"Shimmering Landscapes of Unexpected Beauty"
Second Stage presents
ORCHID
ENSEMBLE
AN EVENING OF ORIGINAL MUSIC
THAT BLENDS TRADITIONAL CHINESE INSTRUMENTS
AND THEMES WITH JAZZ-LIKE IMPROVISATION
"You will be enthralled by the exotic textures of the music and the ability of the Orchid Ensemble to present their work in a way that is accessible to everyone"
Saturday,
Oct 13th
Gower St.
United Church
Hall
TICKETS available at O'Brien's, Fred's Records & Auntie Crae's
$12 advance, $15 at the door
DOORS OPEN AT 7 PM, CONCERT AT 8 PM
For information and out of town reservations:
Please call 709-335-2340
The Orchid Ensemble is a Vancouver-based trio that combines traditional Chinese instruments with Western percussion and improvisation to create original music that shimmers with iridescent beauty. Over the past decade they have toured widely in Canada, and internationally, to present this unique blend to audiences who have found this exotic music to be wonderfully appealing, accessible and interesting.
On Saturday, October 13th the Orchid Ensemble will appear in concert at the Gower Street United Church Hall in St. John's, Newfoundland. Tickets for this event, which begins at 8 PM are available in advance from Auntie Crae's Specialty Foods, O'Brien's Music and Fred's Records. Advance tickets are $12, while tickets at the door will be $15. Doors open at 7. Information and out of town reservations are available by calling 709-335-2340.
The members of the Orchid Ensemble are:
Lan Tung who plays the erhu, or Chinese violin, an ancient instrument with two strings and a sound box covered with snake's skin whose sound mimics the human voice. Lan has studied with Chinese virtuosos Jeibing Chen and Zhan Funming as well as with violinists from the Egyptian and East Indian traditions.
Gelina Jiang who plays a wide range of traditional Chinese instruments, including zheng, ruan, yuetqin, pipa, jinhu and jin-erhu. For 20 years she performed with the famous Hubei Ensemble, a group that performs on reproductions of ancient Chinese court instruments. She has toured in the United States, Japan and Singapore, and has recorded music for film, TV and radio. Her primary instrument with the Orchid Ensemble is the zheng, a plucked wooden zither with movable bridges much like the Japanese koto.
Jonathan Bernard who combines western percussion with a fascination for Asian traditions to create a unique pallette of sounds. His principal instrument in the group is the marimba. He is currently the principal percussionist with the Vancouver Island Symphony. Jonathan has toured widely throughout North America, Europe and Japan.
Their Newfoundland performances, organized by Second Stage, will include two appearances at the Memorial School of Music, leading up to the major evening concert at the Gower Street United Church Hall on Saturday, October 13th, as part of their fall Atlantic Provinces tour.
Those who attend these events will find themselves mesmerized by the unexpected beauty of the music and welcomed into a musical tradition which they will find easy to understand and appreciate, thanks to the way it is presented by the wonderful performers in this group.
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