Dalian, Luoyang, Shanghai, Huzhou, and Guangzhou (Days 15-26)

It has been so long since I have written! We´ve been in a number of different places, but I´ve really had pretty limited internet access so I haven´t been able to update. After we left Shijiazhuang for the second time, we traveled to Dalian, a coastal city near the Korean penninsula. Dalian was a nice city; it reminded me of a combination of Bilbao, a city in Spain we stayed in for a week last tour, and other normal Chinese cities. Dalian was filled with parks and apparently is a tourist town for travelers within China, though they don´t get many international tourists. The big attraction was an aquarium, which was ridiculously overpriced. We went anyways, and it was pretty fun. We got to see a dolphin show, in which the dolphins did math. There were some fun animals there, including walruses, so I was happy. We later went to a park, where a friend and I played cards with a whole bunch of old Chinese people. In Dalian we had three concerts. The audience was very appreciative and seemed to know more about classical music than most of the others that we have played for. It was so hot there that I almost passed out during one of the concerts, but I left stage and I was ok.

After Dalian, we flew to Luoyang, a small city further west in China. The main attraction there were the Longman Grottoes but I didn´t get a chance to visit because we had to work all day (on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day)! The Spanish apparently celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas Day, so the orchestra threw us a big party that night after our concert. I finally figured out how to call phones on Skype, so I was also finally able to speak to my family members, who were visiting Rachelle in Germany. On Christmas Day, we had our own celebration, which involved singing American Christmas carols. I did think of Justin Stanley´s Christmas wishes (thanks, Justin!), but it was the first time in my life that I can really remember being homesick.

As a Christmas gift, the orchestra decided to give us two free days in Shanghai, even though we weren´t playing a concert there due to visa issues. Because I was in the group with the later of the two flights, I really only got one free day, but it still was a whirlwind adventure! Leaving the hotel early in the morning, first we visited the Shanghai Museum. There were a lot of beautiful ancient works of art there, including some amazing calligraphy. In the pottery room, I found a ceramic basket that reminded me of a project I made in elementary school. One member of our group had done some research in advance, so for lunch we went to the restaurant with the best western food in all of Shanghai. It was wonderful after 2 1/2 weeks of only Chinese food. In the afternoon, the eight people in our group took two taxis and planned to meet at a garden in the heart of Shanghai. We lost the people in the other taxi, so for the rest of the day it was only the four of us. The garden was beautiful, but while we were there, it began to snow. It really felt like Christmas, finally! After the garden, we wandered through some shops on the street for a little while, making our way towards the Bund. The Bund is the name of the riverside park where you can walk and view the famous Shanghai skyline. The actual park was closed for construction in anticipation of the Shanghai World Expo 2010, but we still could walk along part of it. Afterwards, we decided to go out to the end of the subway line, where you can take the Maglev (magnetic levitation) train to the airport, which travels at speeds of up to 431 kph. We were trying to buy tickets for the train, but no one at the station spoke English. We stopped a random passerby who was white to ask for help. It turned out he was a 30-something Canadian teaching English at an international school in Shanghai, and he took us under his wing for the night, showing us the part of the city in which he lived, taking us to dinner at a nice restaurant, and then to an Irish pub. It was really exciting to see Shanghai from the perspective of someone who lives there, and also to talk to someone outside the orchestra for the first time in the 5 week tour.

The next morning, we boarded a bus to Huzhou. We played only once concert there, but finally we got some new repertoire. Up to that point, we had been playing the same program for pretty much every concert, with the only change being that sometimes we would play a piano concerto, and sometimes we would play Night on Bald Mountain. I was getting so bored with the music. I´m sure that by the end of this tour I will have all fo the music memorized. I already have most of it memorized. But anyways, now we have a singer on tour with us in addition to the pianist. There wasn´t really much to do in Huzhou. It´s apparently a new city which was being constructed as we were there. It looked like they were converting it into some kind of nice waterfront resort. So we didn´t do any sightseeing while we were there.

