The Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, led by Music Director Urs Leonhardt Steiner, presents Sent-Down Youth: An Intercultural Exchange. Commemorating the 50th anniversary of China's "sent-down youth" movement, the program will showcase a rare performance of Ask the Sky and the Earth, a classical oratorio-cantata for orchestra, chorus and solo voices, by Chinese composer Tony Fok and librettist Wei Su, that reflects upon one of the largest cultural experiments in human history. This performance will bring together Chinese and American performers from Bay Area communities and across the United States, marking the first cross-cultural presentation of this work by an independent Western arts organization. Also featured on the program is the World Premiere of Remembering for Atonement by Bay Area composer Michael Kimbell and Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral).
In the late 1960s, Chairman Mao Zedong and the People's Republic of China sent nearly 20 million urban youth to the countryside in order to participate in the "sent-down youth" movement. During this time, an estimated 10% of the entire population was forced to move into rural areas to be "re-educated" by the peasants and sacrificed their youth to this movement.
Ask the Sky and the Earth explores this landmark moment in Chinese history. Created by composer Tony Fok and librettist Wei Su, who met as sent-down youth, the piece conveys the mixed emotions of a generation as they reflect upon what many consider a misguided revolution. Originally created in 2008 for chorus and piano, the work quickly spread throughout the Chinese community. It was not long before Fok orchestrated the work for larger forces and brought this version to audiences all over the world. The Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra & Chorus will present Ask the Sky and the Earth in its original Mandarin language with an intercultural chorus and orchestra of more than 200 performers from local Bay Area communities and across the country.
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