On a frigid Friday morning at the end of 2012, a stream of expectant concertgoers poured through the cavernous lobby of the China National Center for the Performing Arts.
Classical Music with Chinese Characteristics
Posted by Samuel Wade | Mar 1, 2013
the short-lived Three Highs orchestra and choir, whose members included Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in the chorus and a former astronaut on trombone. The article recounts the history of Western classical music and its instruments in China, and describes traditional connections between music and leadership.
The Three Highs San Gao, in Chinese, or “3H” in colloquial English promotional materials is an amateur ensemble named not for any notes its performers might reach in concert, but for the status they must possess simply to be members. Indeed, “three highs” refers to the bureaucratic ranking of the ninety-seven musicians and the accompanying 141-member chorus, all of whom are high-ranking members of China’s Communist Party, intelligentsia, or military. They include Minister of Foreign Affairs Yang Jiechi, who sang in the chorus (along with dozens of other ministry officials); Shanghai Commu