All Chinese Music Concerts (ACMC)

The All Chinese Music Concert, held every spring, showcases Chinese composers, instruments, themes and/or performers. This eclectic and inspirational event, presented in Preston Bradley Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center is free and open to the public. The concert also features professional performances of “advanced category” selections from the required repertoire of the Music Festival in Honor of Confucius, giving festival participants an opportunity to hear a professional interpretation of this music in preparation for the competition.

History

During the 1980′s, in the early days of the Music Festival in Honor of Confucius (MFHC), many music teachers and students were unfamiliar with the sounds of Chinese music, recordings were scarce, and the internet had not yet become ubiquitous. The All Chinese Music concert was initially conceived as a “demonstration” concert, where teachers and students could come to hear performances of the MFHC repertoire by professional musicians, to aid them in preparing for the competition.

In the ensuing years, as recordings and the technology to distribute them readily via the internet have become readily available, the concert programming has evolved to include performances on Chinese instruments, contemporary Chinese music written by eastern and western composers and music inspired by Chinese themes.

In 2011, we are expanding the program from a single annual event to an annual series of All Chinese Music concerts, The first concert in the series will be our traditional event, which is held annually in the spring at Preston Bradley Hall in the Chicago Cultural Center. The second concert will be at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park, a highly anticipated follow up to our Chinese Voyage debut there in 2009. Concerts will also be presented in the Live from Chinatown music series in partnership with the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.