[299] MTSU Brings Chinese Performing Arts To Campus

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 4, 2011
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

MTSU BRINGS CHINESE PERFORMING ARTS TO CAMPUS
Colorful, Multi-talented Group Sponsored by Confucius Institute

(MURFREESBORO) – The Confucius Institute at MTSU will present the Xiamen University Student Art Group in a free public musical and dance performance from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18, at Hinton Hall in MTSU’s Wright Music Building.

This talented troupe consists of a choir, a dancing team and instrumentalists who specialize in traditional Chinese music. For the Murfreesboro appearances, the program includes “Spring Festival Overture,” “Little River Flows,” “The Sunbird,” “Swan Geese,” “Love of Grassland,” “Chinking Coins,” and “The Charm of Taiji,” among other selections.

Instruments played in the musical performances include erhu, pipa, dulcimer and bamboo flute. Chinese martial arts, Fujian puppetry and ethnic songs and dances from Yunnan, Tibet and Xinjiang are part of the group’s repertoire.

Participants in the Xiamen University Student Art Group are chosen from among both undergraduates and graduate students by each individual school and college. With a total enrollment of more than 38,000 full-time students, Xiamen also is host to some 1,000 international students from all around the world.

Members of the Xiamen University delegation accompanying the troupe include Ms. Chen Liwen, university vice president and delegation leader; Mr. Lin Gongming, chairman of the Art School Council and deputy delegation leader; and Ms. Wang Yi, deputy director of the Office of International Cooperation and Exchange and general coordinator for the group’s appearances.

The group also will visit local schools, including a performance for faculty and students at John Pittard Elementary School in Murfreesboro from 1:30-2:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17.

In addition, a lecture on Chinese folk music and instrumentation is scheduled for 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17, in Hinton Hall. A Chinese painting lecture and demonstration are slated for noon to 2 p.m. that same day in Room 232 of Andrew L. Todd Hall at MTSU. Both of these cultural opportunities are free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Dr. Guanping Zheng, associate professor of electronic media communication and director of the Confucius Institute, at 615-494-8696 or gzheng@mtsu.edu.


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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For color jpeg photos of the Xiamen University Student Art Group, contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Media Relations at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.


Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree—the only one in Tennessee—as a model program. Recently, MTSU unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.