Musical America Blogs

by Cathy Barbash

Yesterday’s MusicalAmerica.com included a report that the Shen Yun Performing Arts, a so-called four-year-old Chinese traditional touring ensemble, had been forced to cancel its Hong Kong shows because several of its performers had been refused visas to Hong Kong. The company believed “that the visas were denied because some of the scenes depicted Chinese government brutality, and that some company members espoused “a philosophy at odds with communism.”

Of course they didn’t get visas! The producers and promoters of this show can be traced directly to the Falun Gong organization in New York, that’s why. The organization and practice of Falun Gong (think Chinese Christian Scientism, with a twist of politics)—is forbidden in China since the government believes it is a dangerous and anti-government cult. Other taboos include Tibet, Taiwan, and the direct criticism of the government. Any Chinese, whether at home or broad, or anyone with any exposure to China, for that matter, would know this.

These song and dance extravaganzas have been playing in East Coast cities for at least the last 5 years. They are obviously well funded, playing full week runs in Radio City Music Hall in New York and advertising widely on high-rent billboards. I wonder how much of their audience knows their back story, and if professional polls have been taken to determine what effect these performances have had on public opinion in America.

by Cathy Barbash

Members of the Major University Presenters (MUPs) group on a recent China research trip could be excused for feeling culturally disoriented in more ways than one. Large-scale Christmas decorations were everywhere, even waitresses in Beijing’s iconic Quanjude Peking Duck emporium sported Santa hats. When I searched local markets for Year of the Tiger decorations, I was told I would have to wait until after Christmas!

This visit was the beginning of the long-awaited realization of a project that David Fraher (Arts Midwest) and I had created: the development of a pipeline that would bring high quality Chinese performances of various genres accompanied by contextualizing curriculum support to American university presenters. During our 8 days on the ground we saw performances by 24 different ensembles including theater, ballet, modern dance, traditional instruments, minority music, jazz, new media, in Shanghai, Chengdu and Beijing.

I’m delighted to report that in the performing arts field in China a fresh breeze is blowing. David and I were able to pre-curate the performances in an equal partnership with the Ministry of Culture. There was not one ensemble we requested to which we were denied access, nothing was forced down our throats, and the quality and booking promise of the groups was very encouraging.

Hats off to my delegation-the best with whom I’ve had the privilege of sharing my passion for Chinese performing arts. They include Arizona State, Penn State, UFlorida, UKansas, UMaryland, UMichigan, UMinnesota, and UTexas-Austin. We will meet during the Arts Presenters conference to determine next steps. I’ll keep you posted.

The evening before the pageant at Obama’s State Dinner, a brand new work greeted the President in grass-roots circumstances. Here is a reprint of Tony Hutchinson and Dale Kreisher’s superb report:

The White House Blog
(The Book of) Change Has Come
Posted by Dale Kreisher and Tony Hutchinson on November 19, 2009 at 12:26 PM EST
One striking aspect of President Obama’s visit to China is the excitement it has generated at all social levels throughout the country. Rather than being seen as a dry, political event with little relationship to ordinary people’s lives – as such events often are perceived – President Obama’s trip here has energized Chinese and foreign residents alike.

Beijing is a city of intellectuals, artists, and scholars, with a lively and active arts scene. While the large establishment-supported (and state controlled) “arts industry” flourishes, so too do hundreds of small informal gatherings of artists creating things of beauty for art’s sake.

As the President arrived at Beijing’s airport, miles away, in Beijing’s old city center, in a tiny private theater in a small hutong (alleyway) not far from the Forbidden City, some of Beijing’s top artists celebrated his arrival in a unique way.

Musicians from the Central Conservatory, dancers from the Beijing Contemporary Dance Theater, and colleagues came together at the Penghao Theater next to the Central Drama School to stage an evening concert and dance performance in honor of the President’s arrival. The music was marked by fusion of Chinese and Western techniques and aesthetics. The keystone performance was a dance piece, with original music, composed and choreographed specifically for President Obama’s visit to China. Entitled “Changes,” this dance/music/visual spectacle draws inspiration from President Obama’s leitmotif of “A Change has Come” and the ancient Chinese divinatory text, the “I Ching,” or Book of Changes. The performance features Chinese dancers executing moves conceived by a Chinese choreographer; dancing to music written by an American composer; against a multimedia backdrop of ancient Chinese pictograms; in honor of a transformative American President.

China Watchers may have noted the recent WhiteHouse.gov photos of Obama’s after-dinner entertainment in Beijing. The performance after the State Dinner at the Great Hall of the People reinforced China’s popular “happy family” theme:

I guessed right, the peacock dancer was the inevitable Yang Liping from Yunnan.
Per my Chinese colleagues, the other performers included:
“Super Oriental Choruses” from Inner Mongolia
“The Snow Lotus Sisters”: 3 singing sisters from Tibet
A trio of performers from Xinjiang, on drum, eijak (fiddle played on knee) and rawap (long-necked plucked instrument similar to a dutar or oud).
A traditional instrument ensemble from Beijing

Efforts had been made to include some contemporary dance, without success. Such a wasted opportunity! China’s current Five Year Economic Plan considers cultural export a priority, and China’s contemporary dance field currently produces China’s highest quality work with international market appeal.

More soon on a performance offered but not selected for the occasion.

by Cathy Barbash

Last month I stopped in on the Arts Fair associated with the 11th China Shanghai International Arts Festival. Fair operations and content were, for the most part, profoundly disappointing. Created as China’s answer to Arts Presenters, they’ve never gotten it right. As a result, attendance numbers are poor, most major agents, venues and artists stay away, with structure, operations and content not showing an understanding of how the international field works. Meanwhile, commercial trade fair behemoth Messe Frankfurt’s Shanghai division has succeeded in organizing the multifaceted (exhibit hall, seminars, performances, etc.) highly attended Music China for several years.

Shanghai is the most ambitious and globally focused Chinese city, so it is surprising that the leaders of the cultural bureau have not addressed the situation. Each year Shanghai’s mayor hosts an annual International Business Leaders’ Advisory Council in order to pick the brains of the world’s corporate leaders, so the opportunity for good advice can’t be lacking. Which leads me to wonder; is culture too low a priority for Shanghai’s leaders to fix this potentially important and useful annual event? Are they just waiting for it to die a natural death? Or is there something else going on too far below the surface for us to know about? Probably some of each.

My next stop was Beijing, where fresher breezes were blowing. Both the Ministry of Culture and the U.S. Embassy have welcomed new blood, and during a day split between them, officers in both places acted with new energy and openness. This expansive attitude has allowed my colleagues to enjoy the many, varied and sometimes unexpected opportunities to meet and mix. Officials from both the U.S. and China found their way to Beyoncé’s Beijing concert. Later that weekend, when Cultural Affairs Officer Dale Kreisher ventured out to the suburbs to an open house at the Red Gate Gallery’s Artist in Residence studios, astonished Red Gate director Brian Wallace exclaimed that in his 20 years in China, he had never before met an American CAO.

About that Beyoncé concert….The concert was held at the Wukesong Arena, the former Olympic basketball venue. It is now managed by AEG, which will also run the new arena built for the Shanghai World Expo. The horizontally and vertically integrated AEG booked and presented Beyoncé, with the usual dowry of sponsors. Tickets were really truly sold out. As one approached the perimeter of the venue, instead of the usual ubiquitous hawkers waving tickets, one saw desperate hawkers and fans waving large wads of cash. The wildly enthusiastic crowd was a mix of locals and expats, and for the first time at such a concert, alcohol sales were permitted.

The behavior of the Public Security Police provided the only nervous moments, as they ringed the ground level and forced people back into their seats whenever they jumped to their feet to dance and cheer. Here was the generation gap, cultural gap and political gap, live and in person. I feared that guard-fan violence might erupt, but somehow détente prevailed. The intro to each popular hit was greeted with wild cheering, but near the end of the evening, “At Last,” elicited no response. Few in the audience knew Etta James, had seen “Cadillac Records,” or remembered that Beyoncé had sung this at Obama’s Inauguration, but those of us Americans of a certain age caught our breath. As the large screen at the back of the stage now filled with a montage of the Civil Rights struggle, our hearts rose in our mouths. When, inevitably, images of the Obama campaign and Inauguration arrived, the Chinese and young expats roared, and the rest of us were in tears.

Modern Sky records (Chinese indie rock label) has announced that “due to unforeseen circumstances, the 14 international acts originally scheduled to perform at the 2009 Modern Sky Festival will be unable to attend,” though the date and time of the annual festival—October 4-7 at Beijing’s Chaoyang Park—has not changed. There are also reports that International Noise Conspiracy has been pulled from a show at the Yuyintang club in Shanghai.

Some suggest this means that foreign bands have been banned from stages nation-wide, citing, with likely sarcasm, that the motivation is the desire to develop local talent. More likely the authorities are nervous about the potential effect of foreign rock around the 60th Anniversary of the Foundation of the People’s Republic of China. Foreign classical ballet troupes, however, seems to inspire no such discomfort: the San Francisco Ballet performs tonight through Saturday at the Poly Theatre in Beijing.

Beyonce rocks an ecstatic sold out crowd in Wukesong Arena in Beijing.

by Cathy Barbash

In a lovely coincidence of timing, just as Carnegie’s “Mostly Huaqiao” Ancient Paths Modern Voices festival celebrating Chinese culture is nearing its climax this fall in Manhattan, a Chinese horse of a much different color gallops into Brooklyn. What may be the first major tour of China underground rock arrives on the U.S. college/indie/alternative circuit in November. Chinese headliners P.K. 14, Carsick Cars, Xiao He, and White begin their three-week national tour on November 5 as part of the monthly Dumbo Art Walk, and head mostly south and west from there. 

The tour is the brainchild of Beijing-based business partners Charles Saliba and Nevin Domer, to promote bands they present at their hot Beijing club, D-22, and record on their Maybe Mars label. Savvy at cross-promotion, Saliba has also placed the bands on college radio specials, book launches, university panels, and the like. No surprise that presenters confirmed tend to the more independent-spirited, including Hampshire and Bard Colleges, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Saliba’s alma mater Columbia University. The great irony is that this low-budget scrappy tour will likely prove more effective in exposing impressionable young American future leaders to the creative ferment and volcanic energy of today’s China than any more conventional China festival, be it presented by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China or a pillar of the American cultural establishment.

For more details on the tour, see http://www.maybemars.com/index.php/usa-tour-2009/               

Louder Voices P.S. 9/25/09

Club D-22 Owner Michael Pettis, who in his other life is a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a finance professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, adds his two cents to my last post:

“The cultural change taking place in China is so rapid that it is sometimes hard for outsiders to grasp it.  There is a huge generation gap dividing young urban Chinese from the stereotypes most of us have of China.  For Beijing artists New York is the center of the world and these aggressive young musicians are as familiar with what their friends and contemporaries are doing in New York as they are with traditional Chinese notions of melodic structure and musical texture.  In this tour, the first time Beijing’s leading young musicians have come as a group to the US, we wanted to show that Beijing has suddenly emerged as one of the most important international centers for new music.”

by Cathy Barbash

I had coffee recently with a new acquaintance, Linda Lee. A Hong Kong native and former Director at Burson Marsteller and Shanghai correspondent for CNBC Asia, Lee now hosts a weekly informal professional workshop in Chinese improv in Beijing as an adjunct to her professional training consultancy. Traditionally, verbal communication, both business and personal, is highly premeditated and structured. “Chinese people doesn’t open their mouths, even to speak to family members, unless they have mentally played out the ramifications of their statements several moves out, like a chess game,” explained one of my closest Chinese friends in my early days working in China. (This was the Chinese way of telling me to keep my big mouth shut…) At conferences, Chinese speakers invariably read from prepared remarks that participants will find already included in their folders. Chinese comedy still tends to the structured; the cross-talk routines remind me of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First?”

The Monday evening classes are strictly Chinese language, and aimed at both human resource professionals and low and mid-level employees wishing to improve their self-confidence. Participants now include bank and government employees and others attracted through postings on Chinese social networking websites. They aim to hold their first workshop performance this fall to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, and hope eventually to expand the program into Chinese schools.

“People’s initial reaction was “What is improv?” explained Lee. “The Chinese mind is indirect, so this is an education in stretching them. Improv is direct, you must learn to be confident with each other, and this provides a safe and spontaneous way to learn.”

Thus another art form very foreign, even anathema to the Chinese ethos, seeps in. Will aspiring Chinese professionals take to improv as ambitious Chinese youth first took to piano lessons? Last year’s first annual Improv Festival at the Penghao Theatre (see July 7 post) attracted 300 people with little publicity. Look for the second installment in Spring 2010. However, in a society that prefers predictability and control, I wouldn’t bet that we’ll enjoy Second City-style improv on the CCTV Chinese New Year’s Show in our lifetime.

By Andy Hertz
   
Saturday night, as I was music directing the opening night production of The Fully Monty for ReVision Theater in Asbury Park, I (along with everyone in the theater) was reminded about the dangers of live performance: not a flubbed line, not a missed lyric, not a wrong note.  The power went out.
   
It occurred in the midst of a song. The band has two guitars, one keyboard, a drummer, two horns and two reeds. Naturally, when we lost power, the non-electric instruments kept playing. And they, in fact, finished the song quite well despite losing the bottom half of the orchestra and nearly all of the rhythm section.
   
At first it seemed like it was just the band that lost power. Then the stage microphones went out and the lights went last (theater lights contain residual power that can keep them going for a little longer before they shut off). After emergency crews tried unsuccessfully to remedy the situation, we assumed the show was done for the evening.  Fortunately, someone ultimately found a box with a switch (yes, one switch) that restored all power to the theater.

A remarkable thing occurred as the show continued: It was better than it ever had been.
   
