Dr. Ying Zeng, Director of Asian Initiatives at Western Michigan University, has put together a dazzling program of music, dance, poetry and art to celebrate the culmination of Lunar New Year celebrations with a Lantern Festival Gala. She shared organizing duties this year with Lynn Chen-Zhang, chair of the WMU board of trustees. Chen-Zhang will emcee the event at 4 pm on Saturday, Feb 4 in Chenery Auditorium.
Class-A Chinese opera artist Linghui Tu will perform two excerpts from Peking Opera, says Dr. Zeng in an interview with Cara Lieurance. For the first time at the annual event, musicians from the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra will participate. They’ll be joined by violinist Sophie Tang to perform an arrangement of the traditional Chinese melody The Moon Over The River On A Spring Night in a premiere performance arranged by KSO music director Julian Kuerti. Tang is the assistant professor of violin at WMU. She says the new piece is a beautiful adaptation of a beloved Chinese song for Western classical instruments, representing East-West unity. Other participants include young singers and instrumentalists from the Crescendo Academy, folk dancers and martial artists.
Tickets are currently available at Pacific Rim Foods. Online tickets and more information can be found at the WMU Asian Initiatives website.
