XM Youth Philharmonic
By Zhao Jing & Vivian Zhang
Photos by Yao Fan



由厦门爱乐乐团主办的首届"小爱乐"夏令营日前举行了汇报音乐会. 之前, 70多位有音乐专长的中小学生在爱乐老师们的指导下进行音乐欣赏、视唱练耳和乐队训练, 其中还有4位不远万里从海外赶来的华人学生.

A little boy jumps from a taxi and rushes into the building with a violin in his arms. He is a member of a two-week music camp, the first of its kind organized by the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra.


Ruth Lin takes the baton from Zheng in the rehearsal

It is 9:20 am on the fourth day of the camp. Walking through the corridors to the music hall, we can see young musicians with various instruments practicing industriously. Most of them are students from local middle and primary schools. On their timetable we can see that in ten minutes they will be gathering for a rehearsal conducted by Professor Zheng Xiaoying, the most famous female conductor in China. On July 23rd, the "Youth Philharmonic" is playing Haydn's Symphony No.100 in their final concert.Paving the way for a youth orchestra.

Rehearsal usually begins at 9:30 am, and lasts for an hour. As we enter the well-designed hall, we notice that some seats have already been taken by parents. They sit quietly, proudly watching their children's every move.


Zheng Xiaoying conducts the band

A moment before, I had been thinking how time-consuming the job of training these young beginners must be for a well-known conductor like Zheng Xiaoying, especially as they have no orchestra experience. However, Ms. Zheng never shows any frustration with the task. Instead, I feel the conductor possesses an amazing combination of passion and patience with her young students. The determined Zheng Xiaoying, who is 76 this year, has never ceased in her efforts to popularize classic music.

She has, on several occasions, expressed her intention to set up a students' symphony orchestra in Xiamen. "Organizing this summer camp is paving the way for the future orchestra," says Professor Zheng. She also asked the students to "remember that teamwork is always the number one issue for an orchestra," and that they had to think about others. "Each player is an inseparable part of the whole machine. Anything wrong with any one part could make the performance a disaster!" It seemed as if she was not only telling them how to be a better musician, but also how to be a better person.


Coaching little players

Zheng's admirer from America

Among the 70 members of the youth orchestra, four are from overseas. They came to China for their summer vacation and would spend 14 days in the camp. We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet one of them, Ruth Lin, a beaming 25-year-old postgraduate from Northwestern University in the USA. She first went to America with her family 15 years ago, and this is the second time she has returned to China. Gloria, her younger sister, is also attending the camp.

"I am very glad to be able to learn so much from Ms. Zheng," Ruth says. "I am majoring in conducting. As well as the music she has taught me, I also learned a lot from her personality. She is great! It would not be an easy job to run such an orchestra in America. However, she has managed to make it work in Xiamen."



Music camps for Taiwanese students

The Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra has brought hundreds of concerts to audiences in China and abroad since it came into being in 1998. It also serves as a bond of friendship across the Straits and has held two music camps for Taiwanese students. According to Ms. Zhu, a member of the orchestra's management staff, Taiwan has been organizing students to visit Xiamen to take music courses. Last July, Professor Zheng led the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra on a visit to Jinmen, Taiwan. During the one-week stay, the orchestra members gave concerts and trained the local student orchestra. The efforts of all the members of the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra made the trip across the Straits very productive. Since then, more and more Jinmen students have been coming to Xiamen to take music courses during their summer or winter vacations.

UK loves China
By Zhao Jing
Photos by Yao Fan

The opening ceremony of the Xiamen Chinese Summer School was held in the Jianming Building, Xiamen University of Technology on July 24th. 58 students and teachers from five schools in Britain and many Chinese local students attended the ceremony.

Ms. Jessy Lu, assistant director of the British Council Guangzhou Office and Liu Jingui, the director-general of the Xiamen Education Bureau delivered speeches during the opening ceremony and expressed their confidence that the young people will certainly have plenty of time to get to know each other, learn from each other, have fun together and nurture life-long friendships of their own.


Group dance performed by Chinese and British students


This program is co-sponsored by the Cultural and Education Section of the British Consulate-General and the Xiamen Education Bureau, and organized by Xiamen University of Technology, who ran it successfully last year.



As a key element of the China-UK School Links project launched by the British Council, the Chinese Summer School enables British students to develop an interest in Chinese culture and language. During the two-week program, visitors from Britain will have chances to learn Chinese martial arts, Chinese cooking and Chinese calligraphy. Moreover, they will be invited to participate in the activities of local communities so as to experience the real life of their Chinese counterparts.


Some of the summer school members

Along with Xiamen, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Kunming are also hosting this program. Around 500 British students are to enjoy an amazing Chinese cultural journey in the five cities this year.

Vocabulary
philharmonic 爱好音乐的
industrious 勤奋的
calligraphy 书法