Shanghaied Bob: The Philadelphia Orchestra happens to visit Shanghai

The Philadelphia Orchestra first visited China in 1973 with than music director Eugene Ormandy. It was the first American orchestra to perform in China, at the special request of President Nixon. Since then the Philadelphia Orchestra has returned to China 6 times cultivating an extraordinary history with the Chinese. This year celebrates the 40th year anniversary visiting China and will signal a new commitment to bring classical music to the people. Besides the 6 scheduled concerts, the members of the orchestra will be doing 31 programs offering master classes, coaching sessions and workshops for young music students and local professional orchestra musicians. This will become an regular affair to create cultural bonds and hopefully drive further artistic musical innovation.

As a side note while doing research for this post I came across a story about their first visit to China. At the last minute Madame Mao insisted that Ormandy change the program from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to the Sixth. There was a scramble to find the music which ended up being hand-copied sheets, Ormandy was furious about the change and was ready to "jump ship". It said that the US-China relations hinged on this concert. A letter of praise signed by President Nixon was sent to Eugene Ormandy after the visit thanking him for "demonstrating an admirable spirit of flexibility in adjusting his performances to the Chinese desires". It said that Madame Mao had the concerts broadcast throughout the country, including the rice paddies. Several folks have commented that when you mention to Chinese folks familiar with classical music that you are from Philadelphia they smile and talk about when and where they heard the Philadelphia Orchestra.

As you know the orchestra is "renowned for its distinctive sound, beloved for its keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences …is known as one of the preeminent orchestras in the world".

The real story is how we happened to see The Philadelphia Orchestra Concert 2013 Fortieth Anniversary Tour of China. It all started when our friend Nancy visited us mid April in Shanghai. She is very much in the know around Philadelphia and happened to be friends with Craig the gentleman making all the arrangements for the orchestras tour. He happened to be in Shanghai the week Nancy was here and we met him for drinks on the 96 floor of the Jin Mao building. Because of their great friendship he happened to extending an invitation to ME and I to be his guests at the Shanghai concert on June 2nd. We were thrilled to be able to see the orchestra in Shanghai especially on their very important anniversary return visit.

We happened to meet Craig again during the intermission in the concert hall who happened to introduced us to Ambassador Platt, the gentlemen who accompanied President Nixon on the original tour in 1973. He happened to be sitting in the same row as us. As we were taking our seats after the intermission ME happened to strike up a conversation with the women sitting next to her who happened to be the wife of the conductor, Donald Runnicles, who was the guest conductor on the China tour. She happened to invited us back stage after the concert to meet her husband. While waiting to meet Maestro Runnicles, we were told that the son of the past President of China flew in special to see the concert and was with the mayor of Shanghai, Ambassador Platt, and the maestro doing a meet and greet. We met with Maestro Runnicles and had a lovely conversation with he and his, we were delighted with how completely charming they were.

The evening was wonderful, the music was wonderfully elevating and Maestro Runnicles was amazing, he came back for two encores and had to pull the first and second violinist off the stage to politely tell the fans that the concerts was over. It was a very special evening, one of those once and a lifetime experiences. It all happened because Nancy decided to visit us in Shanghai.