This performance marks the grand finale of the Rainbow Choir’s 2024 concert season. The theme ‘Living in Love!’ is derived from the phrase ‘You, who are being disturbed by everyone, might as well live in love’ (from Rainbow’s work ‘What You Desire Will Surely Come True’), ending with an exclamation mark to project ‘passion’ and ‘enthusiasm’ to the world. In this season of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, ‘Living in Love!’ conveys our wishes to everyone: no matter how much turmoil there is in the world, let’s not lose the courage to love and be loved.
Audiences at the ‘Living Love!’ concert will hear a variety of choral works that are diverse in style and groundbreaking. These include the experimental work ‘Fuyao,’ inspired by ‘Zhuangzi,’ the heartwarming and tear-jerking ‘A Letter from Grandpa,’ and the ‘wish-fulfilling anthem’ ‘What You Desire Will Surely Come True.’ In terms of suites, the concert will feature the new work ‘Moments of Life’ by Artistic Director Jin Chengzhi. The suite is composed of fragments from real life, extracting insights from childhood, hometown, city, love, family, and personal growth, and expressing them through music. At the end of the concert, with the season’s namesake theme song ‘Living in Love!,’ all audience members will join the performers in a lively dance, releasing emotions and experiencing the purest joy. Work Introduction: ‘Fuyao’ – An experimental choral work inspired by ‘Zhuangzi · Free and Easy Wandering,’ depicting the transformation of Kun into Peng through sound. ‘Moments of Life’ Suite – ‘Moments of Life’ is a choral suite commissioned by the China Symphony Orchestra, with lyrics and music by Jin Chengzhi and performed by the China Symphony Orchestra Chorus. It premiered in the 2023 concert ‘Moments of Life – Jin Chengzhi and China Symphony Orchestra Chorus Concert.’ In the 2024 concert season, the Rainbow Choir began rehearsing this suite. The suite consists of nine works, with the first eight drawing from real-life experiences of ordinary people, depicting delicate moments in people’s daily lives at different ages with peaceful, warm, or humorous, and playful musical styles. These insights are extracted and expressed through music. The ninth piece, ‘I Have Many Reasons to Sing,’ is a rearranged version of Jin Chengzhi’s original work, summarizing and concluding the themes of the first eight pieces: that is, to give meaning to life’s moments through singing. We believe that audiences of different ages and life experiences will feel the sincerity of the works in the performance and find their own life moments in this poetic suite. Rainbow Choir – Shanghai Rainbow Chamber Singers was established in 2010, with Jin Chengzhi as the Artistic Director.Initially, the prototype of the Rainbow Chorus was a choir interest group composed of students from the Conducting Department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. With the expansion of the team, it gradually became a non-professional music group rooted in Shanghai, consisting of senior choir enthusiasts from all over the country and various professions, with nearly a hundred members currently. In addition to original compositions, the choir also performs classic pieces, covering works by composers from the Renaissance to contemporary times, both domestic and international. The choir is primarily characterized by performing original works. As the permanent conductor and resident composer, Jin Chengzhi has created over 100 original compositions for the choir, including several choral suites. These works reflect the real life and spiritual world of modern people. The style and color of the works are diverse, some exploring the fusion of folk music and choir, such as ‘Jia Xuan Chang Duan Ju’, ‘Bai Ma Village Travel Notes’, ‘Luo Cha Guo Ji · Mountain Chapter’; some are warm and healing, such as ‘Saying Goodbye is a Difficult Thing’, ‘I Like’; some are humorous, such as ‘Feeling the Body Being Hollowed Out’, ‘Spring Festival Self-Rescue Guide’, etc. The Shanghai Rainbow Chamber Singers are committed to spreading the charm of choral performances and exploring the boundaries of choral art. To date, they have performed over a hundred special concerts in iconic concert halls in various cities, including the Beijing Concert Hall, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, and Guangzhou Xinghai Concert Hall. In the professional field, the Rainbow Chorus has won honors such as CMA (China Music Awards) ‘Group/Band of the Year’ (2017), Olive Art Award ‘Popular Performance Group of the Year’ (2022), and second place in the group total score at the 54th Tolosa International Choir Competition (2023). Jin Chengzhi is the Artistic Director of the Shanghai Rainbow Chamber Singers, a young conductor, and a lyricist and composer. Born in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, in 1987. His representative works include: – Suite (a total of nine parts) Zhe Ya Ji — 2015 Luo Xia Ji — 2016 Bai Ma Village Travel Notes — 2017 Jia Xuan Chang Duan Ju — 2018 Encounter — 2019 Star River Hotel — 2019 Mountain Scenes — 2020 Luo Cha Guo Ji · Mountain Chapter — 2022 Moments of Life — 2023 Well-known single works include ‘Rainbow’, ‘Reservoir’, ‘Ah Mei’, ‘I Like’, ‘Yumen Pass’, ‘Stand Up’, ‘Jing Guang Mountain Morning Scene’, ‘Traveler No. 1’, ‘Spring Festival Self-Rescue Guide’, ‘Toast of a Drunkard’, ‘Feeling the Body Being Hollowed Out’, ‘A Letter from Grandpa’, ‘I Have Many Reasons to Sing’, ‘What Color is the Dream of Summer’, ‘Where Did You Put My House Key Last Night, Zhang Shichao?’, etc. Performance Program: 1) Afternoon, Lyrics: Herman Sätherberg, Music: Hugo Alfvén 2) Fuyao, Lyrics: Selected from ‘Zhuangzi’, Music: Jin Chengzhi 3) What You Want Will Definitely Happen, Lyrics and Music: Jin Chengzhi 4) Evening Prayer, Lyrics and Music: Jin Chengzhi 5) That Side of Shanghai, Lyrics and Music: Jin Chengzhi 6) A Letter from Grandpa, Lyrics and Music: Jin Chengzhi — Intermission — 7) ‘Moments of Life’ Suite, Lyrics and Music: Jin Chengzhi *Nine of One, Moments of Life *Nine of Two, Father’s Way to Work *Nine of Three, That Night at Gulou *Nine of Four, I Met My Husband Online *Nine of Five, Mom, What Are You Looking At? *Nine of Six, Spinning Around *Nine of Seven, Little Singer *Nine of Eight, Moments of Life (Two) *Nine of Nine, I Have Many Reasons to Sing * Duration is expected to be 120 minutes including a 20-minute intermission. The actual performance may vary. Open from 01/18 to 01/19, performance times and duration are subject to the actual event.
