Sunshine and Warm nights - 炎夏之夜
June 2024
What says summer louder than a picnic and some live music!
Looking ahead, NHCCC is performing as a small group at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas on June 23 at 6:15 pm on the big stage at New Haven Green. It is a free event, and we will play between the performances from Mulan Fitness Art School (Chinese dance) and Pamyua (Inuit Soul). We are setting up a picnic in front of the stage after we play and enjoy the next act. Come support us and join us afterwards with your picnic listening to Inuit Soul. More details to follow next week. Stay tuned!
Some exciting news from May:
We have received a Small Grant from the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven to help with equipment support! In order to continue giving back to our community, we are offering visits to our rehearsals, mentoring new members in the ensemble, as well as subsidizing instrumental rental for members. That said, we continue to look for donations that will help make all these things happen. Support us by donating here.
During the month of May, NHCCC also performed at several exciting outdoor events! Read about our performance at Edgewood Park in the Arts Paper. Thanks to the Arts Council who captured and posted our rendition of Peach Blossom Ferry, a cheerful Taiwanese tune about a girl named Peach Blossom and her banters with the ferryman.
Thanks to our audience at the New Haven Night Market, where we saw many familiar faces, and many new ones as well. Our youngest fans were dancing the whole time :) Shout out to Corinne E. for emceeing, Andrew and Alison Y. for venue logistics, Bing Y. for photographing, and Leslie S. or working on outreach.
Photo credit: Chris Randall
To celebrate AAPI Heritage Month, we also brought our music to Pierrepont School, where the whole school had a chance to learn about the different types of instruments and regional music from the Chinese-speaking world. Special thanks to Evan G. for stepping in with the percussion.
Looking ahead, we are starting to book performance dates for the fall. Mid-Autumn Festival (or Moon Festival) is early this year (September 17, 2024). We are planning a series of pieces about the season and the moon to go in our fall program. Reach out via email and ask us about playing at your special events!
We are also recruiting musicians for the next season, so if you (or someone you know) already play a traditional Chinese instrument, or if you would like to try your hands on a Chinese instrument, please contact us.
Lastly, congratulations to our seniors, Mark Yan (erhu), Raymond Luo (dizi), Kevin Chan (dizi), and Sonia Guan (percussion)! Read more about these wonderful young people here. We loved having them as our inaugural members at NHCCC and will miss them so much. We wish them the best as they begin their next adventures.
Lely Evans
President, New Haven Chinese Cultural Cooperative
