Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Debut at Carnegie Hall

The New York-based Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra is making its international debut at Carnegie Hall on Sunday, October 28th.

For those who have enjoyed the music of the Shen Yun Performing Arts, this special debut is a must attend event.

[Chia-Chi Lin, Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Spokesperson]
“We’ve lots of interesting pieces to be presented for the audience at Carnegie Hall this time…This special program we have picked some of the very best pieces.”

Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Spokesperson Chia-Chi Lin talks about how it all began.

[Chia-Chi Lin, Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Spokesperson]
“The audience know we appear in the Shen Yun shows as the orchestra in the pit. But I know a lot of feedback from the audience that the music and the orchestra are so wonderful, ‘Why can’t we see them more? So they say they’d love to see us. They wish they can see us on stage some day.”

Lin says this will be an exciting experience.

[Chia-Chi Lin, Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Spokesperson]
“Because Carnegie Hall is all musicians’ dreams. Everybody wants to be in the Carnegie Hall...I think that’s the best place and we’re very excited about that.”

The concert features a blend of Chinese melodies within the Western tradition of music. Lin talks about the unique quality of the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra.

[Chia-Chi Lin, Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Spokesperson]
“Our orchestra is a combined of Western symphony orchestra style but we also have traditional Chinese instruments…(3:11s) So the composers are all Shen Yun composers—created a very special unique way of composing to mix the West and the East together and creating unique sound. And I think most of the audience that has heard this combination for the first time, they’re really amazed by it because the sound that are being created by different combinations of instruments has a very, very unique sound.”

Lin says the blending of Chinese and Western music traditions never been done so successfully in the past.

[Chia-Chi Lin, Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Spokesperson]
“Blending east and western instruments together in one symphony orchestra—I think has never been done successfully in the past… Our composers are able to use a special technique—the way they compose, mixing them together, I think has been very successful.

“The most important part is we’re trying to get the best of Western symphony orchestra style along with the best of the best quality of the Chinese traditional instruments.”

The orchestra incorporates two traditional Chinese instruments.

[Chia-Chi Lin, Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Spokesperson]

“We have erhu, which is a two-stringed instrument and also called the Chinese violin… And also pipa—a four-stringed instrument, that’s a plucking instrument, so makes that ching-chang sound and can be very powerful and can cut through the orchestra…. We’re going to have three erhu players play together on stage and we’ve two pipa players.”

She tells us what to expect from the concert.

[Chia-Chi Lin, Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Spokesperson]
“We’ve two premiere pieces, specially just written for the Carnegie Hall. The one is the ‘Blooming Lotus’ and the other is, ‘Manifestation’ or ‘Compassion.’ And those two pieces are specially really for the Carnegie Hall.”

The concert also features several Western classical pieces—from Beethoven, Vivaldi, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Tchaikovsky.

It also features special performances by Shen Yun soloists.

[Chia-Chi Lin, Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Spokesperson]
“We have five singers like Geng Haolan, Huan Xing, Tian Ge, Hong Ming, Huang Biru—and they are the best singers you can ever find.”

The ‘one-performance-only’ debut at Carnegie Hall will bring a whole new experience to the world of orchestral music.

By Margaret Trey, PhD.