Why? I believe that everyone realized that the worst thing that could possibly happen in live theater (save injury) had happened and that somehow we all lived through it. So it took the pressure off all of us, including myself, to move forward with a freedom and confidence we hadn’t had before.

So, what could have been a financial and artistic disaster—the need to refund thousands of dollars, to sooth bruised egos, apologize to patrons, etc.—turned into a positive and artistically affirming experience for all.  

Janice L. Mayer

Over the weekend I visited my elderly uncle in his nursing home in Massachusetts. It’s a pleasant place – as these facilities go – in Duxbury. Uncle Dick is Red Sox baseball fanatic who was recruited by the minor league in his day. I purchase a Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee T-shirt for him every year when I visit Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown and the presentation of the shirt with the new autographs, along with a review of ‘the greats,’ has become a family tradition. Uncle Dick has advanced Alzheimer’s disease now and his days of reciting the scores of legendary ballgames is behind him. He often asks, “What happened?” That question can baffle a visitor. Does it refer to the wide-ranging question of how did he land in this predicament, or more simply what happened to breakfast? Either is possible.

Artists historically have challenged us to make sense of ‘what happened?’ Think of folk singer Pete Seeger, now celebrating his 90^th year, challenging us all to deal with ‘what happened’ to the Hudson River and how to revitalize the environment in his folk songs aboard the The Clearwater. Think of Joan Baez reacting to ‘what happened’ in Vietnam and fueling the peace movement of the 1960s with Cambodia and her other heartfelt anti-war songs. And who can forget the late, soulful singer Odetta whose rendition of I’m On My Way moved the crowd to action at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington? We know ‘what happened’ in our Nation’s capital, and across the South, as a result. Recently I saw two productions whose creators were trying to make sense of ‘what happened’ in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts is sacred ground to dancers in the modern dance tradition. Male modern dance originated there under choreographer Ted Shawn, and Ruth St. Denis, Agnes DeMille, Martha Graham, Twyla Tharp and almost any important female modern dancer one can think of had her creative spirit nurtured on the rambling grounds of what was originally a farm in the 1700s.  Interestingly, Jacob’s Pillow was recently designated a historical landmark for its life-saving role as a sanctuary for the Underground Railroad. David Roussève and his diverse dance company, Reality, explored the effect of Katrina in his moving multi-dimensional, evening-length work Saudade. Violent movement subjugating the slighter more fragile dancers alternated with strapping company members heroically lifting up their partners in other sections of the piece. Movement was interspersed with spoken dialogue recited by the triple threat choreographer/ writer/performer, Mr. Roussève. A native son of Louisiana, he connected the dots beginning with the slave movement from Africa to the degradation of the inhabitants of 9^th Ward in New Orleans  post-Katrina – literally punctuating his progression with markers at each stopping point. This was not a linear story; rather one with advances and retreats in which he personified the see-saw of progress as he haltingly traveled a diagonal path across the stage. There was no clear, straight path to understanding here. Was it tough to watch? At some points, yes. Was the verbal and movement language rough? Yes, in that it reflected the brutality he was exposing. Clearly a gifted artist who is close to the subject, Roussève was grappling with major issues and might have been served by a second eye on the project. But then again, with the world’s eye on Katrina, the country sat bewildered and dazed in the aftermath of the storm. Should, we expect more of Roussève?

The Consul, courtesy of Glimmerglass Opera

At Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, I attended the dress rehearsal and opening performance of Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Consul. It is a story teaming with despair as dejected characters face bureaucraticinsensitivity as they plead for asylum. American director Sam Helfrich chose to set the action in Louisiana post-Katrina. While the set was non-site-specific in its industrial tone, Sam envisioned the movement of the characters into the consulate as like the relocation of the Katrina survivors into the Astrodome. By Act II they were carrying their personal effects – here symbolized by unlit lamps – and literally moving into the consulate. With little hope of escaping their miserable circumstances, the lights symbolically never illuminated their path to freedom.

It was interesting to me that in 2009 we have two creators working in different mediums trying to make sense of ‘what happened’ in 2005. Do we need to reflect on the actions, or perhaps inaction at that time? I would suggest that we do, in order to prevent this dehumanizing treatment leveled upon human beings from occurring again. Is it truly as Magda sings in The Consul (Nonesuch recording: NPD85645/2) ?

“To this we’ve come:
That men withhold the world from men.
No ship no shore for him who drowns at sea,
no grave for him who dies on land…”

I came away from both performances appreciating the motivation of the directors, but wishing for more clarity in the telling of ‘what happened’. Although perhaps it was their intention to overwhelm their audiences in the same way that the 14-foot waters inundated the community of New Orleans.