Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra and Ballad of Mulan shows supported by LCI prove a hit
The Liverpool Confucius Institute (LCI) in partnership with Liverpool Hope University, offered a wonderful opportunity for music and theatre fans to enjoy an afternoon of China performances, including a show based on the ancient Chinese legend Mulan. The events featured as part of Angel Field Festival programme at the Capstone Theatre, at Liverpool Hope University’s creative campus on Sunday 27 June.
Dr Penny Ding, LCI UK Director said:
Both shows were a great success. Zilan Liao’s Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra gave a wonderful demonstration of the fusion of Chinese and Western music using traditional Chinese musical instruments such as guzheng, erhu and bass drum. Michelle Yim’s portrayal of Hua Mulan was so vivid, powerful and engaging and her performance was conducted to perfection. I’m delighted Liverpool Confucius Institute joined Professor Stephen Davismoon and Angel Field Festival at Liverpool Hope University to provide such professional Chinese arts performances for the audience of our two universities and the Liverpool community.
LCI Chinese Director Dr Hua Zhang said:
It was truly wonderful for me to watch the excellent orchestra of Chinese traditional performances. I enjoyed the music which can evoke the murmur of a stream with all its waves and currents or the roar of mountain waterfalls. I was so impressed Michell Yim’s Mulan and how she managed to tell the whole story all by herself on stage
Image: The Ballad of Mulan.
Professor Stephen Davismoon, Director of the Angel Field Festival commented:
Both events are the fruits of an emerging partnership between Angel Field Festival and the Liverpool Confucius Institute. I am deeply grateful for the generous support of LCI UK Director Dr Penny Ding, in allowing us to realise these performances.
The Chinese community in Liverpool is the most established of any European city going back almost two centuries. So, as Artistic Director of the Angel Field Festival, I felt it important to celebrate this relationship.
I was stunned by both performances. It was wonderful to have Zi Lan Liao’s Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra back with us for the third consecutive year and to witness first hand her mastery of the Guzheng. The ensemble’s other members were also fabulous, treating us to a gorgeous array of unique pieces of music. Michelle Yim’s Ballad of Mulan was an extraordinary feat for one person to realise and she did so with great presence and panache. I look forward with great excitement to further cultural collaborations with the Liverpool Confucius Institute.
For over 30 years Liverpool based Pagoda Arts has been introducing Chinese Culture to a wide and diverse community and developing their unique Youth Orchestra to be at the cutting edge of contemporary and classical Chinese and Western music.
The Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra took the audience on a wonderful journey of Chinese traditional musical development from the Warring State Period (475-221 BC) to the present day. This included:
- how music in China has been influenced throughout history by cultures, trade and languages inside and outside of China.
- the diversity of Chinese music and its composition structure compared to that of Western music, and how Chinese music has adapted to modern day contemporary music.
- various traditional Chinese instruments, such as Guzheng, erhu and drum, were played either harmonically or individually.
- the repertoire included a long-lost Cantonese piece called Spring Night, a nursery rhyme Wahaha, Drunken, and Dance of Yao, which dates back to different eras of Chinese history and demonstrates various musical styles.
Red Dragonfly Productions Ballad of Mulan show about the woman, warrior and legend was performed by celebrated actress Michelle Yim, as a solo theatre piece, bringing life to the real heroine Hua Mulan behind the Chinese legend, which inspired a recent Disney's film and cartoon in 2020.
An audience member commented:
I have only watched the Disney Mulan movie and couldn’t believe that the actress managed to tell the whole story all by herself on the stage! That was amazing!
The Confucius Institute provides Chinese language, cultural teaching resources and services worldwide, supporting local Chinese teaching and facilitating cultural exchanges.
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Read more about Pagoda Arts and Red Dragonfly Productions.
Find out more about Angel Field Festival.