NEW YORK—Sitting amongst an excited crowd on the opening night of Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Lincoln Center on Saturday evening, April 20, was Rémy Loumbrozo, a classical music teacher at Lycée Français de New York.
“I like very much the freshness of the tone of the [musical score],” said Mr. Loumbrozo, who had received his education at Juilliard.
“It’s very interesting to hear the mixture of traditional Chinese instruments and Western instruments,” he said. “It’s a very unusual and succinct combination, I have not personally been exposed that often to that combination.”
Historically, few have succeeded in harmonizing Eastern and Western instruments as their frequencies vary by nature.
Yet Shen Yun’s composers have managed to find a rare musical harmony of the East and the West through their original compositions.
Jing Xian, one of Shen Yun’s composers, studied composition and music literature at the Conservatory of China, and was awarded a scholarship to Oxford University to pursue a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology, according to her biography on the Shen Yun website.
The Shen Yun Orchestra consists of Western instruments such as the trombone and the violin, with Eastern instruments such as Chinese violin—the erhu.
“I was trying to watch but I couldn’t see all the instruments. But I was listening very carefully,” Mr. Loumbrozo said. “I feel it’s very interesting.”
Mr. Loumbrozo and his wife, Isabelle Loumbrozo, said they were moved by the overall elegance of the performance.
“The simplicity, the freshness, the grace, the elegance, are the words that come to my mind,” he said. “The stories that are being told and the costumes were, of course, just extraordinary ... refreshing,” he said.
It’s a wonderful, colored journey filled with stories that you can understand really well,” said Mrs. Loumbrozo.
Shen Yun dances include story-based dances, which are a dramatic portrayal of beloved moral Chinese folk tales, such as tales of heroine Mulan and general Yue Fei.
Mrs. Loumbrozo said she was moved by the moral theme of ancient Chinese culture.
“I like this message personally,” she said.
With reporting by Amelia Pang and Huiwen Ji
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
Shen Yun Performing Arts is performing at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center through April 28.
The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
