SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Music Is a Power That the Celestial Beings Have Given Us, Musician Says After Seeing Shen Yun

Mar 11, 2023

SEVILLA, Spain—Sound technician and musician Jose Maria Alonso Hidalgo attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Cartuja Center on March 9 and said, as a musician, he loved the blend of Western and Eastern music and “that fusion of the ancient and the modern.”

“That has been something new for my ears and fresh also for my ears, and I think it has made a great contribution to music.”

Mr. Hildalgo was drawn to the traditional Chinese instruments. “I’ve never had the opportunity to hear them live and direct, yes, as virtual instruments, but hearing it live, it’s clear that it’s a complete change!”

‘Music Has a Soul’

“The theme of harmony, the harmonics that each of the instruments can generate, how it filled the whole theater: if you don’t experience it there, [or] you’re not there at that moment, you won’t be able to understand it, and you’re not really going to know what it expresses and the soul of that instrument,” he said.

He spoke of the power of music.

“I believe that music has a soul. Music is a power that the celestial beings have given us that when we are sad, we can feel joy, that when we are surrounded by darkness, we can see the light, and music is part of that light. Music is part of that joy.”

“How many times have we had the opportunity when we’re at home, or when we’re grieving, or we’re a little bit discouraged about things that happen, and you put on a song, and it completely changes your attitude? It’s like all that energy, of all those musicians playing, that composer creating,” he said.

Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by leading Chinese artists and quickly became the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Shen Yun’s mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture.

“I think music has a heavenly part because otherwise, it wouldn’t make us feel what it makes us feel.”

Reviving Traditional Culture

Mr. Hildalgo said he felt this way listening to the Shen Yun orchestra: “Yes, especially when I started to listen to this fusion between modern and traditional.”

He spoke of the importance of reviving traditional culture as Shen Yun does in this social context. “We learn from our elders. We learn from history. We learn from everything that other people have lived through. And thanks to them, today, we have the opportunity to continue learning. And putting it in the present, I think it’s very important.”

He said, “I think we should look back a little bit and be able to see all the good things, not the bad, but all the good that human beings have done, and be able to bring them back to, again, at this moment, at this time.”

He would recommend Shen Yun “to all musicians if they want to experience something special in their life, if they want to experience that fusion that we’ve been talking about all this time, totally! Come and see it and hear it.”

He encouraged everyone should see Shen Yun: “I think it’s a show for the whole family. We’re talking about old and young people, I’ve seen people who are very old, who couldn’t even climb the stairs. We had to help them to go upstairs. We have seen children also listening, and everybody in silence listening to this projection of energy, this projection of power which is the music, which is the dance, which is the show itself.”

“They speak of Divine, they speak of Creator, they speak of a celestial power, and I believe that the listener, the spectator, when we are experiencing it, we can feel it,” he said. “We can feel that divinity; we can feel that power.”

“Why don’t we take all the good, and why don’t we merge all the world into one being? I think that this show, I think is in that place. It’s very focused on merging, on creating one being but totally collective and totally, in this case, global.”

“We are men, we are women, we are children, no matter what country, no matter what profession, no matter how we are, at the end of the day, we are: men, women, and children. Thanks for making me feel this.”

Reporting by NTD

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