SHOW PREP: The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is rehearsing with conductor Yu Long (COURTESY BY YU GE)

Audience members at the Isaac Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall in New York City could not help but respond with thunderous applause and shouts of "Gorgeous! Unbelievable! What a kungfu master of the piano!" when young Chinese pianist Lang Lang wowed the crowd with five awe-inspiring solo pieces during a sold-out concert on October 28. During the performance, Lang Lang premiered a new piano concerto, Er Huang, written by Chen Qigang, the composer of the Olympic theme song You and Me.

The concert is part of a three-week long music carnival called "Ancient Paths, Modern Voices," a festival celebrating Chinese culture presented by the Carnegie Hall in New York City from October 21 to November 10. This is the first time Carnegie Hall has ever held such an elaborate event for an Asian country in its 118-year history.

Aiming to promote a deeper understanding of Chinese culture among Westerners, the gala event featured a number of world-renowned artists including pianist Lang Lang, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and conductor Long Yu, as well as folk Chinese artists giving musical and dance performances throughout New York City.

"Perhaps more than ever before, China's incredibly vibrant and diverse culture has captured the imagination of the world," said Clive Gillinson, Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall.

And "China's extraordinary cultural heritage—one of the oldest and most remarkable in the world—paired with its equally dynamic contemporary music and arts scene has inspired us to create 'Ancient Paths, Modern Voices,'" added Gillinson, while elaborating on the inspiration for the festival.

As part of the festival's outreach program, Carnegie Hall partnered with the Asia Society, the China Institute, the Museum of Chinese in America and many other cultural institutions.

The festival began joyously with an exhilarating performance by the Quanzhou Marionette Theater, a leading performance group of the ancient marionette tradition from Fujian Province.

The Zhang Family Band and the Li Family Taoist Band also brought sounds from Chinese villages, where raucous meets holy. The groups provided New Yorkers with the rare opportunity to witness traditional practices from China's northwestern rural provinces, most of which are unknown to Western audiences.

"It will be a rare experience for audiences in the West to watch such performances by these Chinese folk musicians," said Wu Man, a virtuoso of the pipa, a traditional Chinese four-stringed plucked instrument, as reported by China Daily.

Westerners, New Yorkers in particular, may not be in tune with Chinese ancient cultural music art, but many are familiar with a few modern voices from China.

Lang Lang, the piano performer at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, has been seen as a symbol of the youth of China. He won first prize at the Tchaikovsky International Young Musician Competition at the age of 13, came to the United States at the age of 14 and recently appeared in Time magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world of 2009. He presented Lang Lang and Friends concert on October 27 as part of the festival, featuring rising talents from both China and the United States and performing works by Western and Chinese composers.

"If through music the West and China can understand a little bit more about each other, that's a great thing. I believe the festival is really a platform and a bridge between the East and the West," said Lang Lang.

The festival closed with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the oldest and most prominent symphony orchestra in Asia which is celebrating its 130th anniversary this year, performing Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto under the baton of Yu Long, who The New York Times calls "China's Herbert von Karajan."

Some 30 years ago, Western classical music was a banned currency; today it seems to have entered the very lifeblood of Chinese culture. Over 40 million children are learning Western instruments throughout China.

However, despite an increasing number of Chinese children learning Western instruments and the emergence of new musical powerhouses, like the National Center for Performing Arts, Chinese arts and culture are also gaining a rising position all over the world. China is proactively promoting its culture to the West while Westerners are eager to interact with the Chinese people of the East.

(Reporting from New York)