New Year’s concert in Permeke is Year of the Tiger in (Antwerp)
More than two billion people worldwide celebrate the start of the Spring Festival with music and parades. A New Year’s concert was also indispensable in Antwerp. Both children from the Chinese community and musicians from the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp gathered in the Permeke library for an evening that was completely devoted to Chinese tradition and culture.
Sonia de Bock
Traditionally, Chinese New Year, which this year is dedicated to the tiger, is celebrated for fifteen days. The youngest from the community of the Chinese Traditional Culture Children’s Choir kick off a long line of festivities tonight by singing classic New Year’s songs. Other musicians and composers, such as Melvin Choi, who performed self-written pieces on the piano, based his music on the orchid, a flower that springs into Chinese culture and radiates fortune.
Radiate peace and hope
In addition to musicians from the Royal Conservatoire, Ma Xiao Juan (Miss ma) came to perform with the guzheng and erhu, two instruments central to Chinese history and dating back some 2,500 years. “The guzheng and erhu have always brought me peace,” she says. “I was four years old when I learned to play the instruments with my parents. They have a lot of experience as instruments in Chinese opera, so I put music on between Chinese classical.”
For her performance, Ma chose traditional songs that could bring peace and hope to the audience. “Due to the corona pandemic, I have not been able to travel to Beijing for three years. I do miss my family in China. I hope that with today’s songs I can give comfort to others, because there will still be people in the room who have not been able to see their families in China for a while for Chinese New Year.”
The Permeke Library organizes many other activities during the two weeks, such as workshops, film evenings and a Chinese New Year festival. All information can be found on the Permeke’s website.