Yesterday morning, we left Huzhou and flew from Shanghai to Guangzhou. Guangzhou is the third-largest city in China, and I like it here because all the people are shorter than in other parts of China. It seems like a nice city so far, and I love how warm it is here! So far in our tour, I have never gone outside without my heavy winter coat, and usually I wore it indoors too, because the common areas of the hotels aren´t usually heated. Here, however, I walked around all morning with just a sweatshirt! Our hotel is right on the the edge of the river that runs through the city, and it looks beautiful at night. The air seems cleaner in general than in other parts of China. This morning, some friends and I went to the Temple of Six Banyan Trees, a Buddhist temple. I burned some incense there, and watched part of some kind of a Buddhist ceremony. We were the only white people there. It was a moving experience. Later, we walked to a park in the center of Guangzhou, where we saw a monument to Sun Yat-Sen and a wall built during the Ming dynasty. Tonight we have a New Year´s Countdown concert in Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, and some kind of special dinner and celebration afterwards. We stay in this city at least through Saturday (they only give us the schedule for a few days at a time because things change so frequently) and have a lot of free time here. I think later I´ll do some shopping - apparently this city is home to the second-largest mall in the world, which is slightly terrifying, but maybe I´ll be able to find some good stuff.

I´ll try post some pictures of the past few days soon, but in the meantime, check out the orchestra´s video blog at www.josepvicentmedia.com.

P.S. Mr. Mackey pointed out that I never posted what assignments I got in the orchestra. We didn´t have auditions because everyone knew what parts they wanted to play. As for me, I told them I love playing second, so I´m second on almost everything. I did request to play first on Romeo and Juliet, though, and I got to do that. And because of the rotation and stuff, I´m playing third on Shostakovich´s Festive Overture.

OK, well I´ll try to put up some pictures later, and until then, Happy 2010!

The Return to Shijiazhuang (Days 11-14)

The concert in Beijing went pretty well considering our lack of rehearsal. Due to logistical problems, I was not able to meet Mr. Han's student until about ten minutes before the concert began, when he dashed backstage for a few minutes to get the complimentary tickets I managed to get hold of. I don't even remember what his name was. Whoops!
One thing that really surprised me about the Chinese audience was that it wasn't silent during the performance, like it would be at an equivalent concert in the US. People were whispering and walking around in the back of the hall while we were playing. The audience as a whole also didn't know where to clap, and when they did clap, it wasn't even long enough for Josep to walk off stage. However, once we got to the super-fluff encores we'd prepared, they couldn't get enough! They cheered endlessly for Hungarian Dance No. 5 and Radetsky March even though our great piano soloist only got total about one minute of applause! It's so strange for me especially because I'm the exact opposite. I hate the pops encores and definitely prefer the serious music. Now I can see why our concert program is all pops, though.
Because of our canceled concert in Shijiazhuang a few days before because of lack of heat in the concert hall, we had to return to Shijiazhuang after our Beijing concert to perform there. However, we did get a free morning before traveling back to Shijiazhuang. I went with a few friends to do some more speed sight-seeing. We began in Jingshan Park, just north of the Forbidden City. From the top of the mountain, you can see all of Beijing, including the whole Forbidden City. We hiked to the top amid Chinese practitioners of Tai-Chi to admire both the view and the architecture of the temples and pagodas topping the hill. Upon returning to the bottom, we joined in as the Chinese swing-danced to Michael Jackson. Crossing the street, we entered the Forbidden City. Among the hundreds of pagodas and rooms we explored, my favorite was one called the Hall of Mental Cultivation. After a few very chilly hours there, we crossed another street into Tiananmen Square. It looked pretty much the same as it had at night, so we walked around the corner to take a look at our concert hall from the audience's point of view. This remarkable new arts complex, called the National Center for the Performing Arts, is an architectural masterpiece. It is surrounded by a moat, and when you enter the building through the main entrance underground, you can look up and see the water in the ceiling. Each of the concert halls is extremely beautiful, and the structure that encloses them is perfectly suited to the atmosphere. Very tired, we then returned to the hotel for a lovely bus ride back to Shijiazhuang.
The highlight of the return to Shijiazhuang was a trip to a restaurant called OK Pizza. This place was wonderful, not because of the food, which was mediocre imitation American cuisine, but because of the translations. The restaurant's motto was "More delight, less pick-up," and we sampled dishes with names such as "Close as flesh and blood," "According to burns the fried rice," and "The fragrant bean sauce burns the cowpea." It was fantastic. They also had those coolers that usually hold lemonade and fruit juice, but with wine. Wow. Later that evening, between our sound check and the concert, a bunch of the orchestra members visited Starbucks. Starbucks in China is a completely different establishment than in the United States. It was a sit-down restaurant, complete with 50-page menus! They had full meals to order, including steaks and stuff like that. I'm used to Starbucks' tea being prepared from a teabag, but the tea that they served had leaves in it and everything. It was wonderful. I'm hoping to buy some tea to bring home as a souvenir for myself.
The Shijiazhuang concert went along the same lines as the Beijing concert, but even less of a classical music oriented audience. Pepole were literally opening the doors to the hall, taking flash pictures, and talking in normal voices during our pieces. We played only the most pop music of our repertoire, and people clapped along with everything. It was so much better than it would have been before because they seemed to have figured out how to heat the hall while we were in Beijing. Still, though, I was wearing literally four layers of clothes and had a space heater next to me and I was comfortable. I haven't been feeling very well recently, though. I lost my voice, I believe from a combination of smoggy air and constant smoking even in the clean air inside, so I haven't been able to speak naturally for about three days. I hope it comes back soon!
The day after our concert in Shijiazhuang, we didn't travel directly to Dalian, our next destination. Instead, we took a detour to visit the Great Wall at Juyongguan Pass. It was a wonderful experience! I enjoyed it even though I felt all weak and queasy. I think I'll probably be in the video blog about visiting the Great Wall, once they put it up, so look for me there! I'm so glad they organized a day trip to see it, because how horrible would it be to visit China and never see the Great Wall? After we finished ogling, we drove to the Beijing airport, from which we flew to Dalian, a coastal city in Manchuria. Since we got in around 11 last night, I haven't really gone out to explore the city yet, but we're here for four days so probably I'll have time later. Our first concert here is tonight, and I believe we have three concerts in this city.
Now for some pictures from the past few days!

