Yang Jin, a Livingston resident who is trained in traditional Chinese instruments, including the pipa and liuqin, is participating in a concert with the Chinese Musicians Association of North America. The concert, Mid-Autumn Moon Festival Concert, will take place in the concert hall at Drew University, in Madison, on Sunday, September 15, beginning at 3 p.m.
The Chinese Musicians Association of North America brings Chinese musicians together from across the nation, as well as Canada, with the goal of fostering an exchange between Eastern and Western musical cultures. In addition to the traditional Chinese instruments, they also play Western instruments like the piano and drums. They also have a vocalist accompanying their performances.
Born in Datong, China, Yang is an alumni of the Central Chinese Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She described it as “the number one most prestigiuous institute for music,” and compared it as an Eastern equivalent of Juilliard. Studying the pipa, she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Department of National Music.
Yang has worked throughout Livingston to introduce the local community to this long-established music. She has led groups to perform at some of the various senior living facilities throughout town. Additionally, she brought students from the Flying String Youth Ensemble to play at all of the six Livingston elementrary schools’ multicultural nights, giving students and their families an introduction to this different type of music.
She explained that she started the Flying String Youth Ensemble in an attempt to, “carry on the heritage.” In addition to the various multicultural nights, the Ensemble also performed at this year’s first Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Picnic this past May. She added that, “Last year, we had a great first concert with a smaller set up in the Library.”
This summer, she is currently running a summer camp at Temple Beth Shalom. She and roughly ten students spend the summer season perfecting their skills and musical abilities.
“Last year, we had our first Kosher Lunar Chinese New Year Celebration,” she said.
That event was the first time her students from the Flying Strings Youth Ensemble performed for an audience that was not predominantly part of the Chinese community.Yang was impressed how the students balanced these different instruments so effortlessly.
“Imagine a young kid in sixth grade playing a Chinese instrument, put it down, pick up the violin, play it, put it down and pick up another Chinese instrument. They just blend it all naturally,” she said.
In addition to playing traditional Chinese pieces, they also played well-known western classics, like “The Entertainer.”
“I really want our next generation of musicians to be recognized,” she said.
Yang is looking forward to her September 15 concert because it will give local community members another opportunity to become introduced to this music.
“We want to make it more family friendly,” she said, encouraging everyone to bring their children to the show. “We were thinking about the younger kids and family having things to do in the evening, and the next day being a Monday morning.”
Yang hopes the concert will show that there is a larger audience within the local community for this type of traditional music.
“I’m excited to test the waters and see how they respond to it,” she said.
Tickets to the September 15 concert are available online at chinesemusiciansna. org/concerts. Readers interested in hearing a sampling of Yang’s musical skills can do so by listening to “Summer Breeze Chinese Jazz Fusion Ensemble” on Spotify and Apple Music.
