Tianjin Juilliard School brings artists together to allow their music and creativity to flourish and build bridges of understanding, Chen Nan reports.

In 1993, Alexander Brose, a 16-year-old vocalist, got an opportunity to do a summer internship in a music institute in Connecticut, the United States. Because Brose, who was born in New Jersey and grew up in Seoul and Hong Kong, could speak a little Chinese, he was assigned to work with a group of US singers who would sing Chinese songs, helping them with their Chinese pronunciation.

It was a two-week program and for Brose, it was a fun task.

The first music piece he worked on was Marco Polo, an opera about the 13th-century Italian explorer composed by Tan Dun. It was the first time that Brose met Tan.

About two decades later, Brose moved to Tianjin, working as the executive director and CEO of the Tianjin Juilliard School, the first overseas campus in China of the New York-based performing arts conservatory.

In 2018, he met Tan again at a party after a concert in Beijing, featuring music by a group of Chinese composers, including Tan, Chen Qigang, Zhou Long, Chen Yi and Qu Xiaosong, who were admitted to the composition department of the Beijing-based Central Conservatory of Music in 1978-the first year when students could enroll after the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). They became the first generation of Chinese composers to be recognized by Western audiences.

"Do you remember me?" Brose asked Tan. Looking confused, Tan didn't recognize the man standing in front of him. After Brose introduced himself again with his Chinese name, Bu Yiming, and as the executive director and CEO of the Tianjin Juilliard School, Tan still did not recognize him.

"We worked together in 1993!" Brose said. "Alex?" Tan called Brose's name at once.

Now, Brose can still vividly recall the moment of reconnecting with Tan.

East meets West

On May 11, Brose was in Beijing to announce a series of four concerts by the Tianjin Juilliard Ensemble and the China NCPA Orchestra at both Tianjin Juilliard Concert Hall and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing from May 12 to 16.

The concert on May 16 featured String Quartet and Pipa by Tan, Poeme Lyrique II, 1990 by Chen Qigang, Recitativo Gong by Guo Wenjing, Drink One More Glass of Wine by Yao Chen, as well as a world premiere of US composer Niccolo Athens' Three Settings From the Book of Odes.

"This concert has different meanings for me since my roots here in China are from so long ago," says Brose, adding that the concert also marks the beginning of the collaboration of the Tianjin Juilliard School and the NCPA.

Chinese cultural elements, such as traditional poems and musical instruments, inspired the creative processes of contemporary composers. For example, Yao's One More Glass of Wine was inspired by the poetry of Wang Wei, a renowned poet from the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Guqin (Chinese zither) player Chen Leiji performed with musicians of Western string instruments in this piece.

Three Settings From the Book of Odes, composed by Athens, was inspired by Shijing (The Book of Odes), the earliest poetry collection of China. Bass-baritone Shen Yang and guzheng (Chinese plucked zither) player Chang Jing were featured in the piece.

"I've composed about four or five music pieces combining Western and Chinese musical instruments. It's a process of finding a perfect sound for both sides," says Athens, a teacher of the Tianjin Juilliard School.

Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Athens started studying the viola in elementary school when he was 8. He first visited China during the summer of 2010, traveling to many places, including Shanghai, and Zhejiang and Yunnan provinces. That year, he received his bachelor of music in composition from the Juilliard School in New York.

He Wei, artistic director and dean of the Tianjin Juilliard School, says: "We call this concert 'East Meets West', which is rich and innovative in its content through cultural understanding, musical creativity and performance collaboration.

"Works from the five composers bring together elements from diverse cultures. From the seamless merging of string quartet and pipa (a four-stringed Chinese lute) to Chinese vocal traditions, such as Peking Opera, combined with Western opera and modern techniques, audiences have an extraordinary experience. It is our hope to bridge different cultures through the art of music."

Born in Chengdu, Sichuan province, He was trained at the Sichuan Music Conservatory before going to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has been teaching at the US school for about 20 years.

"The uniqueness of music as an art form not only allows all symbols and elements of various cultures to coexist, but to thrive for perfection through all the differences," He says.

These four concerts are part of the NCPA's ongoing May Festival, an annual event to promote chamber music in China.

Earlier last year, the Juilliard School in New York, the Tianjin Juilliard School and the NCPA signed a memorandum of understanding for a strategic partnership to explore collaborative opportunities in performance, education, artist training and more. Though plans were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the series of performances in May was the first initiative produced as a result of this partnership.

In addition, Chinese American violinist Weigang Li and French horn player Han Xiaoguang have been appointed as artistic consultants and honorary section principals of the NCPA Orchestra for the next two years.

Future collaboration

The other collaboration is through teaching itself. For example, the NCPA Orchestra members do not just share their music-learning experience with students of the Tianjin Juilliard School, but also teach them how to be a professional musician in China and tell them how the audition process works.

"This collaboration marks a major milestone in the NCPA Orchestra's chamber music series and will kick off future collaboration between the two prestigious performing arts organizations," says Ren Xiaolong, general manager of the orchestra, adding that when the pandemic is over, students and faculty members of the Juilliard School in New York will come to the NCPA for more cultural exchange programs.

Founded in 1905, the New York-based Juilliard School has trained some of the world's best artists, including Van Cliburn, Renee Fleming and Yo-Yo Ma. The school has enrolled students from China since the 1920s.

The Juilliard Orchestra's first tour in China took place in 1987 by visiting six Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, led by the school's president, Joseph W. Polisi. In 2008, it returned with another China tour, including a concert collaborating with students and faculty members of the Central Conservatory of Music at the NCPA.

Polisi, a bassoon player, took his position at the Juilliard in 1984 and retired in 2018. As the school's sixth and longest-serving president, he had fulfilled his vision of global expansion by launching the Tianjin Juilliard School.

The deal for the new Tianjin campus was announced by Polisi when China's first lady, Peng Liyuan, visited the Juilliard School in New York on Sept 28, 2015, while accompanying President Xi Jinping on his state visit to the US.

"We've seen the growth and evolution of the Tianjin Juilliard School, which is very exciting and interesting since many of us working with the school have a long history with China, either musicians born in China pursuing studies and careers in the US and now returning to China, or people like me and composer Athens, who were born in the US and (are now) creating our own roots in China," says Brose.

He adds that from the moment they began planning the Tianjin Juilliard School, they always had a clear vision-to take root in China and develop the school into an international hub for musical education in China and Asia.

"Roots grow in really good soil. China has done incredible cultivation of its classical music soil over the last 40 years. The soil has been enriched with incredible attention and devotion to Western classical arts," Brose says.

"Here, we want to train and develop the next great musicians, to create 'artist citizens'-a term by Polisi, referring to musicians who not only perform onstage inside concert halls but also go into the communities, to communicate, to bond with the communities through their music. We are also here to serve as a cultural bridge."