How will you be ringing within the new yr? Moreover Bravissimo and Salute to Vienna, Li Delun Music Basis’s East Meets West New Yr’s Live performance is a cherished creative and cultural Toronto custom that you shouldn’t miss.
Li Delun Music Basis
Maestro Li Delun (1917 – 2001) was the founding conductor of the primary skilled symphony orchestra of the Individuals’s Republic of China, and he devoted his life to selling classical music in communist China. One among his most well-known collaborations was with famend violinist Isaac Stern, the primary American musician invited to play with the China Central Symphony Society (now the China Nationwide Symphony Orchestra). This enterprise was captured within the 1979 documentary From Mao to Mozart, which received the Academy Award for Finest Documentary Function.
In 1981, the Maestro grew to become the primary Chinese language conductor to steer the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in a efficiency that featured Peter Oundjian (who later grew to become TSO’s music director) because the violin soloist.
Shortly after the Maestro’s demise in 2001, musicians of Toronto’s Chinese language neighborhood got here collectively to carry out in a live performance as a tribute to his legacy. This endeavour grew right into a yearly custom, and a basis in his identify was established by his household.
Moreover the New Yr live performance being the Basis’s fundamental occasion of the yr, it additionally hosts grasp courses, piano recitals and fundraising galas.
LV spoke with composer/pianist/magician Kemin Zhang and cellist Rosalind Zhang, grandchildren of Maestro Li Delun, and government administrators of the Basis in regards to the upcoming New Yr Live performance.
East Meets West New Yr’s Live performance
That is the nineteenth version of the just about annual custom, the mission of which is to showcase cultural concord by means of music, whereas introducing the richness of Chinese language musical heritage to the world. Every year, the live performance includes a contemporary roster of native and worldwide abilities.
Based on Rosalind, these live shows not solely present a platform for rising artists to carry out, but additionally showcase established worldwide artists who are usually not well-known in Canada on the Toronto stage. She describes the Toronto Competition Orchestra that performs at this live performance as a very musicians’ orchestra.
“Our group is a household affair, with many relations and mates enjoying alongside one another within the orchestra,” notes Rosalind. The group displays the cultural mosaic of our nation. Finally yr’s live performance, members of the orchestra provided new yr greetings in 13 totally different languages. “We need to present our variety and the way music actually brings us collectively.”
The Program
The total program consists of:
PROGRAM — East-Meets-West New Yr’s Live performance 2026
中西匯粹新年音乐会
Introduced by the Li Delun Music Basis
That includes the Toronto Competition Orchestra
Conductor: Yongyan Hu
Concertmaster: Qing Li
Host: Kemin Zhang 张科民
I. Opening Works
Saibei Dance — 塞北舞曲
An-Lun Huang 黄安伦
II. Pipa Concerto (Historic Music)
Consists of “King Chu Doffs His Armour —《霸王卸甲》”
Zhou Lengthy 周龙
Pipa Soloist: Qiu Jiayu 邱佳裕 (Younger rising artist from China, extremely really helpful by the dean of China Conservatory)
A dramatic retelling of the ultimate moments of Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King of Chu, by means of the expressive energy of the pipa.
III. Erhu Function: “Horse Racing” —《赛马》
Huang Haihuai 黄海怀
Preparations by Chen Yaoxing 陈耀星, Chen Jun 陈军
Orchestration by Yang Chunlin 杨春林
Erhu Soloist: Snow Bai 白雪
IV. Sabre Dance —《马刀舞曲》
Aram Khachaturian 阿拉姆·哈恰杜良
V. Yellow River Piano Concerto —《黄河钢琴协奏曲》
Motion IV: “Defend the Yellow River” — 保卫黄河
By Yin Chengzong 殷承宗, Chu Wanghua 储望华, Liu Zhuang 刘庄, Sheng Lihong 盛礼洪,
Shi Shucheng 石叔诚, Xu Feixing 许斐星
Based mostly on Xian Xinghai’s 冼星海 Yellow River Cantata
Piano Soloist: Eric Guo 郭嘉骏
Intermission
VI. Chrysanthemum Terrace —《菊花台》
From the movie Curse of the Golden Flower 《满城尽带黄金甲》
Jay Chou 周杰伦, arr. Eric Guo 郭嘉骏
That includes: Erhu: Snow Bai 白雪; Guzheng: Lina Cao 曹丽娜; Cello: Rosalind Zhang 张韞斯; Piano: Eric Guo 郭嘉骏
VII. Tales from the Vienna Woods —《维也纳森林的故事》
Waltz, Op. 325, Johann Strauss II
VIII. Baritone Highlight
a) Ode to the Yellow River —《黄河颂》
Xian Xinghai 冼星海 — Textual content by Guang Weiran 光未然 (whose son Ange Zhang, an artist whose work in regards to the piece shall be one show on the live performance on the second flooring promenade.)
