Traveling show

The orchestra at the National Center for the Performing Arts, riding a solid reputation at home and abroad, is preparing for its first concert tour ofNorth America. Chen Jie reports.

Late in the afternoon, the mellow strains of a viola drift from conductor Lyu Jia's office at the National Center for the Performing Arts. He is coaching a musician of the NCPA Orchestra, just after a three-hour rehearsal for that evening's opera concert Guglielmo Tell.

"She is talented," he says of the violist, but he has detected some small problems during a prior rehearsal, so he's taking extra time with her to smoothen any bumps.