SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

‘It’s Like the Music Was Talking to You’: Physician Loves Shen Yun’s Orchestra

Mar 20, 2025

3/20/2025Updated: 3/20/2025

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—Federico Martinez felt great admiration for the artists of Shen Yun Performing Arts after seeing a performance at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts–Dreyfoos Hall on March 19.

“What I really, really admire is these young people performing in such a way that is just amazing, incredible. So I congratulate the whole group, the whole organization for bringing this to all of us here in the United States,” said Mr. Martinez, a physician and community leader. Mr. Martinez is the director of medical center, president of the San Ignacio University in Miami, a board of directors member of the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola in Lima-Peru, and member of the local GOP executive committee.

Founded in New York in 2006, Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company. Although Shen Yun’s mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, Shen Yun cannot perform in China today, which is under communist rule.

Mr. Martinez felt the artists conveyed the story of five millennia without a single word.

“It’s the history. It’s going through all the times over the years in a culture that is so ancient. It’s an ancient culture and it will give you, it’s like reading a book with all the history of China,” he said.

“We are seeing here art from 5,000 years ago, yes, and all of this combination of performing plus all of these people flying, and everything was just amazing,” Mr. Martinez said.

“But what really got me is how the orchestra coordinates the movements,“ he said. ”It’s like the music was talking to you. You know what I mean? It’s like the music is talking to you during the performance. So you understand, because nobody talks there.”

“Nobody’s talking. But you can actually, in your mind, you understand what’s going on because there’s a coordination between the movements, the dancing, the performance with the music. So the orchestra is just incredible.”

Shen Yun’s orchestra is unique in that it is the only classical orchestra in the world to permanently include ancient Chinese instruments in the ensemble. The erhu and pipa play alongside violins and cellos, and the orchestra performs original compositions that make use of ancient Chinese melodies.

“The coordination is just incredible, how the music that you produce can actually tell you what is the story, so it’s just like another language, talking to you,” he said. “I really congratulate the orchestra for such an incredible performance.”

Also in the audience was William Rand, an eye surgeon, and his wife, Deborah.

“The presentation was excellent,” he said. “It’s also just exceptionally educating. The quality of the performers is really extraordinary.”

Shen Yun conveyed something positive to the couple.

“The message is hope,” Mrs. Rand said, to which her husband added, “and encouragement.”

“They should continue it and keep developing it. It’s something that we would come back to see more than once,” Mr. Rand said. “I can perceive the complexity of what they’re doing, and it’s very impressive.”

Reporting by Yeawen Hung and Catherine Yang.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.