PHOENIX—Watching Shen Yun Performing Arts, guitarist James Smith would turn to his wife after certain musical moments. “Do you hear that sound?” he would ask. “My wife goes, I forgot that it was live music because the execution was just perfect.”

“I’ve never been to anything quite like this,” Mr. Smith said at the Symphony Hall on March 8, where he attended Shen Yun with friends and family. “Incredible. Outstanding. Perfect. They made it look like it was easy and I know how difficult it is.”

“It was magnificent,” Mr. Smith said of the orchestra, unique in its instrumentation with ancient Chinese instruments embedded in a classical Western ensemble.

The program included musical solo vignettes as well, with bel canto virtuosos performing original works in the Chinese language. These spoke to Mr. Smith’s heart even when he didn’t know the words, he said.

“They created a moment there for everyone in the room, which just goes far beyond the gig or the professionalism of it. There’s that heart and soul, which I think touches on what they’re performing up there,” he said.

Traditional Chinese culture is divinely inspired culture, and Mr. St. Michael saw the importance of faith there, which he felt was much needed in modern Western culture as well.

“I think it’s very much needed. Absolutely. It should spread,” he said. “And it was nice to hear that they went from one troupe to eight.”

“It was amazing. It was a combination of looking at the amount of talent and the dedication and the amount of training it must have taken,” he said. “And at the same time, understanding what they announced that a lot of this came before we see this in other art forms. So rather than other art forms contributing, this was the original. So it was very nice to see.”

“It was beautiful, it was wonderful, and a wide variety of things,” Mr. St. Michael said.