2018 TCI Chinese New Year Concert and Phoebe's Pipa Special

On February 2nd, the Tourism Confucius Institute at Griffith University hosted the 2018 New Year Concert and Phoebe’s Pipa Solo Special at the Princess Theater in Brisbane. This concert featured traditional Chinese instruments including pipa, dizi (bamboo flute), erhu, konghou (Chinese harp), xiao (vertical bamboo flute). Around 400 audiences participated in this event.

Phoebe presented two pipa solo Yi and Listening to the Ancient Times, which are her own composition. She presented other famous eastern and western pieces including Ambush from All Sides, Jin Li Chao, Habanera, and Rose with the accompaniment of dagu (Chinese large drum), erhu, dizi, piano, guitar, bass. Our audiences encountered an exquisite and unique music experience through the combination of eastern and western instruments. We also invited Professor Jianda Qi, the nationally accredited first-level erhu player in China, Konghou player Siyuan Pang from Shenyang Conservatory of Music, and Junyu Tian from TCI. And Shuang Wu, Chinese teacher at TCI, was the MC of the concert.

The concert started with a war piece Ambush from All Sides presented with pipa and dagu. This arrangement shows the best of the various playing techniques of pipa and fully reveals fighting scenes in ancient times with mighty winners.

Konghou player Siyuan Huang played Xiangfei Bamboo, this piece depicts the bamboo and cheerful dancing under the autumn sun.

Junyu Tian had a dizi solo The Harvest Celebration on Horse Carts. Some audiences said, from Jerry’s performance they could vividly picture a harvest scene that smiling farmers are singing harvest songs and clicking their horses’ hooves as they pull the grain-laden carts.

Professor Jianda Qi performed Czardas with the erhu, with the accompaniment of the guitar. Czardas was composed originally for the violin but later was rearranged for the erhu.Czardas is slow rhythm in the beginning and ends in a very fast tempo. Being presented with the erhu has added some exotic eastern elements into this Gypsy dance.

The last piece was Spring River Moonlit Night, presented with the pipa, erhu, dizi and dance. Tenielle Cridland, a member of Chinese club at TCI, also joined the performance playing the erhu.

With the end of the last piece, the audiences asked for an encore. In response to the extensive applause from the audiences, Phoebe and other performers went back to the stage and played a Spanish piece Besame Mucho.

Music is a bridge of friendship connecting China and Australia. After the concert, most of the audiences went to the stage to take photos with the performers and expressed their appreciation of their performances. Mr. Kieron Roost, the executive director of business performance at QPEC, indicated that he was very lucky to be invited to such an exquisite concert. He also thanked the TCI for presenting such a wonderful concert where local communities are able to encounter traditional Chinese instruments. Professor Colin Mackerras from Griffith University also gave highly complement to Phoebe and other performers’ performance, hoping the TCI would organize more concert featuring Chinese folk instruments.

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