The San Francisco Symphony will conduct a special Chinese New Year concert Saturday, February 5, in Davies Symphony Hall, It will fulfill chairperson Jessa Wu's goal of sharing Chinese music, culture and traditions with Chinese American families as well as with the mainstream public. Wu moved from Hong Kong to San Francisco in 1991 with her husband, Tommy.
Past chairperson Margaret Liu remarked that over the years, word of mouth and publicity in the Asian press have increased Chinese attendance at the annual concert to 50 percent. Wu hopes the increasing interest will spread to other mainstream cultural events.
This year's program will bring together traditional and contemporary Chinese music. Resident conductor Edwin Outwater leads the festive program, which features two exclusive pieces written by local composer Gang Situ. (Source: Gerrye Wong, AsianWeek, Jan 28, 2005).