UNCSA faculty perform and teach at China Conservatory
Last January, violin faculty member Kevin Lawrence had a nine-day visit to Beijing, performing and giving classes at the China Conservatory. This visit set in motion a broader connection between UNCSA and several Chinese institutions of higher learning, through a Chinese corporation dedicated to international cooperation in arts education.
The visit also brought a China Conservatory graduate to UNCSA this fall. Wei Lin is currently studying with Professor Lawrence and is part of UNCSA’s Chrysalis Chamber Music Program.
Read more about Wei
Now Lawrence, UNCSA cello professor Brooks Whitehouse, UNCSA voice chair Marilyn Taylor, and UNC-Chapel Hill pianist Clara Yang are preparing for a more extensive performing
and teaching tour of China at the end of November 2017. Along with concerts in Beijing,
Nanjing, Shenzhen and Nanjing, they will record teaching videos with Chinese students,
and meet with Chinese music faculty to discuss the further development of Western
musical education in China. The core of their performances will be a program of piano
trios that Lawrence, Whitehouse and Yang played in Cleveland and at UNCSA in October,
supplemented by a work for voice and strings using traditional Chinese material by
composer Lu Pei, who studied at the University of Michigan and now teaches at Shanghai
Conservatory.
The UNCSA faculty are delighted to offer a contribution to China’s flourishing musical
scene, and to explore the cultural life of this country that has become so important
to the whole world of music.
November 17, 2017