Cultural Exchanges in May

5、The Houston International Festival

Celebrating its 36th year, the 2007 Houston International Festival spotlights China from April 21-22 & 28-29 with art markets and craft demonstrations, interactive exhibits, the return of free Friday lunchtime concerts and plenty of food and fun for all.

The Houston International Festival will continue its tradition as one of the largest presenters of world music anywhere on the planet. The 2007 event will feature hundreds of internationally acclaimed artists on nine performance venues throughout the festival site.

6、The Nine Gates Jazz Festival

Bass man Huang Yong founded the Nine Gates Jazz Festival last year, because he felt there should be a jazz festival for a big city such as Beijing. He gave it the name "Nine Gates" a symbol of Beijing and the number of gates the old city used to have.

The second Nine Gates Jazz Festival will run from May 25 to 30 at the Forbidden City Concert Hall of Beijing, presenting 16 Chinese and international jazz groups.

Compared to last year, the festival has become both larger in scale and longer in running time. Last year, the festival only lasted for three days, and all of the musicians were from the local jazz scene.

Supported by some foreign embassies in China, this year's festival will see Didier Lockwood band and The New Glucose Jazz Septet from France, Steve Houben & Emil Viklicky from Belgium, Seligo Jazz Quartet and the Philipp Nykrin Trio from Austria, Rony Holan from Israel and the George Garanian Big Band from Russia.

During the festival, every concert will present a Chinese group and a foreign group. Some of the Chinese bands to play at the festival include the Beijing City Jazz Orchestra, Liu Yuan Jazz Band, Modern Pop Band, Tuanjie Lake Groove and Possicobilities Jazz Band.