Blending Chinese and western musicThe Intercultural Music and Arts Project (IMAP) held an event of music, animation and tea ceremony at St. Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh on 19th June. It is a brand new idea of combing the performance space with the tradition of tea ceremony from three different countries: China, Japan and Thailand. The audience is presented with a musical journey as well as tasting the tea and experiencing the culture of tea ceremony in these countries in one unique event.

The concert began with an animation work created by Rachel Bevan Baker, who has worked with children from the Edinburgh Chinese School in a workshop of animation production using ideas and materials related to tea gathering. On the music side, Kimho Ip, composer and performer from Hong Kong and the artistic director of IMAP, performed on the Yangchin (Chinese dulcimer), with Eddie McGuire on flute. The duet has played the Chinese Tune, “Jasmine”, which is the main source of musical inspiration for several other renditions during the concert.

A Perfect Afternoon Tea

A hallmark of the event is the participation of many young musicians, with their high standard of music making on stage. This includes members from the Junior Academy of RSAMD. They performed an improvisation on Chinese instruments, which they have just started to learn for less than a month. Also, two ensembles of young musicians from the Edinburgh Chinese School, led by Anothai Nitibhon, composer and performer from Thailand, performed two different arrangements of the tune “Jasmine” at the end of the concert. These all show the results of the 10-weeks creative music projects held by the core ensemble of IMAP in these schools respectively.

IMAP is funded by Scottish Arts Council Lottery fund, Big Lottery Fund (OOSHLA) and the City Council of Glasgow. The organization promotes innovative ideas and intercultural approach in performing arts and educational workshops. Upcoming events organized by IMAP include another intercultural music series in November 2005.