Photo: Courtesy of Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center

Wrapping up their Beijing performance, the Hong Kong Gaudeamus Dunhuang Ensemble (HKGDE) is set to host a concert at the Tianjin Binhai Performing Arts Center Opera Hall on Friday. The highly anticipated A Dialogue between Dunhuang and the Palace Museum: Across 2000 Years of Chinese Culture Heritage - Nature's Concerto, Music from Heaven, Earth & Man was co-organized by the China Arts and Entertainment Group Ltd, CPAA Theatres Development Co, Ltd, the Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center and the Tianjin Binhai Performing Arts Center, with staunch support from the Beijing Palace Museum, the Hong Kong Palace Museum and the Dunhuang Academy. 

The performance showcases the brilliant repertoires of HKGDE's previous tours, with Chinese culture at its core and the concept of "Heaven, Earth, Man" as the inspiration. The ensemble uses musical notes to traverse the profound history of Chinese culture and utilize music, cultural relics, and art to narrate the relationship between "Heaven, Earth, and people" over a thousand years.

The concert features nine original compositions, inspired by various Buddhist paintings and statues in the Dunhuang Grottoes, as well as the cultural relics and stories of the Palace Museum.

The ensemble aims to create the "Realm of the Unity of Heaven and Man," incorporating ancient pipa scores of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and a variety of ancient instruments to represent the transmission of ancient music and the integration of ancient scores into music.

In addition to original music compositions, the concert will incorporate animation and visual presentations to create an immersion experience of the awe-inspiring cultural impact of Dunhuang and the Palace Museum.