GENEVA—Classical musicians and composers have pushed their instruments to their physical limits to capture concepts like heaven, life, a storm, spring; concepts like nature and the divine.
What Shen Yun Performing Arts has managed to achieve is the best of that, according to classical violinist Bogdan Zvoristeanu, who attended a performance at the BFM (Bâtiment des Forces Motrices) on Feb. 27.
“What is achieved is a materialization of the divine, it’s extraordinary!” Mr. Zvoristeanu said after the performance. “This was really beautiful, it is a treat for the mind, is the best way I can express it.”
In a way, it was beyond a treat, and an inspiration that was almost a cleansing.
“The music is very touching,” said Mr. Zvoristeanu, who serves as first violinist and principal concertmaster of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. The award-winning violinist has been invited as a soloist and chamber musician to festivals around the world, including several countries in Asia.
He said the combination of instruments in Shen Yun—a Western orchestra with traditional Chinese instruments as permanent ensemble members took the audience “to another dimension, [to] a past which is very clean, very pure, where there is a lot of truth.”
Truth in Art
New York-based Shen Yun aims to revive the traditional Chinese culture, a culture 5,000 years old once nearly destroyed in just decades under communist rule. It was a culture that revered the divine, placed emphasis on goodness and self-refinement, and harmony between heaven, earth, and humankind.
Today, four companies of equal size tour the world, bringing the divinely inspired culture to the stage through the performing arts.
Mr. Zvoristeanu said the art Shen Yun presented showed the truth, which was not something just lost to China, but the world overall.
“Today, the truth is somewhat hidden by too much material values,” Mr. Zvoristeanu said.
“Today I felt it very strongly, because what we lack are exactly these values that are deeply human. Today the word ‘human’ is soiled very easily. When we say ‘human,’ people say right away that it is not perfect. But in fact, humanity implies the divine and the divine is perfect,” he said.
“We just forgot about it and this show reminds it to us.”
The instrumentation of Shen Yun’s unique orchestra helped bring these grand concepts about.
“People are very familiar with the western sounds of these instruments made 100 or 300 years ago or more, but with the addition of the ancient Chinese instruments dating back thousands of years, there is a different sensuality and a power of expression that is extremely strong,” Mr. Zvoristeanu said.
“Everything comes from within and communicates within, it comes from the heart and it goes to the heart, it goes through the mind and it remains anchored there,” he said. “It is an immense source of inspiration not only for the artists but for everyone.”
Mr. Zvoristeanu said these ideas came across and motivated him to take a different pace in the day to day life.
“It is more than a hope, it is a certainty that our lives need to improve, our personal lives and the lives of others, and the best way to improve our own lives is to improve the lives of others,” he said. Mr. Zvoristenau said he also noted a social aspect of harmony and cooperation different from the culture of individualism in the West. “That makes a whole that is much richer than what a single person could offer.”
He expressed gratitude towards Shen Yun: “It’s really fabulous and thanks [to Shen Yun] for producing this exceptional and intricate show. It’s exquisite.”
Reporting by NTD Television and Catherine Yang
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.
Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
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