Happy Lunar New Year! On January 25, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO) rang in the Lunar New Year, celebrating the Chinese Zodiac year of the Metal Rat! People born this year will be Water signs with Yang energy. This is the 11th lunar month for this calendar and their flower is the lily, yes, lilies of all descriptions.
Once again the reception area outside Prudential Hall, in Newark NJ, was transformed! Cultural displays abounded with Fan Painting displays and Paper Cutting opportunities on the first floor, with Calligraphy and other arts displayed upstairs in the upper reception areas. I tried my hand at the conveniently prepared and folded paper to create Double Happiness, under the kind direction of the artisans at the table. For some, there would be a Gala dinner afterward.
A bit after the exhibits opened downstairs at 6 pm, there came a cavalcade of performers, hosted by two young and accomplished Masters of Ceremony. A select chorus of young voices from Starry Arts Group Children’s Chorus, under the direction of Rebecca Shen, led off the festivities. Musicians performed on instruments whose designs date back thousands of years. These instruments are crafted and played with such skill that they seem organic, as if they had grown to the form we see. It was easy to imagine Marco Polo returning from his trip on the Silk Road and telling a luthier about what he had seen, perhaps inventing the western Mandolin from that inspiration. There was dance so beautiful and graceful that it was ice skating with no ice. There were Korean Sword Dancing, Peking Opera, and a fashion show with the influences of continents on display, and all of this was before the concert itself!
Maestra Xian Zhang was resplendent in a pearl gray brocaded jacket, and the acoustic panels in the back of the stage area had twigs with blossoms on them, as well as lights that changed the character with color during different parts of the performance. We had a beautiful audience that was a harmonious combination of East and West and dignitaries, such as the Chinese Ambassador, enjoyed a concert that once again began with the Edison Chinese School Lion Dance Team, with an array of lions whose inhabitants ranged from about three years old to early teens. Our interlocutors for the concert were two precocious teens–Miya Yvette Menscher, hailing from Kearney, and Wesley Chu Yang Meynen, both of whom co-hosted the pre-show festivities last year. They moved fluently between Chinese and English, as they gave us insight into the artists they introduced during the program. And what a program!
In Li Huanzhi’s “Spring Festival Overture,” we were treated to a travelogue in music as we journeyed through the country. The music is as evocative of place and mien as of being in the Chinese countryside, experiencing the sights and sounds around us. Then the combined voices of the Peking University Alumni Chorus and select voices from the Montclair University Singers joined in favorites like Giuseppe Verdi’s “Sperate o figli” and “Va, Pensiero,” from “Nabucco,” supporting Hao Jiang Tian’s beautiful bass. The choral texture added grace and majesty in several places during the program including Georges Bizet’s “Au fond du temple saint,” from “Les pêcheurs de perles.” The lilting melody was a lovely boat ride, with Dashui Chen’s tenor combined with Tian’s bass, as two friends who vow that no woman shall come between them. From there, we went to the Traditional “Kangding Love Song,” where the richness and the beauty of the combined voices became liquid pearl.
Next, soprano Chiaro Taigi sang favorites like “O mio babbino caro” from Giacomo Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi,” Pietro Mascagni’s “Regina Coeli” from “Cavalleria Rusticana,” and Verdi’s “Sempre libera,” from “La Traviata,” then seguing from dueting with chorus to dueting with Chen, in the lightly staged “Lippen Schweigen,” the waltz from “Die lustige Witwe.” Following the arc of Western music, we returned again to the East for Wang Lipang’s popular Overture to “The Dream of the Red Chamber,” in the arrangement by Lang. The fullness and power of range from most delicate to swelling majesty punctuated by chorus included soprano Taigi’s pure tone, at its most beautiful, that was echoed spiritually by Yuxiao Chen’s traditional xun, a pottery flute that sounded like the first music uttered by our species. Haunting and spare, the xun has wind, waves and evolution in its voice reaching forward and back in a natural mise en abyme.
When the full 100 voices of the Starry Arts Children’s Chorus, ranging from three years old to fourteen, took the stage, we knew we were in for something special. Shen conducted her young choristers from the floor of Prudential Hall, so they could more easily see her. Nicholas Hersh’s arrangement of “The Little Swallow” was pure magic and the young soloists from the chorus added a fresh dimension, providing love and a cherry on the top of the treat we experienced. Watching Zhang conduct this marvelous work, and those for more than an hour before without a break, I marveled at the physical and mental stamina it takes for that level of laser focus. Moreso, however, I marveled at the purely acetylene joy she radiated before during and after the concert, at the fruition of a vision as magnanimous as it is magnificent. When popular culture would drive us apart, the enjoyment of cultures combining brings us more closely together.
All too soon, we were joining in a chorus of “Gong xi” and “Happy New Year,” and I continued to sing all the way back to the car. Happy New Year, Metal Rat! We have much work to do together!
There is so much more yet to come in this amazing season, like the next installment in the NJSO’s cinema series, “Return of the Jedi!” Get your reservations now at www.njsymphony.org. May the Force Be With You!