Philly to China, sans Yannick
OrchestrasThe full Philadelphia Orchestra will tour China from the end of this month until mid-November. Principal Guest Marin Alsop will conduct.
They will give concerts in Beijing, Tianjin, Chengdu, and Haikou. Pipa player Wu Man and pianist Haochen Zhang will join as soloists. The November 2 concert in Beijing will feature the world premiere of Mason Bates’s setting of a Tang poem “Spring River Flowers by Moonlight”.
The orchestra will travel on a Hainan Airlines charter flight. The lead sponsor is Bank of China.
Beijing, it seems, has called all the shots.
Cool to be part of this tour. The poem “Spring River Flowers by Moonlight” was a really inspiring suggestion. I’ve had an amazing time working with several native Chinese speakers on the best ways to set the poem.
Good luck, Mason!
“Spring River Flowers by Moonlight”. Reads like: Joni Mitchell meets Yo-Yo Ma somewhere along the Silk Road. lol
It’s the title of a famous Tang Dynasty poem fyi
Is there anything that screams more loudly “uninvolved Music Director” than a major international tour withOUT the MD?
Principal Guest has to mean something. And as the Philly Inquirer explains (https://www.inquirer.com/arts/philadelphia-orchestra-tour-us-china-relations-20241008.html), the tour was due to happen last year and got delayed by Covid; it’s understandable that a conductor can’t completely clear his schedule after it’s been filled. Also worth mentioning, YNS led them in China in 2019. And 2016.
The sponsors must not have wanted the complete works of Florence Price on tour.
If your concerts are mysteriously cancelled whilst in Chengdu (as ours were a few years back)…..don’t forget to visit the Panda sanctuary there, an absolute highlight of our China tour