By Victor Chen, bostonese.com
Boston, Feb. 10, 2015, — The New England Chinese Professionals 2015 Chinese New Year Gala is co-organized by 16 New England Chinese-American professional associations. It will be held on Feb 21 from 1:00 -11:00 PM at Boston Marriott in Newton, Mass. The cultural performances in the evening feature some of the best performers in music, dance and arts locally and internationally.
Boston Kongfu group led by International Kung Fu star Xiaoyi Chen.
Members in these non-profit, non-political professional organizations work in diverse industries and professional fields, such as high-tech, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, law, business management, higher education, finance, accounting and entrepreneurship. These professional associations collectively have over 4,000 members, many of whom are leaders in their respective fields or industries.
Please register for the Gala at: gala2015-necp-necina.eventdove.com. The following is the lineup of the evening performances at the Gala.
Director: Zhenhua Lai
Experienced in directing large-scale events for many years.
Director of the 2012 – 2015 New England Chinese Professionals Lunar New Year Gala.
Associate Director: Tian Qin
First Prize Winner of the 2007 “Chinese Music Golden Bell Award.” CCTV National Young Singer Contest (Beijing, China). First Place Winner of the “8th International Artists” Music Competition” Musical Opera. Winner of the 2008 National Young Singers Competition. Executive Director of the 2012-2015 New England Chinese Professionals Spring Festival Gala. Founder and Producer of the Core Arts and Music LLC. She will be presenting her own musical at the gala.
Yazhi Guo
In Asia, he was widely known as “THE” best Suona player. Yazhi was the principal suona of the HKCO In 1986, he was enrolled at the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, under the supervision of Professor Jiaqi Chen and Mr. Haiquan Hu, the suona maestro. In 1990, he graduated with distinction and was offered a teaching position, eventually becoming a professor (1994) at the Central Conservatory of Mu sic.
In 1998, Yazhi won New York’s International Pro Musicis Awards Grand Prize, and was selected by the Ministry of Culture as one of China’s most Outstanding Musicians, and was invited to give a solo performance during President Clinton’s Beijing visit. In 2012, Mr. Guo won Hong Kong Award for Best Artist in music category.
Tao He
Erhuist Tao He studied with Professor Nie Jingyu and Professor Xu Jiangde.
In 1999, Ms. He was appointed by Expect Music Record Company as a contract artist. Since then, she began to explore many new parameters to expand her style. Ms. He’s CD set “Madam What’s Next” and “After Asians” galvanized about 30 touring concerts.
In 2000, the Prime Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong attended Ms. He’s concert for “P2000 Campaign Rally”.
In 2002, Ms. He joined the internationally renowned Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. She was the soloist in the concerts themed as “Urban Romanticism”, “Capering Notes”, “Music from the Heart”, and among others.
Ms. He was the soloist for Toronto’s Music Festival named “Twenty Years of Prosperity” in 2013, and was a participant in the Summer Festival of “The Chinese Fine Arts Society” in Chicago in 2014.
Nuo An
Choreographer, spirit dancer, poet, dance therapist, member of Chinese Dancers Association, member of American Dance Therapy Association, using dance as a language to convey psychological, spiritual, cultural, and social meaning to the audience to increase our awareness of the inner self and the outside world.
Nuo An integrates traditional Chinese Tai Chi, Taoism Qi Gong, and Zen philosophy as the root of creativity. Meanwhile, she cooperates with a variety of talents, including drama artists, musicians, painters, and poets, etc., in order to enrich her creative experience from interactive communications. Her show “Dream of Beijing Opera” was recently played in the First Ave of Manhattan, New York. She played a role of Dream and also participated in creative process as an assistance director.
Li Lao
At age of seven, violinist Li Lao has been invited to perform at the most prestigious Hall, The Great Hall of the People. In 2013, Ms. Lao was invited by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex who is the fourth child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburg, to perform in Windsor Castle, the Royal Residence, UK. At age of 13, Ms.Lao was invited to perform the Mendelssohn E minor violin concerto as a soloist with the China Beijing Symphony Orchestra at Beijing Concert Hall.
