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Nine years ago, I wrote about the “ fund raising”concert by the famed mezzo-soprano, Yang Guan 楊光in Boston 滋根基金会波士顿捐款音樂会 Feb, 23, 2008 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1565-16264.html. Since then she has returned to China and currently a professor of music at the Shanghai Conservatory. She has many friends in  the US and Boston  including her “US parents, Mr. Zhao Hong-Yuan and Dr. Lily Lawn”. Anyway, in her  most recent US trip she brought along her voice students both in the US and China.With the sponsorship of  Dr. Lawn, she held a small intimate concert in  our home to a crowd of some twenty person on Feb. 3, 2017.  

Unlike typical concert in a large hall which are staged with strict rules  of performance and no audience participation beyond applauses,this family style concert is informal with frequent exchanges between the audience and performers.  Before each song, Professor Yang and her students would provide back  stories for the piece and her own musical philosophy thus adding knowledge to the performance not available in usual concerts. The audience, at least those who are amateur musicians and knowledgeable, can further participate in the discussion afterwards adding color to the performance.  For a  musical ignoramus like me, it is an eye opener which I enjoyed immensely.

Finally, one more privilege of such a concert, the audience gets to request favorites. For me of course there is only one song – I love you China – which is sang as only Professor Yang can and invariably brought tears  to our eyes  for this Chinese American audience and a standing ovation  as the finale.

Some photos taken for the event.

part of the concert audience

Dr. Lawn addressing the audience and introducing the performers

Yang performing

Student 1  (Mr. Lin) performing

student 2  ( 葛涵.) performaning

group picture at reception afterwards