Music gets new meaning
For conductor and music educator Hu Yongyan, his latest project is something he has wanted to do for a long time.
When 9-year-old Liu Huaizhong got his first clarinet three months ago, he was drawn to the sound instantly, which propelled him into one-on-one classes twice a week.
“I am happy to see him enjoy the instrument. I sent him to join a chorus but he wasn’t interested,” says Liu’s mother, Ren Daqing, a 48-year-old math teacher in Beijing.
“But I was worried about one thing. Since he learns and practices alone, I am afraid he will lose interest. I hope he can share his music with children his age and they can play together.”
The mother’s wish has been fulfilled with an unusual youth orchestra and a 10-day music camp which began on Sunday in southern part of Beijing.
Liu is one of the 170 who make up the recently formed Orchestra Kids, a project initiated by Chinese-American conductor and music educator Hu Yongyan.
The orchestra is unusual because all the students, ages between 6 and 20, are not professional musicians.
There was no audition or test for the applicants and they will give a performance on Monday at the Beijing Concert Hall.
After tests, the students were divided into three groups, which form three orchestras—symphony, string and percussion.
Speaking about the project, Hu, who is training the students along with his musician friends, says: “For many of them, this will be their first music summer camp experience, and the first opportunity to perform in an orchestra at a concert hall.”
The camp, which runs from 8:30 am to 3 pm daily, includes basic training and rehearsals for the performance.
The camp began with the children playing Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring under the guidance of Zhang Jingye, a violin teacher at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.
As the artistic director of Orchestra Kids, Zhang says the project is a challenge both for the students and the teachers.
Speaking to the students, Zhang says: “I know you have been practicing the piece for days, but I want to say it doesn’ t matter how well you play your instrument. The important thing is you listen to others’ performance sand try your best to help each other.”
As for Hu, he not only wants to deliver the message that “music is a valuable and enjoyable aspect of life” but also hopes to “produce a new generation of musical ambassadors for the world”.
Hu has had the idea of the summer camp and the orchestra for China’s music learners for a long time.
His inspiration came from music projects such as El Sistema, the internationally celebrated program from Venezuela, which brings impoverished youth into musical ensembles to enrich their lives and promote social mobility.
“I want to make the project go beyond music. It’s about self-realization, self-confidence and more,” says Hu.
“By giving the young attendees the experience of learning and performing together in an orchestra, this project instills the values of tolerance, respect, discipline and compassion in the budding musicians,” he says in the mission statement for the project.
Born into a musically inclined family in Shanghai, Hu is the third generation of his family to take up a career in music.
His grandfather taught him to play the violin and his parents both played in the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.
Hu graduated from China’s prestigious Central Conservatory of Music, then studied at Yale University and then at the Juilliard School in New York, where he received a master’s degree.
The 60-year-old served as the music director and conductor of the Lincoln (Nebraska) Symphony Orchestra from 1993 to 1998, and with the Duluth (Minnesota) Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2000.
After returning to China in 2000, he served as music director and principal conductor of the Shanghai Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and China National Symphony Orchestra.
In 2009, he took the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra on a US tour, which included Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.
Last year, he was named the principal guest conductor of the Norddeutschen Philharmonie Rostock in Germany.
As for reactions from the parents of other students in the project, Wei Lina, a 38-year-old full-time mother from Beijing, whose son, Liu Yinji, 10, has been learning cello for three years, says: “This is my son’s first summer camp and we chose it because of Hu’s reputation.
“Usually we travel abroad during his summer vacation. I hope this summer camp will be an enjoyable experience for him.”
As for Hu, he hopes that Orchestra Kids will become a regular project and his goal is to have 10,000 children, who play in 50 orchestras.
“For me, Orchestra Kids is my most down-to-earth project and I hope it grows into something like ping-pong in China.”
Speaking of ping-pong, he says it was a national sport in his youth. Then, nearly every park or school in the country had a ping-pong table and players were very competitive and skillful, though they were not professional athletes.
But while he hopes that learning music will become like ping-pong, he says: “It’s a collective effort to play in an orchestra.”
I want to make the project go beyond music. It’s about self-realization, self-confidence and more.” Hu Yongyan, conductor and music educator
Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn