At the New York Philharmonic’s Lunar New Year Concert in January 2020, just before the pandemic, guest conductor Long Yu led the orchestra and violinist Gil Shaham. Photo by Chris Lee
“The Lunar New Year festival is being marked virtually this month by many U.S. arts institutions offering a wide variety of free activities, for both adults and children, celebrating the Year of the Ox,” write Jane Levere in Saturday’s (2/13) Forbes. “The New York Philharmonic’s 2021 Lunar New Year concert, its first in a virtual format, will air free on February 16 at 7 p.m. on the orchestra’s website and Facebook and YouTube channels, and will remain available on demand for two weeks. The program will combine orchestral performances from past Lunar New Year concerts with … virtual collaborations. Artists will include conductor Long Yu, pianist Lang Lang, musicians from the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and students at the Shanghai Orchestra Academy. The repertoire will range from Liszt and Tchaikovsky to Li Huanzhi and Chen Yi. The celebration will be dedicated to the memory of Shirley Young, a Philharmonic board member and champion of the orchestra’s annual Lunar New Year celebrations since their inception, who passed away on December 26.” Also discussed are a free concert by the Shanghai Quartet recorded at the Tianjin Juilliard School in China, and celebrations by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other New York-based groups.
