Music students travel to China for festival

2019 festival participants included: May Tsao-Lim (faculty), Morgan Lee, Zaquary Hale, De’Courtneyous Miller, Stephanie Noland, Alex Tyler, Thad Samuelson, Matthew Glover, Rayla Yates, Ashley Massey, Bill Higgins (faculty), Kameron Posey, Laura Storm (faculty), KyoungHwa Molinari (faculty), Jordan Parker, Daniel Tubb, Makayla Mitchell, Aaron Randolph, Emelia Adams, Grace Hall, Jake Wyatt, and Riley Brule.

Henderson State University’s Department of Music participated in a second international music festival May 16-31. Eighteen students and four faculty members traveled to China for a series of concerts, cultural exchange events, and sight-seeing.

The trip began in Beijing, where the group visited The Great Wall and The Forbidden City, before travelling south by train to the city of Shijiazhuang.

Students visited Hebei Vocational Arts College and Shijiazhuang University. They participated in master classes, rehearsals, and social activities, and performed a concert at each university with students from host schools.

Traditional Chinese music was demonstrated throughout, as well as painting and calligraphy, dancing, and the martial arts.

After a domestic flight to their final destination, the city of Guiyang, the group visited a traditional local village and hiked the natural waterfalls of Huangguoshu. Their final host school, Guizhou University, treated the students to more traditional folk music and dancing demonstrations, and rehearsals and performance of the final festival concert concluded the trip.

The two-week festival was a successful pairing of music from east and west, and plans are in progress for a third international festival, tentatively scheduled for fall 2020, said Dr. Bill Higgins, professor of music and chair of Henderson’s music department.

Henderson hosted a two-week music festival last summer, introducing a group of talented Chinese students to the campus and exposing them to local culture.