Ode to world traditional music

It's not very usual for Yellow River chantey, Egypt's whirling dervishes, Iranian ensembles, Greek folk dance and Bulgarian women's choir to share the same stage.

That was what happened at the opening concert of the Beijing Traditional Music Festival on Oct 7, drawing excitement from audiences who were fascinated by the performances by artists from different nations. Watch-ing the concert was akin to having a tour of world civilizations.

The concert presents music and living conditions of people from different nations, says Cao Yuhan, a singer who attended the concert. Now I want to travel to those countries as soon as possible.

Cao is particularly impressed with the swirling dance of the Dervish Abul Gheit group from Egypt, which she believes showed the cosmology of the Sufism. It contrasted with a Chinese guqin tune accompanied by taichi performance, which displayed Chinese people's attitude toward man and nature.

Chinese music is a part of world music, and we are trying to present it in the context of world music cul-tures through Beijing Traditional Music Festival, says Zhao Talimu, president of China Conservatory, which presents the festival. 

The theme for this year's festival is ode to the great river, using river as a symbol of civilizations and showcasing music cultures from the areas close to different rivers in the world. 

The festival aims to lead people to rediscover the tradition, according to Xie Jiaxing, a professor of China Conservatory and executive artistic director of the festival.

In the last 100 years, many of China's traditions have been greatly challenged, Xie says. It is our re-sponsibility to protect our musical genes and to safe-guard the diversity of world culture.

The festival will present 26 concerts of traditional music from China and the world, in the span of three weeks. Prior to the opening concert, a competition of folk music was held at the Temple of Heaven, attracting performers and enthusiasts of various music forms including folk songs, instrumental music and traditional operas.

Among the concerts are several dedicated to the music of minority ethnic groups of China, such as Music from Shangri-la, a concert of traditional Tibetan music performed by Tibetan folk artists from Yunnan province.

Our lives are being changed by the developing technologies and we are hearing more and more pop music nowadays, but wish we can do something to preserve our traditional music so that the future generations won't forget their roots, says Tsering Tan, Tibetan singer and president of the Shangri-La Folk Music Preservation Association, which presented the concert.

This is also the vision of the organizer of the Beijing Traditional Music Festival, which was founded in 2009. With the support of Beijing Municipal Commission of Education and the Center of Ethnic and Folk Literature and Arts Development, Ministry of Culture, the festival aimed to supplement the Beijing Music Festival -- dedicated to Western classical music -- and the Beijing Modern Music Festival.

This year's festival has invited more than 100 music teachers from primary and middle schools in Beijing to participate in its activities, with the hope of promoting traditional music to students.

In addition to concerts, there are also fringe events namely World Higher Music Education Institutions Forum, National University Seminar on Minority Mu-sic Culture, International Seminar on Ancient Musical Instruments, and master classes given by instrumental-ists from both China and abroad.

At the closing ceremony on Oct 25, the festival will present the Taiji Awards to persons and organizations with great achievements in traditional music from around the world. Nominees include Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar, American ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl and Chinese American writer Pai Hsien-yung.

We hope to build Beijing Traditional Music Festival into a festival with international influence, says China Conservatory president Zhao.