Visitors to the Great Wall are often inspired and may even imagine hearing music. However if you toured the famous China landmark last week and thought you heard trumpets blazing across the mountains, you were not mistaken.

Members of the New England Conservatory's Youth Philharmonic Orchestra visiting the wall brought their trumpets and played the opening measures of Mahler's Symphony No 5 to the delight of their conductor. "Their music echoed in the mountains, and I could hear it from far behind them," said orchestra leader Maestro Benjamin Zander.

"My eyes were filled with tears at that moment, which I will never forget in my life."

The Youth Philharmonic Orchestra consists of 14-18 year-old students from the preparatory school of the New England Conservatory in Boston. The group performs overseas every two years and has toured South America, Europe and Asia. This is the group's first visit to China and Zander has made a bold promise to classical music fans across the nation: Anybody who came to see the performance and didn't like the concert would get their money back.

"I have conducted all the greatest orchestras in the world, but this youth orchestra plays with such passion that it can compare to any famous orchestra in the world," he says. 

"Twelve concerts in 17 days! Some people say classical music is going down, but I don't think so."

Each teenage orchestra member paid $2,500, which together with other fund raising events by the conservatory, paid for their China tour. The schedule began in Beijing last week and moved to Shijiazhuang, Tianjin. It continues this week to Shenyang, Anshan, Yingkou, Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, and later to Chongqing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai.

The orchestra's schedule not only includes concerts, but also rehearsals with four local youth orchestras. Last week they had a six-hour joint rehearsal with the orchestra of the Middle School Attached to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

"The Chinese students are extremely dedicated, disciplined and open," said Zander.

"All disagreements disappeared when people play music and share lives together. I have a dream that all the people in the world will be making music in the end."

Zander joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory in 1967, teaching the Interpretation Class and conducting the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then he has taken the orchestra on 14 international tours and made five commercial recordings.

In 1979, Zander became the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. In their 26 seasons together they have performed an extensive repertoire, with an emphasis on late Romantic and early 20th Century composers, especially the symphonies of Mahler.

"Mahler's works teach us a lot about life, death, hope, and conflicts. He draws me like Shakespeare draws me," he said.

But that's not the only reason why Zander chose Mahler for the program of Youth Philharmonic Orchestra.

"In Mahler's works, every player has something important to do," said he. "The fourth flute player in our orchestra once said that he felt like the most important player in the world when he played Mahler."

After their last concert at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center on June 29, the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra will leave China on June 30.

(China Daily June 20, 2007)