Lunar New Year
with the Minnesota OrchestraSat Feb 17, 2024
Orchestra Hall
The Minnesota Orchestra marks Lunar New Year, the Year of the Dragon, a two-week-long festival that encourages family and friends to gather together with a performance featuring music that honors family traditions and themes of unity and health.
A Few Things to Know
- Did you know: the timing of Lunar New Year changes every year because it is based on the lunar calendar, which typically falls about 20-50 days behind the Gregorian calendar.
- For the third consecutive year, Principal Bassoon Fei Xie serves as the artistic consultant for the Lunar New Year celebration. Conductor Junping Qian will also lead the program for the third straight year.
- In China, after it turns midnight on the first day of the Chinese New Year, people first give traditional greetings to their parents or the eldest members of their house, followed then by their siblings.
Program
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LI
Spring Festival Overture
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KIM
Dub-Sanjo
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HSIAO
The Angel from Formosa
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VO
Lullaby for a Country
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J STRAUSS
Frühlingsstimmen
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XIE
Commissioned work, title TBD
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TRADITIONAL
Welcome Spring
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TRADITIONAL
Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon
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TANG
Dance of the Golden Snake
The Grammy Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra, now in its second century, ranks among America’s top symphonic ensembles, with a distinguished history of acclaimed performances in its home state and around the world; award-winning recordings, broadcasts and educational engagement programs; and a commitment to intentionally build concert programs to feature more works by composers of color, exploring music both contemporary and historic. This fall, Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård begins his tenure as music director.
Conductor Junping Qian, having just completed his second year as the Assistant Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, also serves as a Visiting Faculty member at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
His recent engagements, aside from his busy schedule with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, notably, include conducting the Covid-19 recovery rehearsal camp of Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, a China Tour with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Teatro del Giglio Lucca, his South American debut with Orchestra SODRE in Montevideo, Uruguay, his North American professional debut with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, an open-air summer concert in “Summer Classics” Festival Sibiu and re-invitations from Toronto, Macau, Kunming, Xi’An, Bucharest, Iasi, and Tirgus Mures. He served as the Strategic Advisor and Residential Artist of the Shanghai & Royal College of Music London Joint Institute from 2018 to 2020.
Jing hu master Mr. Zhengang Xie and yue qin master Ms. Mei Hu, a husband and wife team, are listed as members of the elite group among the musicians in the Directory of Current Chinese Artists of 1998, which Ms. Hu participated editing. While in China, as the top “Cheng” style Peaking Opera fiddler, Mr. Xie and Ms. Hu performed and recorded as solo jing hu and yue qin players with many top Beijing Opera houses, including the Beijing Opera House and National Opera House. In addition to performing transitional Peking Opera repertoire, Xie has participated in many new opera productions, such as the Peking Opera TV show Cao Xueqin and the new opera The Legend of The White Snake. Xie has also performed in the Great Hall of People in Beijing during a Lunar New Year celebration, and was greeted by the Chairman Jiang Zemin, among other top Chinese government officials.
Since moving to the U.S. in 1999, the couple has brought Chinese music, particularly Peking Opera, to their community. While living in Cincinnati from 2000 to 2020, Xie and Hu performed in concert halls, schools, and universities around the region. In collaborations with University of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, they performed concertos such as In the Dark Night, The Qiao Family Compound and The God of Mountain. Xie and Hu currently reside in Plymouth, Minnesota, near their son, Minnesota Orchestra Principal Bassoon Fei Xie, and his family.
Jing hu master Mr. Zhengang Xie and yue qin master Ms. Mei Hu, a husband and wife team, are listed as members of the elite group among the musicians in the Directory of Current Chinese Artists of 1998, which Ms. Hu participated editing. While in China, as the top “Cheng” style Peaking Opera fiddler, Mr. Xie and Ms. Hu performed and recorded as solo jing hu and yue qin players with many top Beijing Opera houses, including the Beijing Opera House and National Opera House. In addition to performing transitional Peking Opera repertoire, Xie has participated in many new opera productions, such as the Peking Opera TV show Cao Xueqin and the new opera The Legend of The White Snake. Xie has also performed in the Great Hall of People in Beijing during a Lunar New Year celebration, and was greeted by the Chairman Jiang Zemin, among other top Chinese government officials.
Since moving to the U.S. in 1999, the couple has brought Chinese music, particularly Peking Opera, to their community. While living in Cincinnati from 2000 to 2020, Xie and Hu performed in concert halls, schools, and universities around the region. In collaborations with University of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, they performed concertos such as In the Dark Night, The Qiao Family Compound and The God of Mountain. Xie and Hu currently reside in Plymouth, Minnesota, near their son, Minnesota Orchestra Principal Bassoon Fei Xie, and his family.
