CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–October 22, 2015. Chicagoans will have a unique opportunity to see and hear a concert on Oct. 28 at Roosevelt University that will feature music for the Kong Hou, a beautiful Chinese instrument that has rarely – if ever – been a headliner for a U.S. musical performance.
Musicians from Roosevelt’s Chicago College of Performing Arts (CCPA) will collaborate with traditional instrumentalists from China’s Shenyang Conservatory of Music during a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 28 in Roosevelt’s seventh-floor Ganz Hall, 430 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.
The Kong Hou is an ancient Chinese instrument that had disappeared for centuries, but is now being revived, largely by the Shenyang Conservatory, which makes the instruments as well as gives lessons in how to play them.
It looks like a harp, but has two sets of strings that run alongside one another. One set vibrates in sympathy with the other, creating a wonderful resonance and enabling the Kong Hou musician to play melody on one set and accompaniment on the other, or even two contrapuntal melodies on two separate sets of strings.
During the beginning of the concert, an ensemble of three Kong Hous will be played by Shenyang Conservatory faculty members and students. The second half of the show will feature the Shenyang musicians performing on other traditional Chinese instruments alongside two Roosevelt student string quartets.
“We wanted to bring Chinese students and faculty members who play these instruments to Roosevelt in order to have them collaborate with our students on Western instruments including the violin, viola, and cello,” said Henry Fogel, dean of CCPA.
“The Kong Hous will have a major role in the concert, which is unheard of in the United States,” added Fogel. “It will be the first time for most to hear these instruments at all, much less in such a featured and prominent way.”
“The Kong Hou is beautiful to look at as well as to listen to,” added MingHuan Xu, a CCPA artist faculty member and organizer of the upcoming East-meets-West musical performance.
Co-sponsored by the Chinese Fine Arts Society, the Oct. 28 concert is entitled “Silk.” “Silk” is the first in a two-year concert series called Eight Tones: An Exploration, which will highlight instruments based on the ancient Eight Tones classification system. The next concert in the series will explore “Metal, Hide, Stone and Wood” at 2 p.m. November 15 at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Fullerton Hall.
For more information and/or to attend the performance at Roosevelt, visit www.roosevelt.edu/ccpa.
Source: www.roosevelt.edu
