OTTAWA, Canada—Shen Yun Performing Arts was a bright spot on another snowy Saturday afternoon in Ottawa for one music leader at several Ottawa chapels.
Patrick Roy, music director for several Catholic churches in the Ottawa area, including the Uplands military chapel, saw the show at the National Arts Centre for the fourth year running.
“I’m enjoying this. This is my fourth year coming back to Shen Yun and every year I learn a little bit more about Shen Yun, the musicalities behind it, and I’m loving it. It’s great, as usual,” he said.
New York-based Shen Yun has a unique philharmonic orchestra that includes such Chinese instruments as the erhu and the pipa. All music and lyrics are original compositions written by Shen Yun artists, according to the Shen Yun website.
“The music is fantastic, in a nutshell. The instrumentation—great. The harmonies are very well in sync with the choreography and the costumes of the beautiful dancers,' said Mr. Roy.
Shen Yun also includes vocal soloists, who, according to the website, use bel canto vocal technique while singing Chinese lyrics, which is not easily accomplished and is “unparalleled” in the music world today.
Although the songs are sung in Chinese, the lyrics are projected onto the backdrop in English, French, and Chinese to allow the diverse audience to understand the meaning of the songs.
“The soloist—you can tell she’s classically trained, as well as the tenor; he just fills up the room. I enjoyed particularly the female soloist,” Mr. Roy said.
Mr. Roy concluded with, “Shen Yun is fantastically great, and as we learned today, ‘wo ai Shen Yun’ means ‘I love Shen Yun.’”
Reporting by NTD Television and Pam McLennan
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun’s New York Company will be in Ottawa until Dec. 30 before going on to Montreal, Toronto, and other cities in eastern Canada.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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