Cultural Group to Hold Music Workshop in Vancouver

The Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society will hold a public worshop on Chinese music and instruments on Saturday at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum.

The sessions will be facilitated by the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble (VCME), helmed by composer Alan Lau, according to a report by Straight.

The workshop, which will accept donations from participants at the entrance, is aimed at imparting to composers the knowledge and skills needed to write for a Chinese music ensemble.

Part of the sessions will be the introduction of the characteristics and uses of the instrumets and the instruction of techniques in playing them.

Lau is scheduled to hold a presentation on Chinese music and instruments, which will be followed by a demonstration of bowed string instruments such as erhu, gaohu, zhonghu and banhu by VCME's musical director Jirong Huang.

Also showing techniques in playing traditional instruments will be Ling Yang on the Chinese lute, pipa; Zhi Min Yun on plucked string instruments zhongruan and daruan; Sarah Tan on the Chinese zither, guzheng; and Zhongxi Wu on wind instruments suona, sheng and guanzi.

The Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble, formed in 1989, is Canada's first Chinese music organization and boasts of highly accomplished musicians. The group has worked to push for the continuous creation of contemporary Chinese compositions.

Established in 1973, the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver, meanwhile, promotes friendship between the Chinese community and other cultural groups in Canada through culture and the arts.