Entering Carnegie Hall for my first time, I was thrilled to hear music specifically related to my culture. I was able to recount my personal experience from hearing the same types of music such as the gongs used in the fourth performance, Parade for Six Peking Opera Gongs, because my grandmother use to do Chinese Operas. However, the difference with this Opera performance with the traditional Chinese Opera is the actual acting out, the singing, and traditional instruments used, which is extremely hard to follow and understand. The traditional opera might come off weird if you're not used to it, however, if you understand the story behind it then its actually very inspiring and captivating. Also, the the video below is a traditional Chinese Opera with the acting, where you can hear the similar sounds made by the gongs in the performance in Carnegie Hall (if you have time). You can fast-forward to 1:58 to hear the gongs. I could also relate to the last performance, composed by Zhou Long, because the drums were the same used in my Chinese Lion Dance group.

Also, meeting with Director Geffen was another amazing experience that not many people or even Carnie Hall goers get to do. And on top of that, the composer, Bright Sheng, for the third performance sat right in front of me, which is simply amazing and cool because I was able to see how he bobbed his head to his own composition and his every emotion. The entire performance as a whole was very well done, especially the first performance with the piano. Although some sounds were more familiar to me, there were many new ones that I have never heard of such as the performance pertaining to the Tibetan culture in the third performance. Also, the most appealing and creative part of all the performance to me was the pianist, Gregory DeTurck, actually playing with the strings inside the piano rather than the keys.

www.youtube.com/watch