THE GRAND CHINESE NEW YEAR CONCERT
The Grand Chinese New Year Concert is one of the most successful unconventional concert formats worldwide. Over sixteen years, the Chinese touring agency Wu Promotion has organised concerts in more than fifteen countries on three continents. Every year during the period of the Chinese Spring Festival, one of China’s acclaimed traditional orchestras presents a sample of the colorful domestic musical tradition in the renowned venues of the bouncing metropolises of the West. Since the first concert in the Vienna Musikverein in 1998, the Grand Chinese New Year Concert has attracted more than 100.000 keen listeners. Year after year, a traditional orchestra from a different Chinese region is selected by a committee of experts to showcase the highlights of its local music works in the West. By changing the orchestra every year, audiences are able to discover the various ethnical music styles China has to offer. From the sounds of the horse-head fiddle from Inner Mongolia to the Cantonese melodies of the Gaohu - listeners are taken on a spectacular musical journey through the Chinese lands. In order to make the Western audience develop an understanding for Chinese music, a moderator leads through the diverse concert program, introducing solo instruments like Erhu or Pipa and explaining the background of orchestral pieces or the meaning of the lyrics of a vocal performance. Under distinguished Chinese conductors and well-versed musicians in beautiful traditional costumes both traditional Chinese music as well as contemporary arrangements are interpreted. Interested listeners can immerse themselves in new soundscapes and broaden their musical horizons at the same time. The Grand Chinese New Year Concert has been designed to enrich the cultural exchange between East and West and to bring Chinese traditional music, which has a history of more than 3.000 years, to the world stages. After sixteen years of annual concert tours, the Grand Chinese New Year Concert has not only established an exemplary musical tradition but also contributed to the recognition of Chinese music as an essential element of the global musical heritage.
