Playing on the heartstrings

Ou-yang Nana plays the cello at a recent news conference in Beijing. [Photo by Mao Jingchun/For China Daily]

Cellist Ou-yang Nana will soon conduct a 12-city tour of the mainland to support her new album－songs from Walt Disney movies. Chen Nan reports.

Like many people her age, Ou-yang Nana grew up watching Walt Disney movies, and her favorite character is Cinderella.

"She faces life's difficulties with kindness and courage, which is very inspiring to me," says Ou-yang, a 17-year-old cellist from Taiwan. "I apply that philosophy in my own life."

When she was asked by her record company, Universal Music Group, to record an album of songs from movies by Walt Disney Pictures, Ou-yang naturally chose the song, A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes, which was written and composed by Mack David, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston, for the Disney movie, Cinderella, in 1950.

The cellist also chose another eight pieces to perform with the Bulgarian Film Orchestra for the album, Cello Loves Disney, including Let It Go, a song written and composed by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, from Disney's 2013 movie, Frozen, and Can You Feel the Love Tonight, a song composed and sung by Elton John, from the 1994 movie, The Lion King.

One of the highlights of the album sees the cellist performing with Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan on a Mandarin version of the pop song, A Whole New World, from Disney's 1992 movie, Aladdin.

To support the new album, which was released on June 16, Ou-yang will launch a 12-city tour across the Chinese mainland from Beijing on Aug 15, other cities including Suzhou, Nanjing and Hangzhou.

It has been two years since the cellist released her debut album, titled 15, on which she performs classical pieces, such as German composer Felix Mendelssohn's cello sonatas, Songs Without Words, and British cellist and composer William Henry Squire's Tarantella (Op 23 for cello and piano).

"In the past, my goal was to become a cellist with great technique and distinctive style. So I put emotional music pieces that touched me on my first album. But now, I want more people to enjoy my music," she says.

Her change of attitude came from audience feedback.