Boston Symphony makes China encore (2)

"BSO's first tour in China back in 1979 was put together in less than two months following an official invitation from the Chinese Ministry of Culture, which was a benchmark in BSO's over 100 years of history. It's a great occasion for the orchestra to return. There are 10 members of the BSO returning to China for the first time since 1979. They cannot recognize the place," says Volpe. "Last time, the orchestra played at a sports arena, and this time we play at these new concert halls like the National Center for the Performing Arts. Those venues and infrastructures mirror how fast China has grown and how much interest Chinese people have in Western classical music."

"Pianist Lang Lang said 40 million Chinese kids are learning and playing piano. Those numbers are staggering. The emerging Chinese middle-class families want to embrace art and give their kids a better life. Classical music is a part of that," he continues.

Some of the current orchestra members, according to Volpe, have seen the trip as "going home".

"Every year, we have talented musicians from China or with Chinese backgrounds joining the orchestra. Some of them have never returned to China, while some have left home for a long time," Volpe says.

The mother of BSO's current principal harpist, Zhou Li, was among those guest Chinese musicians playing under Ozawa's baton. Young Zhou was 14 years old and studying pipa, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument.

"It was my first time seeing a Western orchestra playing in a live concert," recalls Zhou. "My parents recall that the concert was phenomenal since it was a rare opportunity for Chinese to connect with the West so closely."

Ding Xin, a violinist who joined the BSO in 1999, was a teacher at Central Conservatory of Music and left China in 1996 to further her studies in Houston and Boston before earning an artist's diploma from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, just across the Charles River from Boston.

She says that at the beginning, it was quite challenging for her to adjust to the orchestra's intensive performances, four concerts a week on average.

"I have returned to perform in China, during a quartet tour with BSO colleagues in 2007, and the changes are huge," says Ding, who channels her passion into chamber music. "When I studied violin in China, everyone wanted to be a soloist and it wouldn't work to play in a group. But now things have started to change."

"Besides performing, I really look forward to going back to the Central Conservatory of Music," she says.