A concert called "Tan Dun Organic Music 2008" was held Monday, at the National Centre for Performing Arts.(Photo: CCTV.com)

During the past decade, Tan Dun, the conceptual, multifaceted composer and conductor, has become an important innovator. He's incorporated visual, theatrical, multimedia and multicultural elements into his musical works. For one, his Organic Music Series brings together sounds from Nature and every day, man-made sounds - water, wind ceramics and paper. It's a new way of defining and experiencing music.

A concert called "Tan Dun Organic Music 2008" was held Monday, at the National Centre for Performing Arts. We caught up the usually laid-back musician to experience his unbridled vigor at the pre-show rehearsal.

The way music is created, presented, performed and experienced is being revolutionized by China's foremost avant-garde musician, Tan Dun.

His Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in 1998. It highlights a solo percussionist performing on different instruments with the sound augmented or enhanced by manipulations of water. The employment of water as a instrument for making music - the striking visual elements created in the performance on the unique instruments - gives rise to an altogether new concert experience.

(CCTV April 2,2008)