Inside our gorgeous concert hall


On stage


At Jingshan Park, overlooking the Forbidden City


In the Forbidden City


Silliness in the Forbidden City


Silliness at the concert hall


Part of the orchestra at the Great Wall

The Tour Begins! (Days 7-10)

I'm now writing from Beijing. The tour has officially begun!
The rest of our time in Shijiazhuang continued as previously stated, with a lot of freezing cold rehearsals and dust inhalation. In our final day in the city, we were supposed to perform an educational concert in the arts center of Shijiazhuang, but when we arrived at the hall for our morning rehearsal and sound-check, it was literally colder inside than it was outside! They didn't turn on the heat, and there were literally holes in the walls where they were doing construction. The concert hall people said it would only take a few minutes to heat up, but we waited for almost an hour, and struggled through rehearsing a piano concerto before Josep Vicent (the conductor) decided to give up and take us back to the hotel. We thought we would have an evening rehearsal after the hall warmed up and then continue with our concert at night, but they ended up canceling the whole thing, which I believe was for the best. We would have sounded so awful in such cold. Rumor has it, however, that we have to return to Shijiazhuang later in the tour to play there. I hope that we don't, or that if we do, they turn on the heat days in advance!
The morning after our canceled concert, we took buses to Beijing. Of course I took the bus whose heating system broke about an hour in so after that we had to squish onto only two buses. We arrived in Beijing around 4 yesterday afternoon, and by the time we were ready to go out, it was nearly 4:30. A lot of the sights closed at 4, so we went to the Temple of Heavenly Peace first. It was about to close, so we couldn't go inside, but we walked around and saw some stuff from outside the walls. Then three of us who were faster walkers than the rest decided to go check out Tiananmen Square. It was closed for some kind of ceremony that was taking place this morning, so we couldn't go inside, but again we were able to walk around outside. We also saw our concert hall, which looks beautiful! It was what I call speed-sight-seeing: three important sights in only 2 1/2 hours.
We got our first look inside the hall this morning when we had rehearsal there. After not rehearsing for three days, and then having shortened rehearsals before that because of the terrible quality of the facilities, we really needed those rehearsals. The hall is magnificent - it really reminded me of the hall in Madrid where the Spanish National Symphony performs, and where we played on the Spain tour in May. Between the morning rehearsal and the early afternoon sound check in the hall, I met Han Xiaoming. Mr. Han is solo horn in an orchestra in Germany, and he studied with Mr. Mackey when he went to NEC. Now he's in Beijing to set up a new professional orchestra as residents in the hall in which we are preforming. He told me that if I could get some complimentary tickets, some of his students from the Beijing Conservatory would like to come to the concert, where I could meet them, and then I would know some people in the city when I return after the tour. I got the complimentary tickets, but now it's a logistical nightmare to figure out how to get the tickets to them. I hope I can meet them, though - it would be really nice to see some of Beijing from a music student's standpoint.
So that's what's happening here these days. Our concert starts at 7:30. Another way to follow what's going on with the tour, in addition to reading here, is to watch the videos here. Supposedly they're posted every day, but there are only two there for the whole time we've been here already! Keep your eyes peeled and maybe you'll be able to see yours truly. Most of the speaking is in Spanish, but some of it is in English - just be patient!

