InterCulture music: Creative Mozart Concert

Creative Mozart Concert, co-organized by the Austrian Embassy in Beijing, the Austrian Cultural Forum and InterCulture, took place on 22 April 2023 at InterCulture Space on Ersha Island. The program featured a colorful variety of performances and styles, including piano solos, a violin concerto, vocal recitals, a jazz trio, and the West-Eastern Divan quintet.

After a welcome by Dr. Jasmin Gong, co-founder of InterCulture, Mr. Andreas Riecken, Austrian Ambassador to China, opened the concert and shared his appreciation of the event: “Across all cultures, spring embodies awakening and renewal, sometimes also heartbreak. Hardly anyone else has described spring as closely as the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He portrays spring as a joyful, yet fleeting moment. Their passion for promoting cross-cultural connections has brought together musicians from Austria and China, allowing us to experience this unforgettable musical journey tonight.”

The concert began with Germany-studied Vincent Huang’s piano solo performance of "Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman" - kv 265, followed by a joint performance of the "No. 4 in D major" by Austria-studied violinist Heidi Liao and Vincent Huang on piano. Then, Austrian singer Michael Feigl and Korean pianist Jinsoul Chae presented opera arias such as "Figaro", "Zauberflöte", and "Cosi fan tutte" to the audience. Before each piece, Michael recited letters by Mozart to his family, describing the audience's excited reaction to the premieres of his operas in Vienna.

Next, the jazz trio composed of Vincent Huang on piano, Martin Fleischer on double-bass, and Richard Zeng on the drums, performed Piano Sonata No.11, kv 331, 3rd movement, and Piano Sonata No.15, Kv 545, 1st movement, in a refreshing swing-jazz guise.

The concert concluded with a performance by the West-Eastern Divan, a band, which combines Chinese and European instruments as well as Western and Eastern musical traditions. Their creative interpretations of the popular Cantonese tune “Autumn Moon over Calm Lake” and of J. S. Bach’s “Bourrée” had the audience delighted and applauding endlessly until vocalist Michael joined the band for an encore.

After “Creative Beethoven” in 2021 and “Creative Bach” in 2022,InterCulture brought with “Creative Mozart” another cross-over musical experience to the audience in Guangzhou. We look forward to many more creative and themed cultural events in the future, together with our esteemed partners.