Chinese Fine Arts Society offers free concert this Sunday

The Chinese Fine Arts Society is celebrating its 30th Anniversary with the Five Elements Project, a series of free concerts organized around different elements. This Sunday, May 18 at 3:00 p.m. the concert focuses on “Earth and Wood.”

What does this mean for the music? The Chinese Fine Arts Society explains, “From the Gobi desert to bamboo forests, from sweeping grasslands to mountain vistas, the majestic landscapes of China and its inhabitants are the inspiration for the “Earth and Wood” concert.  The concert primarily features both Chinese and western string instruments – violin, viola, erhu, gaohu, zhonghu – all made of wood.  In a rare performance, Chicago erhu virtuoso Betti Xiang performs on three different pieces of the huqin family of traditional Chinese bowed string instruments.”

The free Earth and Wood concert takes place at the Preston Bradley Hall of the Chicago Cultural Center, underneath the magnificent Tiffany Dome.  “Approximately 38 feet in diameter, the Tiffany dome spans more than 1,000 square feet. It contains some 30,000 pieces of glass in 243 sections held within an ornate cast iron frame,” according to the Chicago Cultural Center website.

The Chinese Fine Arts Society announced the program as:

• Traditional Chinese Tune: Birds on  a Desolated Mountain

Featuring Betti Xiang, erhu

• Traditional Chinese Tune: Birds Dash Back to Forest

Featuring Betti Xiang, gaohu

• Traditional Chinese Tune: On the Grassland

Featuring Betti Xiang, zhonghu

• Spring in the Forest by Ye Xiaogang

Featuring YuQi Deng, guzheng

• Tree Without Wind by Huang Ruo (Chicago/Midwest Premiere)

Featuring Winston Choi, piano

• Gobi Canticle by Lei Liang (Chicago/Midwest Premiere)

Featuring Qing Hou, violin; Weijin Wang, viola

• Chinese Folk Songs by Zhou Long (Chicago Premiere)

Featuring string quartet comprised of members of the CSO

For more information, visit the Chinese Fine Arts Society website at http://chinesefinearts.org/