Composer

Pipa Player

Experience the world premiere of ASO trombonist Bill Klemm’s Postcards from Alaska, an aural and visual adventure through our beautiful state.

EPSG:4326

2025 Opening Night

Alaska Center for the Performing Arts

Join Interlochen Arts Camp's premiere wind ensemble for their weekly concert. Under the direction of Steve Davis, the ensemble will present a program of wind band classics, contemporary compositions, and orchestral transcriptions

Jerry F. Junkin conducts Carmina Burana

Interlochen Center for the Arts

Discover the triumph and tragedy of timeless love in Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, Johannes Brahms’ profound Tragic Overture, Florence Price’s joyous Colonial Dance, Jerod Tate’s sarcastic Chofki (Rabbit), and two intimate concertos for the Chinese Pipa performed by soloist Gao Hong: Zhou Long’s Beijing Drum and her own Flying Dragon.

Tales of Star-Crossed Lovers – Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet”

The Lincoln Center

### Lunar New Year Celebration - Minnesota Orchestra

**Date & Time:**  
Saturday, February 8, 2025

**Venue:**  
Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN 55403

**Duration:**  
2 hours, including intermission

**Event Description:**  
Celebrate the Year of the Snake with the Minnesota Orchestra as we gather together with family and friends to share music that honors family traditions and themes of unity and health. This special Lunar New Year Celebration will feature a diverse program of music that bridges cultures and generations.

**Program:**
- **HUANZHI:** Spring Festival Overture
- **WEI:** Awakening Lion
- **CHIN:** subito con forza
- **CHENGZONG/Wanghua:** Yellow River Piano Concerto
- **HUANG:** Saibei Dance from Saibei Suite No.2
- **RAVEL:** Empress of the Pagodas, from Mother Goose Suite
- **CUONG:** New Work (WORLD PREMIERE)
- **GAO HONG:** Musical Journey for Pipa and Orchestra

**Artists:**
- **Norman Huynh:** Conductor
- **Ying Li:** Piano
- **Gao Hong:** Pipa
- **Fei Xie:** Artistic Consultant

**Additional Information:**
- **Tickets:** Tickets for this concert are available now when you purchase a package. Save up to 15% and receive subscriber perks when you buy 3 or more concerts. Individual tickets go on sale July 29.
- **Pre-concert Activities:** Engage in pre-concert activities to enhance your experience.
- **Valet Parking:** Available for convenience.
- **Pre-order Beverages:** Skip the lines at the bar by pre-ordering your intermission beverage via the Minnesota Orchestra App.
- **Accessibility Services:** Armless & bariatric chairs, assistive listening devices, noise-canceling headphones, service animals, and wheelchair & accessible seating are available upon request.

**Plan Your Visit:**
- **Directions & Parking:** Parking is just steps away from Orchestra Hall in the city-owned and skyway-connected 11th and Marquette Ramp.
- **Helpful Tips:** Make this visit your own with food and activity options. Browse these helpful tips, and when your concert date arrives, all you have to do is sit back and enjoy.

Join us for an evening of beautiful music and cultural celebration at the Minnesota Orchestra's Lunar New Year Celebration!

Lunar New Year Celebration

Minnesota Orchestra

All University of Texas at Austin students are allowed one free ticket as long as they are available. Student tickets must be picked up at the Box Office with valid student I.D. Seating is unassigned.

Wind Ensemble

The University of Texas at Austin

Season Finale

Museum Minis are free, short, virtual interactive sessions for all ages to learn about instruments from the Schubert Club Music Museum. Local talented, knowledgeable, and diverse musicians will share fascinating information about how these instruments make their sounds and the cultures from which they originated.  Enjoy mini performances emphasizing each instrument’s unique and special character.

Museum Mini: Gao Hong, pipa

FamilyJam builds on the success of KidsJam Workshops for Homeschool Families – interactive programs that connect kids and families with community teaching artists to learn about the people, cultures, and musical traditions from around the world as they make music, move, and enjoy other creative activities. FamilyJam will take KidsJam programs into the weekend, where kids and families will experience a short 25-30 minute concert in one of Landmark Center’s historic spaces, followed by instrument demos and other hands-on experiences with the musicians in the  Schubert Club Music Museum. In keeping with Schubert Club’s goal of offering free tickets to children and students, FamilyJam will be FREE for all participants, however advance registration will be required through Schubert Club’s website.

FamilyJam: Speaking in Tongues

Landmark Center

KidsJam Workshops are interactive programs that connect kids and families with community teaching artists to learn about the people, cultures, and musical traditions from around the world as they make music, move, and enjoy other creative activities.

KidsJam: Speaking in Tongues

With superb musicianship and an infectious camaraderie, Speaking in Tongues creates an environment that is engaging and exhilarating. The collective sound of the group draws on so many sources that listeners from all walks of life can connect easily. Four outstanding musicians blend music from four different cultures on a stage full of instruments from all over the world. The result – a concert experience that is spellbinding, entertaining, and unprecedented. Speaking in Tongues is master drummer, multi-instrumentalist and composer Sowah Mensah from Ghana, Enrique Toussaint, the virtuoso bassist from Mexico City, Twin Cities master percussionist Marc Anderson, and Gao Hong, one of the world’s foremost performers on the Chinese four-stringed lute, the pipa. When considering the individual voices, one is struck by the truly distinctive quality of this music and the level of skill and musical maturity required to shape it into the spirited and the coherent musical expression that it is. Their music has been described as a West African drum ensemble driving along under the butterfly wings of an Asian melody, the romance of Brazilian jazz orchestrated with Middle Eastern drums, and folk music from a new world. Rich compositions set up by free roaming improvisations lead the listener through open landscapes of gentle rustlings and sparse instrumentation and then, with a subtle turn, plunge them into thick forests populated by percussion and bass.

Composer, Pipa Player

Gao Hong

Events

Upcoming events

Feb 11, 2026

Wind Ensemble · Butler School of Music

Past events

Sep 20, 2025

2025 Opening Night · Anchorage Symphony Orchestra

Jul 19, 2025

Jerry F. Junkin conducts Carmina Burana · Interlochen Center for the Arts

Future and recently performed repertoire

Pipa in Flying Dragon Pipa Concerto by Hong

Fort Collins Symphony

Pipa in Beijing Drum Pipa Concerto by Hong

Fort Collins Symphony

Pipa in Pipa Concerto by Hong

Anchorage Symphony Orchestra

Pipa in Musical Journey for Pipa and Band by Hong

Butler School of Music

About

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