Members of the Great Wall Youth Orchestra play traditional Chinese instruments at the New Year concert in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Dec. 29, 2024. (Photo by Wang Zijie/Xinhua)

At a recent concert held in north China's Hebei Province to usher in the New Year, the romantic Chinese folk song "Purple Bamboo" was revived by a U.S. youth orchestra.

Playing traditional Chinese instruments such as the erhu and the guzheng, the Great Wall Youth Orchestra from Oakland tugged on the heartstrings of its audience with the soft and graceful melody of the song, which dates back thousands of years.

"This is the orchestra's first international tour. We're very excited and grateful for that," said Sairina Kimberly Merino Tsui, president of the board of the Purple Silk Music Education Foundation, with which the orchestra is affiliated.

Upon the invitation of Shijiazhuang University, members of the orchestra, together with U.S. artists from San Francisco, formed a delegation of 51 people and made a six-day visit to China which ended on Tuesday.

These performances, along with their performances in the United States, are part of the orchestra's decades-long efforts to preserve and promote traditional Chinese music.

Founded in 1995, the orchestra is a program initiated by the Purple Silk Music Education Foundation. It aims to teach Chinese music to children in the San Francisco Bay Area, a place with an ethnically diverse population.

"A lot of our members are ethnically Chinese, and there are quite a few of them who have never been to China before, but have played instruments for many, many years," Tsui told Xinhua in an interview. "We hope to give them a chance to get to know about their roots in a different way."

"Music is a way to connect with our ancestors, our families and our culture," said Brian Chow, a Chinese American who plays the erhu.

Having joined the orchestra more than 10 years ago, Chow has grown from a diligent student into a professional music teacher eager to pass traditional Chinese culture on to younger generations.

Over almost 30 years, the Great Wall Youth Orchestra has nurtured about 18,000 students in the United States through its weekend music classes and teaching programs in local schools. Currently, there are approximately 300 student members regularly learning and practicing traditional Chinese instruments.

According to Chow, in February, a U.S. school he is working with will introduce new traditional Chinese instrument courses to students in grades four and five in collaboration with the orchestra.

"It is expensive to study music in the United States. My mother wanted to create opportunities for children from less affluent families to learn music," said Victor Stanson Siu, who now heads and conducts the orchestra. His mother established the foundation and the orchestra.

Siu noted that he enjoys his visits every time he comes to China, and seeing how Chinese people approach traditional music in new ways. "It's wonderful to learn how modern Chinese music is and how cool it is for young people to play. I hope my students can feel the music also belongs to them. It's not something ancient that only their grandparents listen to," he said.

At the first New Year concert in Hebei, the Great Wall Youth Orchestra also performed the classic Italian song, "O Sole Mio," and a pop song by contemporary American musicians, using Chinese folk instruments.

At another concert, typical festival songs, including "Blooming Flowers and the Full Moon" and "Spring Festival Overture," were performed by the orchestra alongside their Chinese counterparts from the School of Music at Shijiazhuang University, creating a jubilant atmosphere shared by all in attendance.

Over the years, the orchestra has toured many U.S. cities, including New York and Los Angeles, Siu said, adding that its members' different cultural backgrounds make it easier for their ethnically diverse listeners to accept Chinese music and culture.

Tyler Daniel Thompson is one of the orchestra's star vocalists and has been learning Chinese songs and operas with the group since the age of four. "When I try to go to my community and sing Chinese opera, people there can feel Chinese culture even though they may not fully understand the meaning of the lyrics," the 29-year-old African American said.

He believes that the Great Wall Youth Orchestra is trying to help more people understand Chinese culture and integrate it into their life through music. "We can bring people together through a lot of different mediums. Music is definitely one of them," Thompson said.