New Purple Forbidden City Orchestra

Come and hear the evocative and exciting sounds of traditional Chinese instruments playing recently composed works including an arrangement of Prof. Jack Body's 'Five Lullabies'.

The New Purple Forbidden City Orchestra is an 11-member orchestra based at the China Conservatory of Music (Beijing) which specialises in performing contemporary music on traditional Chinese instruments.

The concert will be given in the Hunter Council Chamber at Victoria University Wellington. Admission is free, but a koha to support the group's travel and accommodation costs would be appreciated.

The New Purple Forbidden City Orchestra was formed by China's most famous pipa player, Yang Jing and her virtuoso traditional instrument player colleagues, who are engaged in education and performance at Beijing's most prestigious conservatories of music.

"The music is evocative, refreshingly appealing and accessible. No academic stuffiness here, but fresh, vital and approachable sounds with a decidedly contemporary feel and rhythm. These musicians bring a completely new outlook to traditional Chinese music, Chinese opera and Chinese classical music. Their music embodies the considered thought of leading practitioners about the future of Chinese traditional music, and their insight into the balance between the great changes taking place in contemporary Chinese culture and the essential identity of ancient instruments."

Their programme, Chinese Aura, consists of eight chamber works of different styles, all written after 1980. Among these are works by Gao Ping, well-known pianist/composer, now resident in New Zealand and based at the University of Canterbury, as well as compositions and arrangements by his father, Gao Weijie. This includes an arrangement for the ensemble of Jack Body's 'Five Lullabies'.

Event listed by New Zealand School of Music

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