iSING! Suzhou International Young Artists Festival came to a close Sunday in Suzhou. 19 Chinese singers and 24 foreign singers from New York, San Francisco, Bologna, Berlin, Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou participated in the event.
[voice over]The Chinese and foreign singers also attended lectures given by 13 internationally well-known opera experts and music professors from the US, Australia, Italy and France.
Now in its seventh season, the iSING! International Young Artists Festival culminated a month of intensive training for forty-two young singers and three pianists from around the world with a gala concert at the Suzhou Culture and Arts Centre Grand Theatre.
iSING! was founded by internationally renowned Chinese bass Hao Jiangtian, with Martha Liao, the singer’s wife, serving as the festival’s general director.
The 2017 program provided young musicians from Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas the opportunity to work with renowned teachers, stage directors and musicians from around the world.
In addition to the standard Western operatic repertoire, they are coached in modern Chinese works and performance style, with the non-Chinese participants required to take daily Mandarin classes.
Equally valuable are the insights the young singers gain into the performing arts scene in China, with its exponential potential for growth.
This concert does more than showcase talent, however, as it serves iSING!’s other objectives: introducing the music to a broader spectrum of the Chinese public and building audiences for it.
The Chinese songs, with their lovely melodies, soaring vocal lines and strong emotional pull, provided the singers ample opportunity to pour out beautiful sounds, and so they did.
The selections from European operas were ideal to display the talents of the young singers and certainly pleased the audience.
