Nashville Symphony Presents Lunar New Year 2024: Year of the Dragon
Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at 7:30 PM
Nathan Aspinall Leads the Orchestra in a Concert Celebrating Asian Culture Featuring Erhu Virtuoso Ma Xiaohui as Soloist in her Nashville Symphony Debut and Original Choreography by Jen-Jen Lin
Schermerhorn Symphony Center’s Public Spaces to Feature Festive Asian Activities and Displays in Partnership with the Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville, API Middle Tennessee, and The Porch
NASHVILLE, TN (October 26, 2023)—The Nashville Symphony announced its inaugural Lunar New Year concert, to be held at Schermerhorn Symphony Center on Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at 7:30 PM. Lunar New Year is the most broadly observed holiday in Asian culture, and the program will reflect how different communities and ethnic groups celebrate the occasion. Nashville Symphony Associate Conductor Nathan Aspinall will conduct the concert which marks the Year of the Dragon and features arrangements of traditional melodies and original music from Chinese composers He Zhanhou, Chen Gang, and Li Huanzhi; Singaporean composers Phoon Yew Tien and Kelly Tang; and Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong. Erhu virtuoso Ma Xiaohui, who performed with Yo-Yo Ma on the award-winning soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, will be the featured soloist, performing excerpts from He Zhanhao and Chen Gang’s The Butterfly Lovers Concerto and the traditional melody “Horse Racing.” In addition, Jen-Jen Lim, Director/Artistic Director of the Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville, will create original choreography for Li Huanzhi’s Spring Festival Overture. The concert culminates with Igor Stravinsky’s Suite from The Firebird, a classic symphonic concert work nodding to the Year of the Dragon by evoking a mythical, winged creature.
In addition to the concert, the public spaces in the Schermerhorn will be filled with festive music, activities, and displays, including an Asian market curated by Asian & Pacific Islanders Middle Tennessee (API), craft tables for families including a lantern-making station, and booths with demonstrations of traditional calligraphy and other art forms.
Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday, October 27, and more information can be found at nashvillesymphony.org/lunarnewyear.
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About the Nashville Symphony
The Nashville Symphony has served as Music City’s classical music ambassadors since 1946. Led by Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero since 2009, the ensemble is internationally acclaimed for its focus on contemporary American orchestral music through collaborations with composers including Jennifer Higdon, Terry Riley, Joan Tower and Aaron Jay Kernis; commissioning and recording projects with Nashville-based artists including Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, Ben Folds and Victor Wooten; and for its 14 GRAMMY® Awards. In addition to the classical season, the orchestra performs concerts in a wide range of genres, from pops to live-to-film movie scores, family-focused presentations and community concerts, holiday events, jazz and cabaret evenings, and is the official orchestra for the Nashville Ballet.
As an established leader in the Nashville and regional arts and cultural communities, the Symphony spearheads groundbreaking partnerships and initiatives to engage citizens throughout Middle Tennessee. Recent notable programs include Violins of Hope Nashville, which engaged tens of thousands of people through concerts, exhibits, and lectures by spotlighting a historic collection of instruments played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust. Similarly, in April 2023, the Nashville Symphony presented the world premiere of an epic opera commissioned from composer Hannibal Lokumbe, The Jonah Project: A Legacy of Struggle and Triumph. Beyond the commission, Lokumbe embedded himself in the community, visiting HBCUs, public schools, underserved neighborhoods, and houses of worship, listening to the voices of our community and sharing his personal journey through the power of music.
In addition to support from Metro Arts and Tennessee Arts Commission, Nashville Symphony is supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number SLFRP5534 awarded to the State of Tennessee by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
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