Two days before the Beauty of China, Show the World concert would debut in New York, a young Italian conductor, a 60-piece American orchestra and a 74-year-old Chinese pianist were working out their grooves.

"Okay, you want this tempo?" maestro Roberto Gianola paused the music to consult with featured soloist Liu Shikun.

"Chabuduo zhege tempo," Liu said, followed by his young female interpreter chiming in, "Yes, this tempo."

Gianola nodded and resumed from an earlier point in the music. Liu's interpreter rushed to his side to let him know which phrase to start from, but the seasoned pianist jumped right back into the song without need of help.

"For me, Chinese music is very good music, but it's much more difficult because there's not much rehearsal time," Gianola told China Daily.

Gianola said the group will have conducted only four rehearsals - two and a half hours each - before tonight's show at 7:30 at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. He said this is his first time working with Chinese musicians, but he is confident that, because of their professionalism, they will overcome the language and cultural barriers in their East-meets-West collaboration.

The Beauty of China, Show the World concert will feature classical performances by three renowned Chinese artists - soprano Shen Na, pianist Liu, and violinist Lu Siqing - and Italian tenor Gianluca Sciarpelletti. Tickets are sold-out online.

The show is organized by the New York-based Chinese American Cultural Council and exclusively sponsored by the Bank of China, which has a history of promoting Chinese-foreign culture and art exchanges. The bank's New York branch officially became a board member of the US Lincoln Art Center in 2010.

The concert integrates Chinese folk and Western classical music. The three Chinese musicians represent three generations of artists from China with the aim of demonstrating the strength and diversity of contemporary Chinese performing artists.

The program will include pieces by Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Sarasate and Mascagni, as well as Chen Gang's "Sunshine over Tashkurgan", Zheng Qiufeng's "I Love You China", and selections from the China National Symphony Orchestra's "Yellow River."

Although Sciarpelletti has performed in China, he has never sung in Chinese, which he will do in this concert with Shen.

"It is very hard, but it's okay," the Italian tenor said about learning the song "I Love You China", which he has been preparing for two months. "It's difficult for me to memorize the words and understand each phrase because I don't speak Chinese. I have no method for memorizing it than to just study, study, study."

In addition to performing at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Sciarpelletti has performed throughout Europe, the US and even in Pyongyang.

Chinese soprano Shen is a member of the Central Opera House of China and has collaborated with orchestras worldwide, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the French National Symphony, and the Tokyo Philharmonic. She has played leading roles in Madame Butterfly, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Aida, Tosca, Turandot and Farewell My Concubine, among others.

Liu was a child prodigy performing Beethoven concertos at the age of six and won the gold medal in the Chinese National Piano competition for children when he was nine years old. In 1956, he received third prize at the Liszt International Piano Competition in Hungary.

In 1987, Lu became the first Asian violinist to win first prize at the prestigious Paganini International Violin Competition in Italy. "I thought the idea of the program was great," Lu said about following Shen, his friend, to perform in Beauty of China.

"I see this as a platform to help Western audiences better understand Chinese musicians and Chinese music, as well as witness China's development in becoming an important international platform for music," Lu said.

carolineberg@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 09/25/2013 page2)