This preview has been provided by Duke Performances.
Duke Performances will host the ascendant 90-piece China National Symphony Orchestra featuring violinist Chuanyun Li on Thursday, February 7, at 8 pm in Page Auditorium. The ensemble will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92, the first movement of Chinese composer Xia Guan’s Earth Requiem, and the Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto by Zhanhao He / Gang Chen.
Founded in 1956 and renamed in 1996, the China National Symphony Orchestra is the premier classical ensemble in China today. Comprised of many of the best Chinese musicians performing today, the CNSO has consistently provided a meeting ground of Western and Eastern classical music, exposing Western and Eastern audiences to music they might not otherwise encounter.
In the Peoples Republic of China, the ensemble has fostered a tradition of presenting China’s first performances and world premieres of important classical music. CNSO concerts are regularly broadcast on radio and television throughout China and the world. In addition, the orchestra has performed across the globe to wide acclaim, being hailed by The Times (UK) as “a mature group with a vital sound.”
In connection with the presentation of the CNSO, we also present Rhapsody in Red: How Western Music Became Chinese, a lecture on the history and significance of Western music in China, on Wednesday, February 6, at 5:30 pm in room 0014W, the Herring Room, in the basement of Duke’s Divinity School on West Campus. The lecture features Professor Jindong Cai, Conductor and Music Director of the Stanford Symphony Orchestra; Sheila Melvin, writer and contributor to the International Herald Tribune; and Hsiao-Mei Ku, Professor of the Practice of Music (violin) and member of the Ciompi Quartet. The talk is free and open to the public and co-sponsored by the Duke University Office of Global Strategy and Programs, Asia Pacific Studies Institute, and Duke University Department of Music.
The visit by the China National Symphony Orchestra comes on the heels of the People’s Republic of China’s approval of the Duke Kunshan University expansion, which will offer liberal education programs for students from China and around the world. Duke’s ongoing and evolving relationship with China represents the university’s continued commitment to offering forward-thinking education in the US and across the globe.
The China National Symphony Orchestra featuring violinist Chuanyun Li will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92, the first movement of Chinese composer Xia Guan’s Earth Requiem, and the Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto by Zhanhao He / Gang Chen on Thursday, February 7, at 8 pm in Page Auditorium. Tickets are on sale now and available online at dukeperformances.org, by phone at 919-684-4444, or in person at the Duke University Box office in the Bryan Center.
