Traditional Chinese music hits right note in US college program
The beautiful and penetrating sound of pipa, guzheng and erhu, traditional Chinese folk instruments with the grandeur for a Western orchestra, were perfectly combined during the performance of Music From China: East Meets West, performed at Bard College's Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in New York's Hudson Valley on Sunday.
The concert marked the launch of the Chinese Music Development Initiative, in which Chinese folk instruments are being formally taught in a Western music education system for the first time.
The initiative, launched in December by Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music and New York's Bard College Conservatory of Music, includes the first undergraduate program for the erhu, guzheng and pipa in the United States. It began with the fall term this year.
