Urumuqi mounts ethnic concert

Also celebrating the new year with music is the western city of Urumqi. On Saturday night, a concert of local ethnic music was staged. The show marked the opening of the city's 2010 New Year Concert Series.

The show opened with a percussion performance of "Burning Nagela". Of the eleven numbers featured on the program, more than half were composed of indigenous musicians. And most of the performers used instruments from the centuries-old local music traditions. In playing the strings and woodwinds, instrumentalists have adopted techniques and arrangements from other traditions such as those from western orchestras.

As the opening of the Urumqi 2010 New Year Series, the program placed an emphasis on diversity. It reached a climax with the act "Wuxia Mukam", which features as many as 18 different instruments. The concert is the debut performance of the Xinjiang Art Theater's Ethnic Orchestra, which was formed only three months ago. In interpreting age-old melodies, the ensemble has set out to blend in more current musical trends, with a view to supplying its audience with a feast both for the ear and the eye.