Music From China Youth Orchestra: "Take the Stage" Teen Performing Arts Festival

The New York Public Library’s Chatham Square branch presents the Music From China Youth Orchestra in a festival showcasing the talents of Chinese American youths engaged in promoting their cultural heritage. Using traditional instruments, the orchestra performs music indigenous to the water towns of the southern Yangzi River, ethnic minorities of Yunnan, the Mongolian steppes, and music of the the Silk Road in Xinjiang.

Established in 2004, the Music From China Youth Orchestra has served as a platform for young people to be connected to Chinese culture while enjoying the fun and discipline of performance and achieving artistic accomplishment.

The Youth Orchestra has presented annual concerts at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and the Concert Hall at Drew University. Performing for the community and general public, the orchestra has appeared at the Morris County, Mahwah, Parsippany, Ridgewood and Westfield Memorial Libraries, Seton Hall University, Westminster Choir College, Middlebury College, New York University, Willow Grove Presbyterian Church, Flushing Library and Flushing Town Hall. The Youth Orchestra has also been presented at the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, and Morris County First Night. The orchestra traveled overseas to Shanghai to collaborate with the China Welfare Institute Children’s Palace Youth Orchestra (2008); the Pudong National Music Youth Orchestra (2010); and the Taipei Municipal Jieshou Junior High School Chinese Orchestra in Taiwan (2012).