China Now Music Festival returns Oct. 7-22 for fifth season

The U.S.”“China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music will hold the fifth season of the China Now Music Festival from Oct. 7-22 at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, Hudson Hall at the Historic Hudson Opera House, and Lincoln Center in New York City.

The festival, which is presented in collaboration with China”™s Central Conservatory of Music, will include the U.S. premieres of selections from Guo Wenjing”™s critically acclaimed opera “Rickshaw Boy,” Hao Weiya”™s chamber opera “Painted Skin,” Ye Xiaogang”™s second symphony “The Great Wall” and symphonic works by Jiang Wen-ye and Huang Anlun. Also featured are compositions by Aaron Avshalomov and Alexander Tcherepnin, two Western composers who lived in China in the early 20th century.

“Our theme, ”˜East of West,”™ seeks to reveal differences in culture and tradition that have historically divided East from West””only to break them down and, through our artistic experience, create something new that belongs to both East and West,” said China Now Music Festival Artistic Director Jindong Cai.

Photo of Jindong Cai conducting “TÅŒN” at the 2021 China Now Music Festival. Photo by Karl Rabe, courtesy of Bard College