Young voices build bridges through song at NY event

From a Disney classic to a traditional Chinese folk song, and from a Western piano masterpiece to a composition inspired by birdsong, young musicians from China and the United States explored different musical traditions before joining voices for a concert finale on Thursday evening.

The "Youth, Dialogue, Future — China-US Youth Choral Concert", held at the Chinese Consulate General in New York, brought together the Guangdong Experimental High School Choir, the Young People's Chorus of New York City and young pianists from the Lang Lang International Music Foundation.

The 43 young Chinese singers left for China on Saturday after a week-long cultural and artistic exchange in New York that included visits to Lincoln Center, Yale University and Princeton University.

Conducted by Xie Mingjing, the Guangdong choir opened with Circle of Life from Disney's The Lion King, followed by Spring Is Here, a folk song of China's Yi ethnic group.

The YPC, led by founder and artistic director Francisco J. Nunez, performed Kevin Puts' If I Were a Swan, based on a poem by Fleda Brown, and Paul Simon's Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Juilliard Pre-College students Ryan Lu, 17, and Yidi Ding, 15, followed with Franz Liszt's Transcendental Etude No 10 in F Minor and Wang Jianzhong's piano arrangement of One Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix, respectively.

The two choirs joined for a finale featuring Give Us Hope, expressing young people's aspirations for the future; As Wished, a Chinese song reflecting on the hopes and sacrifices of earlier generations; and A Wish from Across the Sea and The Calling of the Song, an original composition using the sea as an image of cross-border connections.

The concert marked a new chapter in a partnership dating to 2005, when Nunez and Xie met at an international choral gathering in Japan. What began at choral competitions has grown into an exchange of visits and performances.

Consul General Chen Li said the choirs' engagement is a "small example of something much larger happening between young people in China and the US".

"We often talk about China-US relations in very big terms — trade, technology, democracy. ... But there is another part of the relationship that is much simpler: people actually meeting each other. Especially young people," Chen said.

He highlighted China's initiative to invite 100,000 young Americans to visit and study in China over five years, saying such exchanges could deepen mutual understanding.

"We hope to create more opportunities for young students from both sides to see another country with his or her own eyes, to meet someone their own age, and to discover that the reality is usually more interesting than what we see on a screen," he said.

Nunez said each song and encounter strengthened the relationship, and welcomed China's initiative for exchanges. "We are very excited that we're able to be part of this new initiative that your country is doing," he told China Daily.

For the young performers, music bridged language and cultural differences. "We have sung songs in English, and we've also sung songs in Chinese, and it shows how music is a powerful tool that truly connects us ...beyond language," said Zahra, a member of the New York choir.

Tan Dingding of the Guangdong choir said their shared passion for music had brought them together, giving the Chinese students a chance to learn from their US peers.

The concert was part of the 2026 World Bay Area Choral Dialogue, presented through the YPC's Tandon Global Collab.

Chandrika Tandon, chairwoman of the Tandon Foundation and a Grammy-winning artist, said the performance moved her to tears. "The music was so beautiful, and the love and the friendship between the children was really something to behold. We call this bridges of love," she said.