The China Now Music Festival, “Chasing Dreams,” closes its ninth season with Zhou Long’s Men of Iron and the Golden Spike, a powerful symphonic oratorio honoring the thousands of Chinese laborers who came to America in the 1860s to build the Transcontinental Railroad, and the U.S. premiere of Li Shaosheng’s five-movement symphonic suite Chasing the Sky, honoring humanity’s pursuit of space exploration.
Photography by Patrick Li
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Li Shaosheng (b. 1988), composer
Chasing the Sky for orchestra
1. Celestial Journey 梦天
2. Questioning the Sky 问天
3. Flying Apsaras 飞天
4. Exploring the Sky 巡天
5. The Heavens Move with Tireless Vigor 天行健
The Orchestra NowIntermission
Zhou Long (b. 1953), composer Su Wei (b. 1953), composer
Men of Iron and the Golden Spike 《铁汉金钉》
1. Prologue 序曲
2. The Endless Sea ⼤海苍茫
3. “Coolie Work Chant” and “Song of the Chinese Railroadmen” “苦力号⼦子”与“华工之歌”
4. These Chinese 这些中国人
5. My Name is . . . 我的名字叫……
6. Snow on New Year’s Eve 风雪大年夜
a. Snow on New Year’s Eve 风雪大年夜
b. The Longevity Lockets 年夜饭与长命锁 7. Avalanche 大雪崩
a. Ah Lun’s Sacrifice 阿伦牺牲
b. How High the Sierras, How Deep the Pacific 塞拉岭⼭山⾼高啊, 太平洋⽔深 8. Belated Golden Spike 迟来的金钉⼤典 9. Epilogue 尾声
Lucy Fitz Gibbon , soprano
Ziqi Wang, mezzo-soprano
Yi Li, tenor
Yue Wu 吴越, baritone
Andrew Munn, bass
China Now Chorus
The Orchestra Now
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
The China Now Music Festival is an annual series of events produced by the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music in collaboration with the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music, China. China Now is dedicated to promoting an understanding and appreciation of classical music from contemporary China. Each year’s festival explores a singular theme. The inaugural festival in 2018, Facing the Past, Looking to the Future: Chinese Composers in the 21st Century, presented US and world premieres of orchestral works by 11 living Chinese composers in concerts at Bard College, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. The following year, the festival presented China and America: Unity in Music at Bard College, Carnegie Hall, and Stanford University, and featured the world premiere of the symphonic oratorio Men of Iron and the Golden Spike, a major new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Zhou Long honoring the Chinese railroad workers of the American West on the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Recent seasons include Beethoven and China in 2020, Asian American Voices in 2021, East of West in 2022, The Bridge of Music in 2023, Composing the Future in 2024, and Music in Motion in 2025.
The 2026 China Now Music Festival is presented in collaboration with the Central Conservatory of Music, China.
