“I was blown away. So let me tell you the story.”

“I sit at a hospital, a recreational room, and a Chinese lady came over to me, she looked at me through the door, wanted to leave, then she came over, and said I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but I think you need to hear this, and she sat down next to me, and she pulled out her cellphone with the recordings [promotional footage of the performance], and showed me that this is going to be here today, and she said I think this is something that you need, and I really want you to go there.”

“I don’t know her name, I probably wouldn’t recognized her, but I got my husband tickets for Christmas, we got first row tickets, and it was absolutely incredible.”

“It’s very hard to describe, I’m of European background, ... and it’s been so incredible to see how pure the [Chinese] culture is and how elegant, and gorgeous, but also humble, in a very profound way, in a way that touches you, in a way that puts you on the spot a little bit.”

“And at the same time, I always had the feeling that, the reason they were playing was me, and I really appreciate that ... It’s about leaving an impression for the audience, and I don’t know how much better you can be an ambassador for a culture. So it’s been profound, I’m very grateful.”

“It was very touching”

“The moment you come in ... you realize you’re in a [different] world. The entire performance allowed you to learn, and allowed to become a part of it, and also allowed for me to have a lot of respect for the culture, and I think it’s a beautiful thing to have through arts.”

“I think they just did an amazing job. And the colors, the orchestra, the combination of traditional [Chinese instruments and Western classical instruments]—what I consider some things familiar to me, and instruments I have never heard before ... and just bringing it in, and then stepping away again, saying ’well this is part of what we do’, so art is an ambassador, and I don’t know how better to do it.”