Music at Main: Cleveland Chinese Music Ensemble May 12, 2012

Cleveland Public Library Fine Arts Department

presents
"A Celebration of Spring"
featuring
Cleveland Chinese Music Ensemble
and
Xue "Snow" Yu, voice

with special guests
Steven Greenman, violin
Shuai Wang, piano
Guangsheng Wang, Chinese painting and calligraphy

2:00 p.m., Saturday, May 12, 2012
Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium
Cleveland Public Library Main Library
325 Superior Avenue Northeast
Cleveland, Ohio
Free

East meets West when the Cleveland Chinese Music Ensemble is joined by violinist Steven Greenman and pianist Shuai Wang for a diverse program of Chinese classical and folk music, played on both traditional and Western instruments. The event, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Cleveland Public Library Fine Arts Department's monthly Music at Main series. It will take place in the Cleveland Public Library's beautiful Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium.

The ensemble's instruments include dizi and xiao (bamboo flutes), sheng (mouth organ), pipa (pear-shaped lute), guzheng (21-string zither), gongs, drums, and cymbals. For a rare treat, Greenman and Wang will present a rendition of the theme to the "Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto," which is beloved as the most famous Chinese composition for violin. The classically trained vocalist Xue "Snow" Yu of Qingdao, Shandong, China will join the ensemble for several selections, and, for a rousing finale, all participants will join together in a rousing performance of the Shanxi piece "Zui Gu" (Drunk Drum), for Chinese percussion and piano.

The event will also feature a showing of traditional watercolors by the distinguished Chinese painter Mr. Guangsheng Wang. Wang, who taught erhu (Chinese fiddle) for 25 years at the Tianjin Conservatory, settled last year in Lakewood, Ohio, near his daughter, Shuai Wang. See some of Mr. Wang's amazing and magical paintings here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110084156877541067982/albums/5512893484237231345?banner=pwa

Prior to the concert, Mr. Wang will also demonstrate the art of Chinese ink-and-brush calligraphy, writing audience members' names upon request.

Finally, also prior to the concert Mr. Wang's wife, Judy, will serve handmade traditional Chinese jiaozi dumplings, with pork and vegetable fillings, for no charge.

The painting and calligraphy demonstration, and the serving of the dumplings, will take place from 2:00 to 2:30 p.m., and the concert itself will be from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.

More information:
http://www.cpl.org/EventsClasses/MusicatMain.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/events/293028264086783/

Official Website: http://www.cpl.org/EventsClasses/MusicatMain.aspx