China Now Music Festival: Chasing Dreams at Bard Chapel
Chinese and American Folk Songs
Friday, October 9, 2026 Chapel of the Holy Innocents
The Choir of the Music Education Institute, Central Conservatory of Music, China is joined by guest chorus, the Xinsheng Chinese Choir of New York, for an afternoon in which Chinese folk songs and North American ballads share a stage.
China Now Music Festival: Chasing Dreams at Fisher Center
The Orchestra Now Celebrates America's 250th Anniversary - Bard College
Saturday, October 10, 2026 Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater
The theme of this year’s China Now Music Festival, Chasing Dreams, celebrates America’s 250th anniversary. The program features Zhou Long’s Men of Iron and the Golden Spike, a powerful symphonic oratorio honoring the thousands of Chinese laborers who came to America in the 1860s to build the Transcontinental Railroad that connected our coasts and transformed our nation. This epic work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer includes a full orchestra, 120 choristers, and vocal soloists. Also featured is the U.S. premiere of Li Shaosheng’s five-movement symphonic suite Chasing the Sky, honoring humanity’s pursuit of space exploration. Conducted by Jindong Cai, The Orchestra Now is joined by the China Now Chorus and soloists including suona player Zhang Weiwei, soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, mezzo-soprano Ziqi Wang, tenor Li Yi, bass-baritone Yue Wu, bass Andrew Munn, and child soloist Wyatt Stephens.
China Now Music Festival: Chasing Dreams at Jazz at Lincoln Center
The Orchestra Now Celebrates America's 250th Anniversary - NYC
Sunday, October 11, 2026 Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center
The theme of this year’s China Now Music Festival, Chasing Dreams, celebrates America’s 250th anniversary. The program features Zhou Long’s Men of Iron and the Golden Spike, a powerful symphonic oratorio honoring the thousands of Chinese laborers who came to America in the 1860s to build the Transcontinental Railroad that connected our coasts and transformed our nation. This epic work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer includes a full orchestra, 120 choristers, and vocal soloists. Also featured is the U.S. premiere of Li Shaosheng’s five-movement symphonic suite Chasing the Sky, honoring humanity’s pursuit of space exploration. Conducted by Jindong Cai, The Orchestra Now is joined by the China Now Chorus and soloists including suona player Zhang Weiwei, soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, mezzo-soprano Ziqi Wang, tenor Li Yi, bass-baritone Yue Wu, bass Andrew Munn, and child soloist Wyatt Stephens.
The festival is co-presented by the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Central Conservatory of Music, China. Follow this link for tickets to the closing night concert: https://ticketing.jazz.org/21583/21585
Use discount code FENGYA to receive 20% off tickets.
Chapel of the Holy Innocents4:00 pm – 5:00 pm EST/GMT-5 Guqin artist Zhao Jingyang regularly performs and lectures at institutions in Beijing, greater China, and abroad. He continues and builds on the playing tradition of his teacher and mentor, the world class guqin master, Li Xiangting, who in turn was the protégé of legendary guqin master Guan Pinghu. Jinyang is the founder and head of the Jinghua Guqin Society, located in Beijing, and the principal director for the Central Conservatory of Music’s Pedagogy and Proficiency Certification Center.
Sunday, November 12, 2017
Presented by the Bard Conservatory's U.S.-China Music Institute, with an introduction by Susan Blake, visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Bard College. Bitó Conservatory Building3:00 pm – 5:00 pm EST/GMT-5 Program will include: Ambush on Ten Sides 十面埋伏 Lofty Mountains and Falling Waters 高山流水 The Moon Over Fortified Pass 關山月 Variations on Yang Guan 陽關三疊 Moonlit River in Spring 春江花月夜 Song of Henan 河南小曲 Melody of the Purple Bamboo 紫竹調 Birds in the Forest 鳥投林
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