Zuk piano duo completes two-week concert tour of China
by Andy Jia
SHIJIAZHUANG, Hebei Province, China - The Canadian piano duo of Luba and Ireneus Zuk has completed a two-week concert tour of China, which took place November 8-23, as part of an initiative to promote cultural relations between Canada and China.
An invitation was extended to the duo by the Performance Department of Huihuang Business and Advertising Co. of China [and by the country's Ministry of Culture]. The tour was supported by the Arts Promotion Division of Foreign Affairs, Canada, and the Canadian Embassy in Beijing.
The concert tour featured performances by the Zuk Duo in the following six cities: Shijiazhuang, Guangzhou, Changxing, Beijing, Guiyang and Kunming (two performances).
The piano duo's concert program included works by Max Bruch, Johann Nepomuck Hummel, Franz Liszt, Yannis Constantinides, Arvo Pårt and Myroslav Skoryk, and Canadian composers Clermont Pépin, Violet Archer and Roger Matton.
Throughout the concert tour audiences responded very warmly to the performances and took particular delight in the duo's playing of a Chinese work titled "Defend the Yellow River."
The Zuks, who are professors at Canadian universities - Luba Zuk at McGill and Ireneus Zuk at Queen's - also visited academic institutions, giving master classes and meeting with faculty at Shijiazhuang College, the Changxing Grand Theater, the University for Ethnic Minorities in Guizhou and the University for Art and Music in Kunming. These visits were greatly appreciated by both faculty and students.
The Zuk Piano Duo's concert tour of China was very successful. The tour organizers very much look forward to working with Canadian artists of such caliber and prominence in the future.
* * *
The Zuk Duo also appeared in a concert held at the Ambassador's Residence of the Canadian Embassy in Beijing on November 14, as part of a special event to welcome Robert G. Wright, the new Canadian ambassador to China and Carol Smith-Wright. The audience included Canadian consuls from all consulates in China, as well as from Hong Kong and Taipei, and several representatives from large Canadian firms and corporations.
Andy Jia is vice-president of Huihuang Entertainment Co. in Shijiazhuang.
Impressions of the concert tour
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 25, 2005, No. 52, Vol. LXXIII
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