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Nashville Symphony | Nathan Aspinall, conductor | Ma Xiaohui, erhu | Jen-Jen Lin, choreographer

Lunar New Year is the most broadly observed holiday in Asian culture, and the Nashville Symphony’s inaugural Lunar New Year program will reflect how different communities and ethnic groups celebrate the occasion. Nashville Symphony Associate Conductor Nathan Aspinall will conduct the concert which marks the Year of the Dragon and features arrangements of traditional melodies and original music from Chinese composers He Zhanhou, Chen Gang, and Li Huanzhi; Singaporean composers Phoon Yew Tien and Kelly Tang; and Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong. Erhu virtuoso Ma Xiaohui, who performed with Yo-Yo Ma on the award-winning soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, will be the featured soloist, performing excerpts from He Zhanhao and Chen Gang’s The Butterfly Lovers Concerto and the traditional melody “Horse Racing.” In addition, Jen-Jen Lim, Director/Artistic Director of the Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville, will create original choreography for Li Huanzhi’s Spring Festival Overture. The concert culminates with Igor Stravinsky’s Suite from The Firebird, a classic symphonic concert work nodding to the Year of the Dragon by evoking a mythical, winged creature.

In addition to the concert, the public spaces in the Schermerhorn will be filled with festive music, activities, and displays, including an Asian market curated by Asian & Pacific Islanders Middle Tennessee (API), craft tables for families including a lantern-making station, and booths with demonstrations of traditional calligraphy and other art forms.