Tea Reception and Chinese Instrument Demonstrations

Posted on: June 14th, 2017

Friday, June 16 at 6:00 p.m., Concert Conversations at 6:30
Concert at 7:30
Classics from the East & West • Wisconsin Conservatory of Music

 

A one-of-a-kind evening, concert guests will enjoy a tea reception while exploring Chinese instruments with musicians in traditional dress – a mirror of Chinese musical culture that sets the scene for the concert.

Chinese instrumentalists Joel Xue, director of the Milwaukee Chinese Community Center Youth Orchestra, and Xiaoli Wu, music director of the Madison Chinese Music Instrument Ensemble, will demonstrate plucked stringed instruments, bowed stringed instruments, and flutes. Guests will first listen to “Butterfly Lovers” and other Chinese classics played on these traditional instruments prior to Ms. Chen’s performances of these pieces on piano.

At 6:30 p.m., Meaghan Heinrich bridges Chinese musical traditions with traditional music by Franz Schubert during her Concert Conversations presentation.

The concert at 7:30 p.m. opens with the monumental Sonata in G major, D. 894 by Franz Schubert. Pianist Jie Chen shares Schubert’s interconnections of the human experience through the sonata’s four movements that reflect the life cycle of all people.

Bringing the evening to its full circle, we return to classics of China with “Music At Sunset,” “Autumn Moon over the Calm Lake,” and “Butterfly Lovers,” piano transcriptions by Jie Chen, named “Ambassador of Arts and Education” by the Shanghai International Arts Festival.