b) Largo al factotum —《快给忙人让路》
From The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini
Baritone Soloist: Feng Zhang 张峰
IX. Symphony No. 7 “Leningrad” —《列宁格勒交响曲》
Motion IV: Allegro non troppo
Dmitri Shostakovich
As its identify suggests, this system is a mixture of each Jap and Western music. The live performance will open with “Saibei Dance,” written by Markham-based Chinese language Canadian composer An-Lun Huang. As a nod to the Viennese new yr live performance custom, a number of items by Johann Strauss II shall be featured alongside these performed on Chinese language devices, just like the Pipa Concerto and “Horse Racing” on the erhu. The latter celebrates the upcoming Yr of the Horse, and is complemented by the electrifying tempo of Aram Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance.” There may even be a cinematic piece specifically organized for a blended ensemble of piano, cello, erhu and guzheng.
One other theme of this live performance is to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the tip of World Struggle II. The orchestra will carry out the fourth motion of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 with a double brass part, “a chunk that resonates with anti-fascism,” in accordance with Kemin.
The Yellow River Cantata and Piano Concerto
The World Struggle II theme continues with The Yellow River Piano Concerto, arguably essentially the most well-known Chinese language piano work heard within the Western world. Kemin explains the piece’s historic background, its anti-war that means in addition to its particular private connection to the Li Delun household.
The Yellow River Piano Concerto as we all know it at the moment truly originated from The Yellow River Cantata, composed by Xian Xinghai in 1939 through the Second Sino-Japanese Struggle, as a logo of Chinese language defiance in opposition to the Japanese invaders. The lyrics had been tailored from a patriotic poem by Guang Weiran.
In the course of the Cultural Revolution, the lyrics of the cantata had been deemed too political. The cantata was banned from efficiency, however was later licensed to be rearranged right into a piano concerto. Its 1970 premiere by pianist Yin Chengzong was carried out by none aside from Li Delun.
There have been quite a few iterations of this concerto ever since, however audiences shall be listening to the unique model performed at its premiere, courtesy of a rating supplied by Yin, now primarily based in New York. Identical to within the unique association, there shall be added elements performed on the pipa and the suona, a Chinese language woodwind instrument which, as Kemin describes, “performs like an oboe, however seems like a trumpet.”
An excerpt of the concerto shall be dropped at life by the gifted younger Canadian pianist Eric Guo, First Prize winner of the 2023 Worldwide Chopin Competitors on Interval Devices.
Kemin says that this live performance is additional particular as a result of the viewers will hear each the Yellow River Piano Concerto and Cantata, that are hardly ever carried out collectively in the identical live performance. Singing the “Ode to the Yellow River” shall be Zhang Feng, a revered baritone from China, who may even carry out an aria from the Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville.
The spectacle doesn’t finish there. To accompany the commemorative program, the Basis will host a Yellow River Artwork Exhibition on the second flooring of the live performance corridor, that includes eight work by Toronto-based artist Zhang Ange, son of Guang, the poet who impressed the lyrics of the Yellow River Cantata.
Conductor Yongyan Hu from China shall be helming this yr’s live performance, with Qing Li (Principal Second Violin of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) serving as concertmaster.
As per custom, returning live performance host Kemin could have a couple of magic tips up his sleeve, together with extra surprises to accompany this spectacular and numerous program. It guarantees to thrill audiences of all ages and cultural backgrounds.
The Live performance
Li Delun Music Basis Presents East Meets West New Yr’s Live performance on January 4, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. on the George Weston Recital Corridor, Meridian Arts Centre.
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- Discover present particulars and tickets [HERE].
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Denise Lai is a Physiotherapist and School Professor. She is an alumnus of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and a rusty piano participant.
