New to Canada

It was an honor to invite artist Pingxin Xu and his wife to perform on the dulcimer at Maria A. Shchuka Branch on the afternoon of Saturday, May 20.  The audience enjoyed various types of music from different regions in China, including Jiangnan (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui provinces), Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangdong (Canton), Manchuria, and from Taiwan, as well as famous music from outside those regions.

I was particularly impressed and moved when they played Teresa Deng's song and Dance of the Yao People composed collaboratively by Liu Tieshan and Mao Yuan, as I used to listen to the latter as performed by the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, although not incorporating the Chinese dulcimer.

Before each piece of music, Xu always provided a brief introduction to the piece, which helped the audience understand it better. The audience was very excited to listen to the music; they asked a lot of questions and Xu answered them all. I was surprised Xu's English was so fluent.

After the performance, some audience members offered to buy CDs, and asked for individual tutoring. TPL owns some of Xu's music CD collection. We can also listen to his music through Naxos Music Online. Xu can be reached by email: pingxin@aol.com. 

Here is one segment of the Dance of the Yao People, which I taped during the event.

上星期六，五月二十日下午， 著名扬琴艺术家徐平心夫妇来我馆演奏中外名曲，受到观众的良好评价。徐平心夫妇演奏的中国名曲选自中国不同的地方，包括江南，广东，四川，云南，东北等地区，再加上台湾的邓丽君的“月亮代表我的心”， 和外国名曲。我特别喜欢他们演奏的瑶族舞曲，以前我一直是听上海交响乐队演奏的，这次第一次听由扬琴来演奏。对了，他还专门介绍了扬琴的历史，以及在世界各地的传播发展情况。

活动解说以后，许多观众留下来，继续提问题，索要CD， 询问家教培训的事宜。