"Jasmine Flowers" (Mo Li Hua), one of China’s most popular folk songs, and "Mass" by the eminent American composer Leonard Bernstein were just two of the pieces which resounded throughout the Forbidden City Concert Hall on July 25 as the Children’s Chorus of Washington (CCW) performed for the first time in front of a Chinese audience in Beijing.

The CCW, regarded as one of the best youth choruses in the U.S. performed several Chinese songs including "Jasmine Flowers" (Mo Li Hua), "Ocean My Country" (Da Hai A Gu Xiang), and "Fengyang Song" (Feng Yang Hua Gu). Much to the delight of the young singers, they were joined in song by their Chinese audience. “They were a very good audience,” said Joan Gregoryk, the founder and Artistic Director of CCW. “The children were excited by the audience”.

In addition to Chinese songs, the chorus also performed American songs from all genres, including classical pieces by Leonard Bernstein, old American folk songs by Aaron Copland, American Bluegrass music ("Oh, Susanna") and jazz music by Ella Fitzgerald, bringing a rich variety of American music to their Chinese audience.

The spirit of bridging China and the U.S. was best embodied by the commissioned piece “Wonderful Day Out with Nature” by Nathan Wang, an award-winning Chinese-American composer. The lyrics of the song were taken from the eponymous ancient Chinese poem by poet Wang Guan. The young singers apparently had a hard time learning Mandarin -- they were checking their Chinese lyrics even on the flight to Beijing, according to Gregoryk -- but this was not evident during their marvelous performance.

Discussing the reasons for bringing the chorus to China, Gregoryk touched on the growing global importance of China. “China is the new frontier,” she said. “China has such importance globally. Many of our children understand how important China is to the global economic system and the global political system. And many of them will probably be having jobs working in China.”

The Beijing performance was just one leg of CCW’s 10-day China tour, which was arranged by the American concert touring company Classical Movements. It followed a concert in Shanghai on July 20 and a performance in Xi’an on July 23. The CCW concludes its China concert tour in Tianjin on Saturday.

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