A fearless musical explorer, Vân-Ánh Võ is an award-winning performer of the 16-string đàn tranh (zither) and an Emmy Award-winning composer who has collaborated with Kronos Quartet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Yo-Yo Ma. In addition to her mastery of the đàn tranh, she also uses the monochord (đàn bầu), bamboo xylophone (đàn t’rung), traditional drums (trống) and many other instruments to create music that blends the wonderfully unique sounds of Vietnamese instruments with other genres, and fuses deeply rooted Vietnamese musical traditions with fresh new structures and compositions.
Coming from a family of musicians and beginning to study đàn tranh (16-string zither) from the age of four, Van-Anh graduated with distinction from the Vietnamese Academy of Music, where she later taught. In 1995, Vân-Ánh won the championship title in the Vietnam National Đàn Tranh Competition, along with the first prize for best solo performance of modern folk music. In Hanoi, Vân-Ánh was an ensemble member of Vietnam National Music Theatre as well as a member of the traditional music group Đồng Nội Ensemble, which she founded and directed. She has since performed in more than fourteen countries and recorded many broadcast programs in and outside of Vietnam.
Since settling in San Francisco’s Bay Area in 2001, Vân-Ánh has collaborated with musicians across different music genres to create new works, bringing Vietnamese traditional music to a wider audience. She has presented her music at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center (2012, 2014, 2016), Lincoln Center, NPR, Houston Grand Opera, Yerba Buena Performing Arts Center, UK WOMAD Festival, and London Olympic Games 2012 Music Festival. Vân-Ánh has been a composer, collaborator and guest soloist with Kronos Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma, Southwest Chamber Music, Oakland Symphony, Monterey Symphony, Golden State Symphony, Apollo Chamber Players, Flyaway Productions for aerial dance works, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, jazz and rap artists, and other World Music artists. Additionally, she co-composed and arranged the Oscar® nominated and Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner for Best Documentary, Daughter from Danang (2002), the Emmy® Award winning film and soundtrack for Bolinao 52 (2008), and “Best Documentary” and “Audience Favorite” winner, A Village Called Versailles (2009).
After taking on an integral role in Kronos Quartet’s theatrical production “All Clear” in 2012, Vân-Ánh premiered her first multi-media production as Artistic Director, composer, and performer with “Odyssey” at the Kennedy Center in 2016. Since then, she will be premiering “Songs of Strength” at Cal Performances, UC Berkeley in March 2021, and the first part of Mekong trilogy production, “Mekong: SOUL” commissioned by Kennedy Center in 2021.
Her productions are unique in that they often include a community component leading up to her performances, including community workshops that are meant to further engage participants in the topic that has inspired Vân-Ánh in the creation of these productions. Under President Obama's administration, Vân-Ánh was the first Vietnamese artist to perform at the White House and received the Artist Laureate Award for her community contributions through the arts. Vân-Ánh has also received project awards and support from Creative Work Fund, Center for Cultural Innovations, Alliance for California Traditional Arts, City of San Jose, New Music USA, Mid Atlantic Foundation, Chamber Music America (for residency work), Zellerbach Family Foundation, California Art Council, San Francisco Commissions, and the Haas Fund.
Dr. Benhong Rosaline Tsai is Vice President, Talent, Learning & Org Effectiveness at Thrivent, a Fortune 500 financial services firm based in Minneapolis. In this role, Roz leads talent acquisition, talent management, leadership development and organization effectiveness efforts in support of Thrivent’s bold transformation and growth objectives. Previously, Roz served as vice president of HR and chief learning officer at Ecolab, leading performance management, career development, leadership and enterprise learning initiatives for its 49,000 global workforce. Roz has also held transformative leadership roles in Honeywell, Lawson Software (now Infor) and Northern States Power Company (now Xcel Energy). With her extensive cross-functional experiences across multiple industry sectors, Roz has developed a unique and strategic approach to creating diverse, inclusive and high-performing teams that drive enduring business impact. Outside of work Roz is a long-time community volunteer for youth development and arts & culture organizations, most recently completing her term as Board Chair for Minnesota non-profit BestPrep. A native of Tianjin, China, Roz completed her undergraduate studies at Nankai University and obtained her Master of Science degree at St. Cloud State University. She holds a doctorate degree from University of Minnesota, where she currently serves as adjunct faculty for the Carlson School of Management, teaching Global Talent Management for global business executives.
Xie joined the Minnesota Orchestra as principal bassoon at the beginning of the 2017-18 season after serving as principal bassoonist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra—an ensemble he first joined as second bassoonist in 2008. When he won the principal role in 2012, Xie became the first Chinese-born bassoonist to hold such a position in a major American symphony orchestra. He was previously a member of the Houston Grand Opera, principal bassoonist of the Mansfield Symphony in Ohio, and has appeared as guest principal bassoonist with orchestras such as Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Houston Symphony and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
- Armless & Bariatric Chairs
- Assistive Listening Devices
- Noise-Cancelling Headphones
- Service Animals
- Wheelchair & Accessible Seating
Additional services are available upon request.