I'm excited to be in China!

The face mask I have to wear outside so I don't get the smog-lung.

The Temple of Heavenly Peace

Outside Tiananmen Square

Crazy Asian Duck-Chef

Days 1-6 (in Shijiazhuang)

I haven't been able to write in a while because I've been really busy. I'm so discombobulated I just had to look up what day of the week it is and how long we've been here. Every day seems pretty much the same. The weather doesn't vary - it's always cold and always smoggy. The smog is so visible that when I wake up in the morning, we can't see anything past about 40 feet outside our window! Also, we're so busy there isn't really much time to do anything. We haven't even had much free time to go explore the city. It doesn't really seem like there is much to explore, though. We are basically surrounded by the Chinese version of strip malls, with a few Chinese style department stores thrown in for good measure. Chinese department stores are much different than American ones. Basically, imagine you walk into a normal department store, but instead of the women's department, one vendor has all their stuff in that area. Then you go to where the shoe department would be in an American department store, and there's another vendor's stuff. Each vendor has similar stuff, and it's all the same price, so I don't really see how that can be to their advantage but whatever. The only thing I bought there was a face mask. The air here is sooooo bad. Like I said, the smog is visible at all times, and some of the cars are emitting clouds of black smoke that we then inhale. It feels so nasty after breathing that air, so I invested 3 yuan (about 45 US cents) in a giraffe-print mask. It's super stylish. (Not.)
Other than walking a few blocks to buy the mask, and another day when we just walked around the shops a bit to get our bearings, the only time I've gone outside is to go to a bar at night. A few nights after arriving, I went to this bar unlike anything I've ever seen or heard of in the US. The music was super loud, of course, but they were playing such classic hits as the West Virginia Mountain Mama song and I Will Survive. Meanwhile, there were these hired dancers who were up on these mini-stages all over the place wearing practically no clothes. The population of the club, other than orchestra members, was also a bit strange. It seemed like most of the people where close to my age or a few years older, but then there were also some people there who were at least in their mid-40s. Strange. Fortunately one of the employees spoke English. I'm pretty surprised here by the small number of Chinese who speak any English at all, even in the hotel!
The Chinese seem to have a much different sense of personal space than we do in the US. Not only do beggars actually grab on to you and follow you around, but regular people in the street are continually staring at us, without even pretending not to be. A friend told me that Chinese people were snapping pictures of her jogging on the treadmill. Also, the other day in the elevator, this Chinese girl was speaking in English to her American-looking boyfriend or husband whatever. She said, "See, that's the kind of hair I wish I had!" and started groping my hair, without asking me first or anything! It was a very surreal experience.

We had sectionals all day for the beginning of the week. Our coach was from the National Orchestra of Spain and he didn't speak any English. This was good because I got to practice my Spanish, but not good because not everyone in the section speaks Spanish. We also played through a lot, instead of doing the work we were supposed to be doing. Two days ago was our first full orchestra rehearsal, and today was the first day of us doing both morning and afternoon full orchestra rehearsals. Our full orchestra rehearsal location is the arena for the Hebei Circus. It's pretty interesting. Unfortunately there is no heat, and the air is just as bad as outside, if not worse. I hope our actual concert venues are better........ It's nice to work with Josep Vicent again. He has such good energy, which is great for our program, which is basically pops. Also, the camera crews have arrived! The same guy from South Africa is here to film us, but this time they're making a video blog on Josep's website, instead of a full documentary. The daily updates should be available at http://www.josepvicentmedia.com/. Check it out and let me know when it works!
PS. Does anyone know a video-hosting website other than YouTube (which is blocked here) or a photo-hosting website (other than Facebook, which is also blocked) where I can put stuff up for people to see? Please comment below to let me know - I get the comments but I can't reply because the blog website is blocked in China as well!

