DALLAS—The Midyett family, 20-year patrons of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, enjoyed the experience of unique Chinese melodies performed by Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas.
“They were layering in both Asian influences and Western influences at the same time. I thought it was stunning and they did an amazing job,” said Michelle Midyett, who has studied piano and french horn. Ms. Midyett is currently a jewelry designer, and recently opened a noodle shop called Monkey King Noodle Co. She attended with her parents, Bob and Vicki Midyett.
Regularly attending the symphony has just been part of their life, Ms. Midyett said.
The Midyetts are 20-year Stradivarius patrons of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO): an inner circle of patrons who contribute $2,500 or more annually to support DSO.
Well-versed in European classics, the Midyett family expressed their particular appreciation of the ancient Chinese musical heritage brought to life in Shen Yun’s original compositions.
“That was wonderful,” Vicki Midyett said of Shen Yun’s original compositions, “because it was new and different for us.”
Shen Yun Symphony incorporates traditional Chinese instruments into the ranks of its full Western orchestra. The orchestra has been the musical side of Shen Yun Performing Arts classical Chinese dance performances since 2006. The ground-breaking symphony made its solo debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall in fall 2012.
The Shen Yun Orchestra is currently on a solo tour of seven U.S. cities.
“Fantastic, fantastic … it was just amazing,” said Mrs. Midyett of Shen Yun Symphony’s performance. “I just couldn’t believe the vocals,” she said. She was especially appreciative of Shen Yun’s use of a several of conductors in conducting the performance.
The Shen Yun Orchestra performance featured four distinctive, accomplished conductors: Milen Nachev of Bulgaria, Leif Erikson Sundstrup of Australia, Keng-Wei Kuo of Taiwan, and Yohei Sato of Japan.
Ms. Midyett said she loved how each conductor gave a brief encore performance—each “indicative of their personality and what they wanted to leave the audience with. That was really pretty special,“ adding, “They gave you such a huge, varied breadth of music, all in one evening.”
In addition to performing Shen Yun original compositions, the performance included the works of Tchaikovsky and Beethoven, as well as bel canto vocal performances in Chinese by Shen Yun vocalists.
“Beautiful,” said Ms. Midyett of the singers. “I actually loved the female at the end,” she said of soprano Haolan Geng, who sang “The Purpose of Life.”
“It was just all good,” said Michelle.
“We just enjoyed it all,” agreed her mother.
Reporting by Nicholas Zifcak and Catherine Yang
Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra is on a seven-city tour with performances in Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, from Sept. 27–Oct. 22. For more information, visit Symphony.Shenyun.com