lotus pond concert

it was a simple concept but a very good one. go to one of Beijing's parks that has a nice lotus pond, get a couple of boats, get a couple of professional musicians and singers and you can have a private concert in the nice cool autumn night amongst the lotus. it was a freshing change to many of Beijing's cultural events and very different from the concerts that we can attend here. this one is informal and much more intimate with the musicians playing a few feet from you.
We attended this event organised by CCC at the Purple Bamboo Gardens. We got onto four boats, paddled into the lotus pond. CCC also got four excellent musicians and singers to perform for us.
here's Ah De from Li Su minority and a wonderful lady singer from the Yi Miao minority. Ah De played various ethnic musical instruments and could also sing folk songs from his ethnic group. He also sang duets with our Yi Miao singer.
Robina and I were very impressed by Mr Li, the Er Hu musician. He performs extensively outside of China and had even accompanied Jiang Zemin's delegation and performed in Vienna. His mastery of the er hu was evident when he played a Cantonese tune that I was familiar with.
We enjoyed the evening very much!