PASADENA, Calif.—Shen Yun Performing Arts debuted its spring tour at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium to an enthusiastic audience, Friday evening, May 8.
Mr. Wagner, a musician who recently moved to Los Angeles, was impressed with Shen Yun saying, “It was awesome. It was great. It was fantastic!”
He enjoyed the combination of Western and Eastern instruments and appreciated the fact that the orchestra was live. “It added a whole new energy, a whole new vibration to the room,” he said enthusiastically.
A unique attribute of the show is the Shen Yun orchestra, which uses a classical Western orchestra as its foundation and augments it with traditional Chinese instruments such as the pipa, sona, Chinese flute, and gong.
Mr. Wagner, who plays the base guitar, said that most of what he hears about China is “the totalitarian dictatorship, the civil rights violations, and the horrible pollution. I hate what’s going on right now,” he said.
He was surprised to learn about the different ethnic groups in China and delighted to learn of China’s rich history.
“I honestly never knew how rich, diverse, and beautiful Chinese culture is,” he said.
‘Put a tear in my eye’
Also in the audience was Mr. Hoang who is a Marine. He enjoyed the show so much that he is going to see Shen Yun again when the New York-based company performs in San Diego later in May.
“I’ll take another friend to watch the show again. I love it,” he said.
Mr. Hoang said he was moved to tears in some of the scenes.
“I loved almost everything about it. Certain parts, I don’t want to say, put a tear in my eye. I got emotional. It was cool,” he said.
Two of the scenes had particular resonance for Mr. Hoang. Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution, which depicts a father who is dragged from his family and persecuted to death by soldiers for practicing Falun Gong in China.
“I loved the scene where the soldiers came and killed the dad, and he went to Heaven. And all the family members saw him in Heaven.”
The piece Dignity and Compassion also had meaning for him. “The part where the soldier felt compassion for the prisoner.”
Mr. Hoang said he had seen Shen Yun advertised, and he knew right away that he had to see it. He was glad he had acted on his intuition.
“I drove by it and saw the billboard, and thought I had to get a ticket, so I went online and got the tickets.
“It was really touching and really good. Great!” he concluded.
Shen Yun will have two more shows in Pasadena on Saturday and Sunday, May 9 and 10, before traveling a short distance south to Orange County for two additional performances.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Shen Yun Performing Arts Spring Tour 2009. For more information please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
