Bard East/West Ensemble in der Carnegie Hall, New York

The ninth annual China Now Music Festival opens at Carnegie Hall, with a program that spans centuries, borders, and instruments. This year’s theme “Chasing Dreams” celebrates America’s 250th anniversary by telling stories of the shared dreams, resilience, and creativity that connect all of us. The evening opens with three works written for the Bard East/West Ensemble (BE/WE), a chamber group that pairs a Western string quintet with seven Chinese instruments including pipa, guzheng, ruan, dizi, sheng, suona, and erhu. The centerpiece of the night is the New York premiere of The Rift, a gripping new chamber opera by acclaimed composer Huang Ruo and Tony Award–winning librettist David Henry Hwang. The opera dramatizes the contentious story behind one of America’s most beloved monuments: architect Maya Lin’s fight to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the face of fierce public backlash. The Rift: Opera in One Act is told through four interwoven voices: Lin herself, a Vietnam War veteran, a Vietnamese refugee, and former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. In Hwang’s words, it is “a story about how a work of art can help heal a country.” Program: Zhang Zheng, composer Feng · Ya · Song Luk Wai Chun, composer Moments Between Ledges and Frets for Pipa and Ensemble Wang Danhong, composer Forever Shandan-dan Intermission Huang Ruo, composer; David Henry Hwang, librettist T‍he Rift: Opera in One Act chamber opera ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ Performers: Jindong Cai, conductor Yang Jin, pipa‍ Karen Vuong, soprano ‍Michelle Mariposa, mezzo-soprano‍ ‍ Edward Graves, tenor Daniel Klein, baritone Eric Ting, director ‍ Bard East/West Ensemble (BE/WE) China Now Chamber Orchestra Pricing: $15 and up