NEW YORK, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- The sixth annual China Now Music Festival kicked off on Wednesday with a captivating opening concert in New York City attended by the Bard East/West Ensemble and prominent virtuoso Wu Man, celebrating the theme of "The Bridge of Music."
This extraordinary concert, held at Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center Wednesday evening, brought together and cleverly combined various instruments and musical traditions from both the East and the West, showcasing the harmonious fusion of Chinese and Western cultures and backgrounds.
Jindong Cai, artistic director of the festival and conductor of the Bard East/West Ensemble, told Xinhua prior to the concert that this musical event aims to promote understanding and appreciation of the Chinese culture through contemporary Chinese music.
"By bringing instruments with different styles consisting of a Western string quintet and seven Chinese instruments including dizi, erhu, ruan, suona, and guzheng, as well as Chinese and Western percussion, audiences can experience this unprecedented clash of ideas and inspirations," said Cai, who is also director of the U.S.-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. ■