Great Neck Chinese Association performers are rehearsing for the sixth annual celebration
The Great Neck Chinese Association (GNCA) Lunar New Year Celebration has become a tradition on the peninsula. The Sunday, Jan. 27, festivities will mark the sixth year that GNCA will host this extravagant event.
For audience members watching the dancers, singers and instrumental performances, the acts sometimes seem to pass much too quickly. But the few minutes the performers spend on stage are actually the result of months of practice.
Various groups have spent so much time rehearsing for the show to make it better every year—and each act has a rich history behind it. Among the groups preparing for this show are the Spring Festival Overture orchestra and Willow Chinese Dance.
“We’ve had 12 to 13 rehearsals dedicated to preparing for this event, once a week,” said Jian Bao, director of the Spring Festival Overture program and a professional guanzi instrument player, who teaches a large variety of instruments, including percussion. “I’m hoping these classes can help children warm up towards music and making music. I hope to teach them the real meaning of music.”
This orchestra is mostly made up of students from elementary school to high school and also includes some seniors and parents from the community. For this show, the group will perform the Spring Festival Overture, a Chinese orchestral work composed by Li Huanzhi between 1955 and 1956, depicting a scene when people in China were celebrating the Chinese New Year.
In 2007, this piece was selected to be carried and broadcast into space on China’s first lunar probe. This orchestra uses China’s national instruments, such as erhu, guzheng and yangqin, mixed with Western instruments, such as saxophone, flute, cello and violin.
Another hardworking group is Willow Chinese Dance.
“We will have in total 13 classes leading up to the final performance,” said Han Wang, the instructor for the dance. “The movements in this beautiful fan dance were made to show elegance and beauty. All of the performers in this room are here not because they are professionals, but because they all find joy in dancing—and love being a dancer.”
Last year, a Classical Chinese Dance, like this one, was very successful. This year, the group is performing another dance relating to the past one, called “Charming Willow.” The song was inspired by Chinese ancient poetry written by the prominent Chinese poet, Lu You, of China’s Southern Song Dynasty.
“I decided to join this performance because I love dancing and because this dance has lots of Chinese elements and lots of Asian style,” said Si, one of the performers in this dance. “I feel it is good to perform in front of the families and show them this graceful Asian dance.”
When the audience watches these beautiful performances, they don’t realize that behind the beauty is practice, practice and more practice, which leads to an amazing result.
To purchase tickets to the celebration, which will be held on Sunday, Jan. 27, at 2:30 p.m. in the Great Neck North Middle School auditorium, 77 Polo Rd., visit www.gnca.org.
Sarah Sun is a GNCA student reporter and founder of the Mini Nonprofit Project, www.mininonprofit.weebly.com.
2019大颈春晚创新节目之《春节序曲》
小记者： 林子恒 大颈南初中，六年级
徐明轩 大颈北初中，六年级
2019年12月9日，眼看着新的一年即将到来，大颈春晚各个节目组都已经忙起来。今天，我们作为大颈华人协会小记者来到了中国鼓艺术学校，进行采访《春节序曲》这个节目。这个节目是一个乐队奏曲，是由中西乐器结合组成的。参加节目的大概有40多人，从4，5岁的孩童到13，14岁的初高中生。从叔叔阿姨到更引人注目的几位年长约六，七十岁的爷爷奶奶们，祖孙三代的景象实在感人，非常有意义。
”我已经参加了8次春晚表演了，”春节序曲的指挥兼中国鼓艺术学校的校长包键老师说。”这次节目的最大的困难就是不同级别的学生需要不同难度的谱子，其中有一些还得我亲手写。” 说到这，包老师拿了一张自己为长笛学生们自创的一张谱子。谱子上写着密密麻麻的音符。包老师为学生们写了难易程度不同的谱子，以方便大家都有最适合自己的， 也得心应手的谱子。这样也不会有人因为不会演奏曲子而感到烦恼。
春节序曲是一首美妙绝伦，具有中国风的曲子。其中的乐器包括笛子、鼓、二胡、古筝，各种提琴等等。曲子的前奏是由中国鼓还有种种乐器组成的。前奏之后，其他的乐器会加进来，演奏主旋律。曲子的演奏时间两分钟左右—结尾非常震撼。这首歌让人们感受到了新年的气氛，非常适合春节晚会。
”我们准备这首曲子是为了2019年的春晚表演，”拉二胡的陈老师说。为了春晚表演，大颈的所有人都在一起努力。大颈春晚表演已经是一个习俗。每年，有才华和有天赋的任何人都可以面试参加。
春节序曲的排练已经三分之一完成了他们的曲子了。包老师说，”我们总共要排练12次”，演奏者们已经排练了4次了。40多人要凑在一起练习，每一次都非常艰辛。最后让我们拭目以待并祝贺《春节序曲》这个节目完美地呈现在大颈春晚晚会上，这将会是一个震撼人心的盛大节目！
