ESCONDIDO, Calif.—Brett Sanders, a musician and composer, felt inspired by the Shen Yun Performing Arts Orchestra when he saw it Dec. 29. “I write music, and so listening to the orchestra and seeing the dancers, I’m thinking ‘Wow! Wow! I have a lot of ideas; it gives me a lot of ideas, a lot of inspiration,” Mr. Sanders said after seeing the New York-based company at California Center for the Arts.
Shen Yun’s orchestra succeeds in combining the typically disparate sounds of East and West, according to the company’s website.
“This is how the effect is achieved: A Western philharmonic orchestra plays the foundation, while traditional Chinese instruments lead the melodies. The sound produced is uniquely pleasing to the ear. The ensemble at once expresses both the grandeur of a Western orchestra and the distinct sensibilities of China’s 5,000-year-old civilization.”
Mr. Sanders appreciated the combination of different instruments that haven’t been paired before, from the dizi, a flute, to the pipa, a lute.
“The sound is more pungent, more striking, and then you put that together with the violins … just gives it a totally different sound, different voice, different flavor or feeling, different mood,” he said.
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