DALLAS—“It’s divine,” said choral director Alice Renner of the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra during intermission at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas Tuesday evening.
“I love it; it’s beautiful,” Ms. Renner said. “It was awesome. It was fascinating.”
Ms. Renner said she enjoyed seeing the traditional instruments, like the pipa and erhu, playing within a full Western symphony.
Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra blends East and West in instrumentation, piece selection, and even with solo vocalists who sing original Chinese compositions in the highly difficult bel canto style.
“I love the different instrumentations, how they have the theme by one of the instruments echoed by the other instruments,” Ms. Renner said. “It’s just gorgeous.”
The orchestra played classical pieces like Tchaikovsky’s Polonaise from “Eugene Onegin,” and original pieces like “Divine Compassion” composed by Junyi Tan and Yu Deng, both of which were conducted by Milen Nachev. Four conductors in total delighted the audience with encores showcasing their vastly different styles, and receiving a long, thunderous standing ovation for their efforts.
“I thought they were beautiful,” Ms. Renner said of the original pieces.
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