CHINATOWN : Music Festival Aims at Cultural Learning
A hands-on lesson with traditional Chinese instruments will highlight a free music festival May 14 at Alpine Recreation Center designed to introduce people of all ages and ethnicities to Chinese musical forms.
“Chinatown Spring: A Festival of Music” will begin at 11 a.m. with a workshop on Chinese instruments taught by Wen-Hsuing Yen, a Pasadena City College professor and specialist in music history and ancient instruments. Yen will bring traditional string and percussion instruments, and will invite audience members to try their hand.
From noon to 4 p.m., members of the Chinatown Cultural Performance Coalition and Yuet Sing Music Club will perform and demonstrate Chinese opera, dance and instrumental pieces.
The festival is the first in a series of events planned by the Chinese Cultural and Community Center of Greater Los Angeles to maintain Chinese culture and heritage as well as promote harmony among the people of Los Angeles, said Victor Huey, a center board member.
With $6,500 in donations and grants from the city’s Cultural Affairs Department and Kaiser Permanente, the center also will hold fall Moon Festival activities, a Festival of Lions dancing exhibition and a Festival of Drums.
For the lion dance and drum festivals next year, organizers hope to invite other ethnic groups to demonstrate and discuss their related art forms, Huey said.
“It’s part of the healing, the harmony we want to establish for Los Angeles--not just for Chinatown,” he said.
Information: (310) 839-1474.
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