Young musicians experience German culture

The Fifth Black Forest Arts and Cultural Festival provided young music lovers from China and Germany a platform to interact and exchange ideas.

During the two-week event between July 18 and 31, 30 Chinese students, between the ages of 7 and 18, attended classes at music institutions in the southern German town of Freudenstadt.

Hosted by Deument Co, a culture exchange company based in Stuttgart, the annual festival ended with a concert by Chinese music students and local children. The festival also included tours to cultural and historical sites, including the Mercedes-Benz Museum and Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Zhao Jierong, 17, has played the drums since she was 7. When she saw a group of teenage girls in a marching band performing on Freudenstadt's main street, she jumped at the chance to join them. "I saw they had a spare drum, so I asked with gestures if I could play and they welcomed me to join," she said. "I don't speak German and they don't speak Chinese, but we played a song together and our rhythms totally matched. I also learnt a few cool moves from them."

In the concert, Zhao played a traditional Chinese song called Jasmine while another Chinese student with an oil-paper umbrella performed a traditional Chinese dance that imitated girls from the south of China picking jasmine flowers on a rainy day.

The Freudenstadt municipal government sponsored the event. Gerhard Link, the mayor of Freudenstadt, said he looked forward to more cooperation with Chinese groups. "Freudenstadt is a small city, with only 20,000 residents, but by working with China, it is becoming more international," the mayor said. "Only through exchanges can we understand each other."

According to the mayor, the city has established an institution to teach Chinese and help more local people to go to China.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed that 2016 would be a communication year between Chinese and German youths when they met in Berlin in October last year.

The festival started as a prelude to the communication year between the two countries, according to Shi Dongqing, a Chinese representative of the festival's organizing committee.

Cheng Siqi, a 16-year-old pianist studying at Beijing's Middle School Attached to the China Conservatory, said she enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere of classical music in Germany during her trip.

"My piano teacher studied in Germany, so I always wanted to go to Germany myself," she said. "In this country you can hear people playing music everywhere. In China you can only feel the atmosphere in music schools."

Rainer Neher, music director of the festival, said he was impressed by the Chinese students' performances and skills.

"They start to learn music from a very young age and their parents have invested a lot of time and resources in them. The songs that they played were very difficult, but they all made it," said Neher. "They have no problem with skills but as Chinese youngsters learning Western music, they still need to study Western culture and history to have a better understanding of classical music."

The event gave Chinese students exposure to Western culture and society, according to the organizing committee. Beijing Dahua Guoyun Culture Media Co helped the festival organizing committee select more than 200 Chinese youngsters from art performance competitions to join the festival over the years.

"We have some of the best young musicians in China and we also select students at beginner level. We select children from big cities, such as Beijing, but we also have children from other less-developed provinces," said Shi.

Jin Di, leader of a group of children from Jiangxi province, said the opportunity to travel and study overseas is very precious for children from the inland province in the south of China.

"Jiangxi is not as international as Beijing, some of them have never been abroad," Jin said. "Jiangxi is famous for porcelain, so I gave a blue and white porcelain vase to Freudenstadt's mayor as a gift. But I hope more people will come to know we not only have porcelain, but also have many young talented musicians."

Chen Junjie, a 13-year-old piano player from Jiangxi, said he was thrilled to receive coaching from German music teachers. Chen started to play piano at the age of 4 and said he is working hard and hopes to study at Hanover University, one of Germany's largest music academies.

"Germany has so many great musicians and such a rich history of classical music," said Chen. "Very few of my fellow music students have come here. It is absolutely a great opportunity for me."

pengyining@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/31/2015 page7)