PASADENA, Calif.—Mr. Mooney was among the audience of the final performance of the Divine Performing Arts (DPA) Chinese New Year Spectacular at Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 4.
Mr. Mooney, accomplished musician, teacher and performer, has toured the world with opera companies, and likes all types of ethnic music. He explained: “Well one of the reasons I came to the show in the first place is because I like all kinds of ethnic music, and so of course with all of the Chinese music in it, and Chinese composers, and so I am enjoying the music very much.”
Mr. Mooney particularly likes Chinese instruments and he appreciates the combination of Chinese and Western instruments saying, “I am most interested in the Chinese instruments, I get to hear Western instruments all the time, and so I really like to hear the Chinese instruments because they have a special sound, both in the way they are played, and of course the way they are constructed and they are different from violins and cellos, so they add quite a lot to it.”
“The sound is different, I mean they don’t have the same shape even, so the sound is different, and the strings and the way they slide and the way they push the strings and change the pitch it’s all very different from the way we play western instruments.”
Mr. Mooney talked about what the live orchestra added to the performance. “I think one of the things that is being said in the show today, is how they are trying to have the values behind this music being re-instilled in the culture and I believe that music has a lot to do with that in all cultures, and the values of humanity and … you know things like that, that the music can convey as well as anything else.”
“What I am interested in is this message, which music and art can portrait maybe better than some other mediums or even better than speaking. When you start really getting into culture and history and humanity and how dance and art and music can convey this, without worrying about words and language, different languages.”
Mr. Mooney also appreciated the dances saying “They [the dancers] are excellent of course, I am impressed with the dancing, and again I get to see western dance, I get to see ballet, I get to play in orchestras that do ballet, but this is different and has its own special flavor.”
“I don’t know really anything about classical Chinese dance, I know nothing at all, but what I was impressed with was even in the faster more busy kind of dances how graceful the motions were, and how it didn’t look fast, the movements were fast and the feet moved quickly, but it was very graceful in the actual way the dancers moved, so I was impressed with that.”
“I like this idea that the cultures are able to share in these kinds of show.
“I think they [DPA] are an excellent company, it’s a wonderful presentation, everything is top notch, the costumes, the choreography and the uniformity of the dancers and how they danced together, and it’s all very very good.”
Mr. Mooney was accompanied by his wife who also shared her delight, “I am enjoying it very much, just the experiencing … well I haven’t seen anything like this, so it’s new and it’s fascinating and the dancing and the costumes are very nice, I am enjoying it.”
The Epoch Times is the proud sponsor of the Divine Performing Arts. Please see DivinePerformingArts.org for more information.
