For the second time in five years, the people of Beijing have been able to enjoy concerts by the Asian Youth Orchestra. The last time was in 1997, when the orchestra performed at Beijing's Great Hall of the People to celebrate Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty. On that occasion, the orchestra impressed the Beijing audiences with Tan Dun's masterpiece -- Sky, Earth, and Human.
This time, it performed the works of another successful Chinese-American musician -- Bright Sheng (Sheng Zongliang) -- and was conducted by Richard Pontzious, the US founder and artistic director of the orchestra. He had conducted Shanghai Symphony Orchestra 19 years, becoming the first foreign conductor to work in China with the normalization in the 1980s.
"It was 1983, when classic music regained its popular position in China, that I started to work in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music," he recalls. "From my 20 years' experience in China, I found the musical activities in Beijing and Shanghai are more abundant and active than other places of China. Local and visiting orchestras provide the people of the two cities with more chances to get to know the attributes of fine art. What impressed me most during my frequent visits to China was my performance with the Asian Youth Orchestra, however."
One reason driving Pontzious to establish the orchestra is that he found many music talents with great potential in the region, especially in China. Thus, since its foundation in 1987, it has been designed to inspire pride in Asian musicians. "The Asian students would like to go abroad to study. But the tragic consequence of this is that so many who leave Asia never return to share their gifts with succeeding generations," said Pontzious. "So, creating an orchestra that would celebrate the excellence of the young people here and encourage them to build on what they have at home was my main objective. Also, I want the audience to know that our orchestra can play wonderful music.
"The orchestra currently has 12 members representing the finest young musicians of China, and they contribute a lot to our success," Pontzious said.
"Bright Sheng (Sheng Zongliang) is well-known in the US and he is an exciting musician. But Sheng does not have the same reputation in Asia. So, we invited him to join us in the performance just to introduce him to the Chinese audience," he added.
(china.org.cn, edited by James Liu from Beijing Youth Daily, August 29, 2002)
