Chinese New Year Concert

Published on 02.04.2015

On Wednesday 4 February 2015, Groningen Confucius Institute, in cooperation with the Province of Groningen, organized a reception and a classical Chinese New Year concert by the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra at the Music venue Oosterpoort in Groningen to celebrate the start of the Year of the Goat, 2015. The event was opened by the Mayor of Groningen and president of GCI's board Mr. den Oudsten. He gave a warm welcome to the guests and a speech about the cooperation between Groningen and China.

After the opening speech, the Commissioner of the King, Mr. van den Berg, installed, like last year, new Chinese Student ambassadors. These student ambassadors from the University of Groningen and the Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen are asked to become actively involved in promoting the Northern Netherlands and Groningen in particular, in China. The student ambassadors which were installed last year already received job offers from European companies and have been appointed as managers to explore the Chinese market, even before their graduation defence. Those talented Chinese students are gradually forming a strong network all over China.

After the reception the guests could enjoy a colourful concert of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra. This orchestra was established in 1952 and was the first larger scale modern orchestra of traditional Chinese instruments in China. The orchestra has performed in more than 80 cities in China and in more than 30 foreign countries.

The concert was a very good opportunity for our Western guests to get acquainted with traditional Chinese music, which made the celebration of the start of the Year of the Goat to a great success.