SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Leaves Audience With an Indescribable Experience

Oct 29, 2016
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Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Leaves Audience With an Indescribable Experience

CHICAGO—Some experiences are so moving, emotional, or profound that trying to chase them with words is the best that one can do. At other times, these experiences leave one with a good deal to say. Tracee Omilinsky may have felt her experience was indescribable, yet she managed to express the beauty and power she felt when listening to Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra.

“It was just indescribable, actually. It was so beautiful, it was ... I just don’t know the right words to say. It was just breathtaking. It was amazing explosion of music in my ear,” the futures trader said after attending the Chicago Symphony Center concert on Oct. 29.

Ms. Omilinsky caught the last concert of Shen Yun’s tour before the ensemble joins the classical Chinese dance company, Shen Yun Performing Arts, which starts its worldwide tour in December.

The orchestra is known for the fact that it combines Chinese instruments playing traditional Chinese melodies on top of a bed of a full Western orchestra.

“It was very interesting to try to hear the Chinese instruments through the violins and the basses and the drums,” Ms. Omilinsky said, noting the delicacy of the Chinese sounds.

Ms. Omilinsky brought her teenage son, David, a baseball player, who also had trouble expressing his experience. He tried to sum up the effect of so many instruments making one sound.

“It really puts into perspective one thought, one mind. The music, everybody coming together into one singularity was amazing. I can’t find words. It was ... it just was. It was soothing, it was so expressive of ... I can’t put it into words, but yes, it was amazing. It was indescribable almost,” high school senior said.

At best, the pair described their feelings as being lost in the music. For David, it was letting the music move him so that he relaxed into it. “It put me in a different place. It was soothing, in a way,” he said.

For this mother, it was the beautiful voice of the soprano, Haolan Geng, singing “The Moment of Salvation.” According to the orchestra’s website, all the lyrics to the original pieces brim with deep reflections about life, and in this piece, about man’s purpose on earth.

“I got lost in her music. I lost myself in her words, it was just beautiful. It really was. I don’t know how to describe it. It was an amazing feeling just to be here today,” Ms. Omilinsky said.

Leading the orchestra and the singers was, of course, the conductor, who Ms. Omilinsky felt was fascinating to watch as he communicated with the musicians and they responded to him. He had a strong presence, she felt.

“You could see the energy of everybody flowing together as one, and I think for just one individual to bring an orchestra together like that, he has to have some strong demeanor of power up there.”

The Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra at the Chicago Symphony Center, on Oct. 29, 2016. (Epoch Times)
The Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra at the Chicago Symphony Center, on Oct. 29, 2016. (Epoch Times)

“The expression of music through the conductor was sublime. It was beautiful. It really was beautiful,” she added.

And as moved by the music as the mother and son were, the ultimate impact of the experience was a soothing feeling: “I’m always fascinated how emotions can come through, [come] out an instrument, and as a group, it was collectively inspiring and just so beautiful.

“Words can’t describe the symphony, the harmony that put you at ease,” Ms. Omilinsky said.

Reporting by NTD Television and Sharon Kilarski

New York-based Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra comprises musicians from the four Shen Yun Performing Arts touring companies.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the company’s inception in 2006.