Melody of China will premiere Yuanlin Chen’s latest work Coexistent Beauty for yangqin, guzheng, pipa, sheng, dizi, bass clarinet, violin, cello, keyboard and electronics at Old First Church in San Francisco on Friday, November 7th. Follow-up performances will take place at Yoshi’s Oakland on November 11th and the Community School for Music and Arts in Mountain View on November 9th. The concert at Yoshi’s will include Chen’s piece as well as a new work for Chinese/jazz quartet(s) and a vocal performance by MoC’s own Gangqin Zhao. For more information and to purchase tickets, see Melody of China’s calendar of activities, or visit these links: http://oldfirstconcerts.org/performances/626/ for Old First Church; http://www.yoshis.com/oakland/jazzclub/artist/show/4570 for Yoshi’s Oakland; and http://arts4all.org/attend/concerts.htm for the Community School of Music and Arts. These concerts are supported by grants from Chamber Music America, San Francisco Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts, California Arts Council and others as well as private donations.

Melody of China will be resident artists with Adventures in Music (AIM), an interdisciplinary program integrating live music performances and related music education experience with everyday classroom lessons in language arts, social studies and other subjects. Melody of China artists will participate in performance and educational workshops in San Francisco public schools from January 13 thru May 23, 2014. AIM is a program of the San Francisco Symphony. For more information, please visit their website:  Adventures in Music.

Melody of china has begun their after school class at Sunset Elementary School. The free class offers students a chance to learn a traditional Chinese instrument. Instruments include: erhu (2-string fiddle), yangqin (hammered dulcimer), gushing (zither), pipa (lute), ruan (moon guitar) and paigu (Chinese percussion). The class is funded by the California Arts Council’s Artists in Schools program.