A weeklong virtual festival led up to the Lunar New Year Celebration Concert. The festival highlighted community performers and cultural groups, traditional performances, cooking demonstrations and more.
Premiered Feb 6, 2021
Xian Zhang, conductor & piano
Xuefei Yang, guitar
George Li, piano
Jonathan Spitz, cello
Na-Young Baek, cello
Bart Feller, flute
Peking University Alumni Chorus
Starry Arts Group Children’s Chorus | Rebecca Shen, director
LI HUANZHI Spring Festival Overture
TCHAIKOVSKY Andante cantabile for Cello and Orchestra
LUIZ BONFA Manhã de Carnaval
SCHUBERT/arr. Liszt Der Erlkönig
TRADITIONAL “Purple Bamboo Tune”
TRADITIONAL Fisherman’s Song at Eventide
CHU WANG-HUA “Happy Days”
DON BESIG “Flying Free”
PIAZZOLLA Libertango
GU JIANFEN “Spring Dawn”
GU JIANFEN “Singing and Smiling”
TRADITIONAL “Farewell”
TRADITIONAL “Gong Xi Gong Xi”
Premiered Feb 5, 2021
Yang Yi 杨艺 performs Gao Shan Liu Shui 高山流水 (High Mountains and Running Brook), with the beautiful grounds of the Windsor Athletic Club creating a serene backdrop for this ancient piece played on guzheng 古筝.
Premiered Feb 5, 2021
The New Jersey Symphony Chamber Players 新泽西交响乐团室内乐乐手—featuring violinists Wendy Chen 陈韵 and Alexandra Neglia, violist David Blinn and cellist Laura Andrade—perform Spring Celebration 新春乐 in a string quartet arrangement by Zoyue 邹野 编曲.
Premiered Feb 4, 2021
Guitarist Xuefei Yang 杨雪霏 performs Blossoms on a Moonlit River in Spring 春江花月夜 as part of the New Jersey Symphony’s Lunar New Year festival.
Premiered Feb 4, 2021
Why make one kind of wonton when you can make three? New Jersey Symphony violinist Xin Zhao 赵欣 takes you into her kitchen and demonstrates a trio of delicious recipes as part of the New Jersey Symphony’s Lunar New Year Celebration.
Premiered Feb 3, 2021
Brilliant Juilliard student and rising star pianist Harmony Zhu performs Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 in F Minor as part of our Lunar New Year festival.
Premiered Feb 3, 2021
Yuxiao Chen 陈雨潇, an New Jersey Symphony Lunar New Year audience favorite, performs the famed traditional Chinese piece Yang Guan San Die 阳关三叠 on the xun 埙 as part of the New Jersey Symphony’s Lunar New Year Celebration.
Premiered Feb 2, 2021
Get ready to cook your own Lunar New Year feast! From South Korea, New Jersey Symphony Principal Bass Ha Young Jung shares her recipe for Tteokguk, a savory Korean rice cake soup that is a traditional Lunar New Year favorite.
Premiered Feb 2, 2021
The New Jersey Symphony Chamber Players新泽西交响乐团室内乐乐手—featuring violinists Xin Zhao 赵欣 and James Chih-Ming Tsao, Principal Viola Frank Foerster and cellist Philo Lee—perform a string quartet arrangement of A Wonderful Night 良宵 by Zoyue 邹野 编曲. After the performance, Xin demonstrates how she recreates the sound of the Chinese erhu on the violin.
Premiered Feb 1, 2021
Happy Year of the Ox! Our Lunar New Year Festival opens with Li Kaichou’s “Your Smile is So Beautiful” performed by the Starry Arts Group Children’s Chorus, led by director Rebecca Shen.
Premiered Feb 1, 2021
New Jersey Symphony violinist Ming Yang 杨明 and her daughter, pianist Jade Lucia Nieczkowski 婷婷, perform the traditional folk song Fisherman’s Song at Eventide on the first day of our Lunar New Year Festival.
The Lunar New Year Celebration is generously sponsored in part by an anonymous donor in honor of Music Director Xian Zhang. Major support for the festival is also provided by A. Michael and Ruth C. Lipper, Prudential Financial, Norm Slonaker & Linda Dujack, Margaret Lam & David Yen and BROAD U.S.A.