Arrival in Shijiazhuang and First Impressions

Well, as I posted last night, I did indeed arrive safely in China! The flights seemed endless. It felt like I'd spent my whole life on the first flight (14 hours) and then I had to get on another one from Tokyo, which was four more! At least I had a travel buddy - a clarinetist from the orchestra had the same flight. The really bad part of the journey began after I got off the plane. Because Shijiazhuang, our first location, is quite a drive away from Beijing, there were only three buses all day to our hotel, so I had to wait until 11 pm to catch the bus (my flight landed at 8:30). There were some other people there, most of whom I hadn't met before. After we got on the bus, we had a four hour drive to Shijiazhuang, which turned into five hours because of bathroom breaks and because the bus broke down in the middle of the trip! Fortunately the driver was able to fix it and we didn't have to stay there on the side of the road for too long. On the other hand, I'm super jet-lagged since I didn't get to sleep until so late, so my plan of sleeping certain hours on the plane in order to avoid the dreaded jet-lag was foiled.
I was really surprised when I first got to Beijing. A lot of things seemed a lot more similar to the United States than I had anticipated. When we were driving down the highway, I kept forgetting that I wasn't in fact in the US. However, as soon as I noticed the excessive smog (which is visible at all times) and the trucks piled with logs, that seem very unsteadily piled on the flatbeds, I remembered where I was. During this trip, I also encountered the sketchiest place I've ever been to in my whole life, which was a bathroom rest stop. They didn't have toilets or toilet paper. There also was no heat or soap in the bathroom. It was super disgusting. I think I'm going to start carrying around toilet paper and hand sanitizer everywhere I go! To top things off, as soon as we exited the bathroom, this car pulled up and a bunch of Chinese men started piling out of the trunk. It was very strange. You know you're not in the United States anymore when...
So anyways we arrived at the hotel in Shijiazhuang at 4 AM local time. My roommate is an American violinist who I met on the last tour, so that's nice. We have our first sectionals today, where we'll receive our part assignments.

Safe Arrival!

Just wanted to let everyone know I arrived in Beijing safely! I'll
update more when I'm less jet-lagged :)

Day D-1

I'm so excited that I'm leaving tomorrow!
I just found this video (also posted below) and thought I would share it. It's a preview for the documentary made about the World Orchestra on our tour of Spain last summer, overlaid with the orchestra's commercially released recording of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring from a few years ago. I've never heard Rite of Spring put on top of itself like that before! You can see my left hand at 1:07, which is video from a rehearsal of Petrushka. It was really annoying to have camera crews following us around everywhere, but it is cool to be able to see everyone from the tour on video like that!

China Tour December 2009-January 2010

I'm writing this blog to keep my friends and family members updated on my life while I'm on tour! The next exciting thing happening in my life is a tour of China with the World Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales. Here's my itinerary:
-->December 4, 8 pm: Board a bus for New York.
Stay overnight with a friend from high school.
-->December 5, 5 am: Take the subway to JFK airport.
11:30 am: Flight departs for NRT (Tokyo) airport.
-->December 6, 3:40 pm: Arrive in Tokyo.
5:25 pm: Flight departs for PEK (Beijing).
8:30 pm: Arrive in Beijing.
9:30 pm: Board shuttle bus to hotel in Shijiazhuang
midnight: Arrive in Shijiazhuang
-->December 7, morning: Seating audition
-->December 7-14: Shijiazhuang residency
-->December 15-16: Beijing, including a concert in Beijing's beautiful new concert hall
-->December 17-19: Shenyang
-->December 20-23: Dalian
-->December 24-25: Luoyang
-->December 26-28: Hangzhou
-->December 29: Huzhou
-->December 30-January 1: Guangzhou
-->January 2: Shenzhen
-->January 3-6: Shunde
-->January 7: Travel back to Beijing
-->January 8: Free day in Beijing with other members of the tour
-->January 9: Tour members return home. I sight-see in Beijing, and possibly visit with a friend from high school who is studying abroad and/or a former student of my teacher who is currently living and working in Beijing as a professional horn player
-->January 12, 1:25 pm: Flight leaves for Tokyo
5:55 pm: Arrive in Tokyo
7:25 pm: Flight leaves for New York
6:20 pm: Arrive in New York
7:50 pm: Flight leaves for Boston
9:10 pm: Arrive in Boston
10 pm: Arrive back in my apartment
Sounds like a fun trip, right?