About a month and a half ago, I spent a week in residence at the Tianjin Conservatory of Music in China. I went there with five musicians from the Pittsburgh Symphony - Hong Guang Jia, Associate Concertmaster; Adam Liu, Associate Principal Cello; Nancy Goeres, Principal Bassoon; Michael Rusinek, Principal Clarinet; and Zac Smith, Utility Horn. Michael and I have been friends for twenty years (gasp!) - we were at Tanglewood together in 1988 - and when Hong Guang (who organizes the trip) needed a conductor, Mike suggested me. We were in Tianjin for 8 days, plus two full days of travel to and from China.

Zac in traditional Chinese garb

Tianjin is a large city of somewhere around 15 million people (no one seemed to know for sure), 3 hours outside of Beijing by car. The city sprawls. Enormous complexes of apartment housing are everywhere. Construction is everywhere, from more apartment buildings, to skyscrapers, to a new subway system. Tianjin is abuzz with excitement right now, as the Olympics will hold events there this summer - soccer and ping pong. A new soccer stadium is up, and roads are being repaved, bridges renovated, and landscaping redone.

Tianjin is clearly not a major tourist city. There are a few museums, which have a decidedly pre-opening-up-to-the-West feeling to them. The biggest tourist attraction is the Ancient Culture Street, a vast market of art, clothing, souvenirs, and chachkees (is that how you spell the word? I don't think I've ever written it before). I made several visits there, as I love the whole bargaining thing. I wrote about it last year, when I went to China with Bob Cheung on the Symphony trip. Everything is negotiable. Zac bought a mah jong set for his wife, Helen, at a seemingly high end depatment store near the hotel. It was sold at the sporting goods department. On a whim, Zac made a counter offer to the listed price, expecting to get a laugh out of the salesman. Instead, he got a third off the price. Simply stunning!

The Tianjin Conservatory of Music has about 2500 students. About half study Western music, the rest traditional Chinese music. I had the pleasure of attending a rehearsal of the traditional Chinese orchestra. The music was very cool and beautiful, played by a sea of erhus of various sizes, zhongs, pipas, gongs, etc. My job this week was to play a chamber music concert with my Pittsburgh colleagues and to rehearse and conduct the (Western) orchestra, culminating in a performance on Saturday night. We performed the Mendelssohn Konzertstück for clarinet and bassoon (originally clarinet and basset horn), the second and thrid movements of the Brahms Double Concerto, and Dvorak's New World Symphony (#9).

The young musicians in the orchestra were of a wide range of ability. Some were quite excellent, others very weak. The most interesting thing about the conservatory orchestra is that the students have virtually no experience playing in ensembles. So things that American youth orchestras take for granted, like listening and sub-dividing beats, had to be taught on a daily basis there. The other surprising thing to me was that the students seemed almost completely unaware of how the music goes. Many of the section leaders in the orchestra were junior faculty members. This was certainly a big plus, particularly in the strings, where the faculty members had all studied in Europe or Israel, so they had a good grounding in Western music, tradition and convention. But the students had very little understanding of how one plays in an orchestra. The thrust of their studies was solo repertoire, with orchestra being almost an afterthought. Strange, given that the bulk of those few that will make successful careers will be playing in orchestras....

Me with String Faculty

I did feel a very nice rapport with the students, and the work was very satisfying. But this was clearly a process-driven week. The concert went very well, given where we started, but I would have been just as happy only rehearsing, as that's where the most work got accomplished.

The conservatory faces many challenges. Music is very expensive, and hard to come by. This might explain the lack in chamber music programs. I was amazed to hear, after our chamber music concert, that we were probably the first performance in Tianjin of the Brahms Horn Trio! The other big challenge is that so much of the curriculum is prescribed by the powers that be, so very little discretion is allowed for designing an effective program for the students. We discussed all these things at length with the faculty members who hosted us.

Outside of the musical experience, which was fascinating, the most lasting impression is of the truly unbelievable hospitality shown us by the conservatory and its representatives. The conservatory is not wealthy, to say the least, and this trip was a very expensive one for them to pay for. But on top of all that, we were treated like kings and queens. Every lunch and dinner (breakfast was an outstanding buffet at the hotel) was a multi-course banquet of the most delicious Chinese food I have ever had. The beer and liquor (a very strong Chinese schnapps) was always flowing. Just when you thought you couldn't eat another morsel, five more courses would come out, and then more. I have fallen in love with Sichuan cuisine. The peppers in Sichuan food are indescribable - they are not really hot, but they awaken and highly stimulate every taste bud on your tongue. It's an amazing feeling.

We were driven around town and shown the few sites. We were always greeted with ebullient affection. Despite the fact that most of those we spent time with could not speak any English (Hong Guang and Adam speak Chinese and the Secretary of the Conservatory, Hu, as well as the trumpet professer, Chen spoke some English), the camaraderie and fellowship was powerful and delightful.

With Chen

Zac, Hu, and Wu

At one of our banquets

There was a steady flow of gifts, too. Gifts from our hosts, from the faculty, even from some of the students. And not junky gifts either. Lovely works of art, and tea, and crafts. Again, generosity is the name of the game. They do hospitality like I've never seen before.

Two particular occasions are worth special mention. The day before we left, Michael, Nancy and I were invited to have lunch with the bassoon professor. We called him "Money", because his name, Yuan, is the same as the Chinese currency. He and his wife share a lovely, if a bit small, two-bedroom apartment a few blocks from the conservatory. Neither speaks any English, so we had an excellent translator with us. He and Nancy have known each other for a few years, and she is clearly a very important friend to him - there are photos all over of the two of them together. What made the visit so special was the incredible warmth we felt from the two of them, as well as the delicious meal Money's wife provided. We found out that she had been cooking for two days in preparation. And of course, they had several lovely gifts for us.


Mike, Nancy, and Moneys

The other occasion came directly afterward. We were picked up at the apartment by Hu, the aforementioned Secretary, Liu, the Director of Orchestral Studies (and oboe professor), and Wu, the Communist Party overseer of the Orchestral Studies Department. (We had laughed all week at the collection of names - Hu, Wu, Liu, and Stu (they actually called me a multi-syllabic version, Suh-too). All three had been at every meal we had eaten all week, and were each lovely people. They were very secretive about where we were going. It turned out that we went fishing. I had never been fishing before. What fun. It was in the middle of the city, at a private pond reserved only for esteemed party members. I caught eight fish. Don't be too impressed, as it was pretty clear they stocked the pond with so many fish that they were seemingly dying to get caught. After fishing, we took the fish to a restaurant specializing in cooking fish, and they used them in preparing our meal. Yum.

Wu, Liu, Nancy and Mike
Catch of the Day

It was a very different kind of trip from the one last year. Last year, I was a tourist, and saw some unbelievable things that I will always remember. This time it was a working and living trip, meeting people who care about the same things I care about, making music together, and forging bonds of friendship that, despite the fact that I was there only a bit more than a week, will remain strong even if it's many years before I see them again.

Nancy and Hu