RDAM in The Great Hall of the People

Since the foundation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, Denmark was one of the first nations to recognize and establish diplomatic ties with China. RDAM and Music Confucius Institute were invited to perform on the 11th of May 2015 during the celebrations of the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Denmark. Events to took place in both China and Denmark with our contribution of classical Western music, traditional Chinese music together with musical dialogue composed for the occasion for both classical Western and traditional Chinese instruments.

RDAM's Associate Professor in Guitar Jesper Sivebæk and his students Allan Sjølin, Martin Buono, Søren Eriksen and Simon Oddershede was invited to China to perform during the celebrations. Their first performance was on 9th of May during the event “Open Denmark Day” at The Royal Danish Embassy in Beijing. During the celebrations, the Embassy was visited by around 8000 people and by a great number of journalists covering the event.

The next large event on the 11th of May was the performance in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing that function as the meeting place of the Chinese parliament. RDAM performed two pieces in a musical dialogue with students from our partner institution Central Conservatory of Music Beijing (CCOM). The piece “The Wind of Hometown” composed by Sun Xiaosong (from CCOM) was written for 7 guitars, one sheng, one erhu and one zhongruan and had its world premiere on this day. The piece was inspired by Danish composer Carl Nielsen's songs "Jeg ved en lærkerede" ("Two larks in love have nested”) and "Underlige Aftenlufte" (“Odd and unknown evening breezes”) and hereby commentating the 150th anniversary of Carl Nielsen. Thereafter the piece “Dialogue” composed by Tian Jinglun from MCI for the instruments pipa (Chinese lute) and guitars was performed in the grand hall.

In Denmark on the same day, musicians from MCI performed with traditional Chinese music during the Handover Ceremony of the first Chinese telegraphic code book from the year 1871. The day after they also perform at the official dinner with the Danish Minister for Environment Ms. Kirsten Brosbøl and the Minister of Water Resources of the People's Republic of China Mr. Chen Lei.

RDAM and MCI are very pleased to contribute to this special event with the cultural dialogue through the language of music.