from the Annals of Nashville's Diversity:
Mendelssohn, Huang, and Barnes at the Schermerhorn
Sometimes the best concerts give you no, or very little, indication of what is happening beforehand. This was the case with the Nashville Symphony’s presentation on April 11 & 12, unceremoniously titled “Mendelssohn’s Fifth.” While it did feature a wonderful performance of Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony, little emphasis beforehand was placed on the two excellent compositions by living composers (the composers were in the hall!), the inclusion of not one, but three visiting world-class artists (soloists including the NSO’s own Titus Underwood) as well as a remarkable guest conductor and director of the San Bernardino Orchestra in a most exceptional program showing distinct and ingenious approaches at blending the folk, the secular and the sacred with the classic. Given a time machine, I would have conducted interviews with ALL of these folks, but I digress. The evening began with a performance of Joan Huang’s Tujia Dance (1994). Like many Chinese intellectuals of her generation, Huang was raised during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and “rusticated,” as a teen, that is, she was forced to take part in Mao Zedong’s “Down to the Countryside” Movement, which forced the children of urban intellectuals (the bourgeois) to perform heavy labor in rural settings. When thisRead More
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