Ms. Lao has won several prestigious competitions, including Hudson Valley international competition in New York, China international violin competition, China National Violin Art Competition, and the National Violin Competition. Ms. Lao has been invited to perform all over China, as well as USA and Europe.
Wang Peng
Mr. Wang, a student at Berklee College of Music, performed with Chinese pop band “Yu Quan”’s music video in 2005 and owns fastest drum roll record at the “World Challenge” show on Channel BTV-8 in China, ending with a total of 1163 beats per minute in 2007.
He performed at the “China, Japan, Korea Rock and Roll festival” at Happy Valley in 2012, and won the championship for the 2014 world’s fastest drummer competition in 2014.
Tong Liu
Tong Liu graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in China, where she received a Masters of Music degree in piano and music education.
She was a Lecturer at the XinHai Conservatory of Music in GuangZhou, China. She is currently a member of the New England Piano Teacher Association.
Nina Wang
Nina Wang was a top-rated China national broadcast journalist, award-winning TV personality as an anchor, director and producer. She worked for CCTV (China national television) and was responsible for writing and producing the program Economy 30 Minutes. Her achievements over the years include awards from China Radio and Television Society and China State Administration of Radio, Film and Television for producing and hosting TV programs and excellence in teaching Chinese language performing arts. Nina was inducted as distinguished broadcast journalist in China Contemporary Broadcast Journalists and Anchors.
G4GS Gymnastics
G4GS rhythmic gymnastics group members are preparing for Olympic Games. They have participated numerous United States and international competitions, and have won many medals. Many of them are the winners of national and state rhythmic gymnastics championships.
Celia Honigberg
Team lead of the Wellesley College Wushu Team, specializes in Jiujie whip , optional stick, broadsword and sparring . Won the gold medal in Cudgel and Dui l i an at the second Massachusetts Martial Arts Contest.
Michelle Sit
Team lead of the Wellesley College Wushu Team, specializes in martial arts sparring, optional knife , changquan and optional gun. Won the gold medal in Changquan of America’s most authoritative international martial arts competition ICMAC.
Xin Tian
Bass player, performance major student at Berklee College of Music. Mainly plays
jazz. Studied with Ed Lucie, John Reppucci, Bruce Gertz. Current private teacher is John Lockwood.
Jenny Tian
Executive Director and Guest Performer at the Cultural Exchange Pop Music Concert 2012 in China。 Student at Berklee College of Music.
Byron Gao
Studied at the Shenyang Conservatory , later admitted to Berklee College of Music Performance Major. Studied with Bruce Bartlett, David Fiuczynski, Thaddeus
Hogarth and many other guitarists. Plays Funk, Rock, Pop, R & B, Jazz Fusion, has participated in many performances in Boston.
Bridgette Graham
Bridgette went to China to play a musical in 2014 with The Core Arts and music LLC “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” in China tour. Although she is still studying at the Berklee College of Music, she has extensive stage experience . Bridgette was the female lead in over 35 musicals, include: Hair Spray, Legally Blonde, The Little Mermaid and so on. Recorded many songs, and has experience of singing in Philadelphia and Las Vegas.
Zachary Daniel
Zachary is open and interested in most genres and specialize in contemporary pop and singer-songwriter material as well as classical and musical theater styles. He is currently attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
Ning Fan
Won the gold medal in Sheng Group of the first CCTV Chinese Traditional Instrument Contest. Now studying at Berklee College of Music.
Haorong Zheng
At the age of 5, started learning to play Pipa, a traditional Chinese string instrument. Later years got accepted to the ShenZhen school of Arts to study Pipa professionally. After that started studying classical piano with his father. At the age of 13, Zheng had taken in-depth Jazz piano lessons with Moreno Donadel in Beijing. Had the opportunity to attend Moreno Donadel’s 9 gates jazz music festival, also was invited to perform playing solo piano during the festival as a guest performer. Now Studying undergraduate program in Berklee College of Music. Current Ensemble rating: 7 Main performance genres are Fusion, Modern jazz, Bebop, Swing, Blues and etc.
Yicheng Wu
Experienced show host in Boston, studying at Berklee College of Music.