Orchestra Conductor Says DPA Is ‘Terrific’

(Youzhi Ma/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—Mr. Singer, a symphony orchestra conductor, attended the Divine Performing Arts Chinese New Year Splendor on Saturday Jan. 24 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

The Divine Performing Arts Orchestra captured his attention. “Oh it’s terrific, it’s a wonderful orchestra and it’s nice they use traditional music, the old instruments like the erhu, and they use also the violin, the piano,” Mr. Singer said.

The Divine Performing Arts Orchestra brings together two of the world’s greatest classical music traditions, Chinese and Western, in a masterful fusion. With Western instruments as its base, the orchestra brings out Chinese musical flair through a variety of Chinese instruments. All of the music the 40-plus member orchestra plays is original and composed to fit with each dance.

“It’s nice they combined all the different instruments...” Mr. Singer said.

He was also impressed with the way stories were told through Chinese classical dance—an ancient and expressive form of dance, rich in diversity.

“Oh it’s very beautiful, the beautiful graceful dancing and the music, traditional dancing and costumes and the drama of the story of different cultures and I guess philosophies, religions struggling over the years, over thousands of years.”

Mr. Singer said he particularly enjoyed the dance called The Udumbara’s Bloom, saying it was “very beautiful.”

The legendary Udumbara flower of Buddhist lore blossoms but once every three thousand years. Rich with spiritual import, its unfolding is said to herald the coming of a great sage or enlightened being.

Mr. Singer also enjoyed The Monkey King Triumphs in which one of Chinese history’s most beloved characters, Monkey King, springs to life in an adaptation of a scene from the 16th century novel Journey to the West. The storyline reflects the melding of the magical, moral, and mundane so common in the traditional Chinese novel.

“Very dramatic, very beautiful, it sort of makes me feel the Chinese are very … they believe in nature, gods and … lots of spiritual ideas, visions of nature,” he said.

Divine Performing Arts is a New York-based performance company founded by leading Chinese artists is seeking to revive China’s traditional culture and present it to audiences around the world through Chinese classical dance and music.

  Please see DivinePerformingArts.org for more information.