Author and Art Critic: ‘A Wonderful Evening’

Alexandra York, author, art critic, and music lover, enjoyed Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra’s performance at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 5.
Author and Art Critic: ‘A Wonderful Evening’
Alexandra York, author and music lover, saw Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on Saturday night, Oct. 5, 2013. (Courtesy of NTD Television)

NEW YORK—Alexandra York, author, art critic, and music lover, enjoyed Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra’s performance at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 5.

“It’s a wonderful evening,” she said. “One of the best parts of it was that it was so melodic, and so flowing, and so joyous, and so beautiful.

“Usually, when you go to an evening of music, they stick something ugly in the middle,“ she said. ”And this was just beautiful throughout.”

The orchestra’s all-original music draws upon China’s 5,000 years of civilization, “with its array of dynasties and peoples from which to find inspiration,” a orchestra’s website.

“The orchestra melds the spirit, beauty, and distinctiveness of Chinese music with the precision, power, and grandeur of the Western symphony orchestra.”

York found it interesting to hear the Chinese music and the Western music juxtaposed and see the flow between them all.

She enjoyed the series of encores at the end of performance. “That was so much fun,” she said.

She thought it was a wonderful idea to have the different conductors. “And they were from different places, so we can sort of compare this and that—and I’m a musician to—so it was very interesting for me to see the subtleties, and the bravado and the nuances, of the conductors and the players responding to the different conducting of the different men.”

“It was a beautiful evening,“ York said. ”We truly enjoyed it.”

Reporting by NTD Television and Sarah Matheson

Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra is on a seven-city tour with performances in Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, from Sept. 27–Oct. 22. For more information, visit Symphony.Shenyun.com