Drills, thrills for China youth orchestra

Liao Shangwen put all his energy into the passionate last movement of Antonn Dvork's Symphony No. 9 From the New World.

Sweat was still brimming on the 19-year-old cellist's forehead after he put in a three-hour-long debut performance at Carnegie Hall in New York on Saturday as a member of the National Youth Orchestra of China (NYO-China).

Each summer, Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute brings together young musicians from across the US to form the NYO-USA, after weeks of training in residency and an international tour. That program was the inspiration for the Chinese orchestra's formation.

To provide China's finest young musicians access to the same superior training and performance opportunities, more than 100 Chinese musicians gathered at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania for two weeks this month to participate in a training program under the guidance of conductor Ludovic Morlot, artistic director Cai Jindong and a suite of world-class teaching artists.

Liao said that after intensive training under Morlot, a Grammy Award-winning principal conductor of the Seattle Symphony, he had gained a deeper understanding of orchestra performance.

"The concert is highly successful; I can tell from the audience's reaction," Liao told China Daily. "You see, the cooperation is pretty well today. Many people think Chinese musicians are more focused on performing skills instead of cooperation.