Five Thousand Springs - A History of Chinese Music

Location: Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye Room, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street
Date and time: Thursday, May 3, 2007 at 7:30pm
Admission: Free to public

The Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble, established in 1989, is the finest professional Chinese music organization in Canada. For their first appearance, the ensemble was invited to perform for the Governor General's Concert at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver. Since then, they have performed in hundreds of concerts across Canada and in the United States. Each member is a highly accomplished
instrumentalist. Together they combine technical mastery with a passionate approach to music.

Performed in a variety of combinations, their instruments include erhu (Chinese violin), dizi (Chinese flute), pipa (Chinese lute), yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer), zheng (Chinese harp), and ruan (Chinese guitar).

This versatile group embraces the popular and the classical traditions of China as well as western classical and contemporary music performed on Chinese instruments. The ensemble has a broad repertoire encompassing traditional music from various regions of China, to adaptations of Canadian folk songs and other music, as well as contemporary composition. In addition to self-produced concert presentations,
the ensemble has performed at numerous folk music festivals, including those in Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg. Its performances have also been broadcast on radio and television, and they released their first CD, Transplanted Purple Bamboo, in 2000, the second one, New Frontiers, in 2006.

Guest speaker, Alan Lau, who graduated from composition department of UBC, will give a brief talk on the history of Chinese music and culture. Music performance will be interluded throughout the whole talk. A Q&A section will follow.

Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society
310 - 425 Carrall Street
Vancouver, BC
T. (604) 683 8240

www.vancouverchinesemusic.ca