorf, the chief executive officer of Canada's National Arts Center, says the seven-city tour of China was a resounding success for the 70-strong-troupe of musicians.

More than that, he believes the string of concerts is an overture to closer cultural ties between China and Canada.

While other Western nations have largely concentrated on wooing the world's second largest economy with trade agreements, Herrndorf's government stumped up some 250,000 Canadian dollars ($239,049) to help their musicians-turned-envoys visit China.

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