Tales from the Forbidden City - a five-part series documenting the collaborative NZ-Chinese musical project

Last year, China’s renowned ensemble the Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra joined with the New Zealand String Quartet to commission seven New Zealand and Chinese composers to write music for their ensembles. Radio NZ Concert’s Kate Mead visited the project’s headquarters in Beijing and spoke with the musicians and composers about their lives, their instruments, their music and the successes and challenges of this innovative project.

Throughout August in Global Sounds we’ll hear the music and voices of the musicians involved in the project.

(2) Today’s programme features performers Yang Jing (pipa), Xiao Ma (countertenor) and Jiao Shanglin (percussion). We’ll hear Gao Weijie’s Three Songs of Yuan Qu, and Jack Body’s work Beat (RNZ)

Gao Weijie, composer