China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra is in the midst of a seven-city tour of the U.S. and Canada, marking the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China. In Philadelphia, Lü Jia will conduct the NCPA Orchestra on November 7 at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, Chen Qigang’s Wu Xing (The Five Elements), and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, with soloist Yuja Wang. The concert is hosted by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter will welcome the orchestra at City Hall on November 6, in a ceremony at which NCPA musicians will perform and Philadelphia Orchestra President and CEO Allison Vulgamore will speak, along with NCPA President Cheng Ping and Wang Yansheng, minister-counselor of the Chinese Consulate in New York. In Philadelphia, members of the NCPA Orchestra will participate in a free performance on November 7 at Drexel University’s URBN Center; that event will be followed by an arts administration/cultural exchange panel at Drexel with Cheng Ping, Vulgamore, and Drexel faculty member Julie Hawkins. The Philadelphia Orchestra has had a longstanding cultural exchange with China ever since its 1973 China tour; the orchestra’s most recent China tour took place in spring 2014.
Posted November 6, 2014
