The Toronto Chinese Orchestra Chamber Players were invited to take part in the Sound of Dragon Music Festival in the beginning of April. It was our first time going as a group and we are grateful for the Canada Council of the Arts‘ support in this project. We were excited to meet new and old friends and hear and perform new works for Chinese instruments.

The TCO CP consisted of Lina Cao (guzheng), Kenny Kwan (percussion/piano), Wendy Zhou (pipa), and myself (erhu). We presented Alice Ho’s Tempered Moon, Marko Koumoulas’ Reincarnation Suite, Kenny Kwan’s 1-2-3, and Matthew Van Driel’s Whiteout. All these composers are from Toronto and two of the compositions were world premieres. In Vancouver, we collaborated with the Sound of Dragon ensemble as well as with members of the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra, led by Dr. Chih-Sheng Chen.

It was a wonderful experience, networking with musicians and composers, intense rehearsals, and of course, challenging repertoire! To me, this is an event that truly shows the Canadian spirit of bridging cultures, finding commonalities, and celebrating diversity through music. The most exciting part is being in the midst of this creation process and seeing it come to life!