At 3 p.m. on November 26th, the 2023 Phoenix Concert, “Maestro Dopamine” (a violin and viola concert) featuring the renowned musician Guo Yuwen was held at Phoenix Language Village. Ms. Guo is dedicated to promoting classical music through innovation and teaching, with the aim of helping more people appreciate the emotions that music can evoke in life. Phoenix School invited Ms. Guo to provide a musical liberal education experience that explores the intersection of classical music and AI technology to the teachers and students of Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai.
Before the performance, the AI host named “Da Wenwen” introduced the violin, the “queen of instruments” in the symphony orchestra. And Ms. Guo showed the viola, a slightly larger instrument than the violin, which she used to perform Bach's “Aria on the G String” as the opening program of the concert.
The warm and melodious sound of the viola whisked away the cold wind and fatigue, as if immersing the audience in the lazy and comfortable afternoon sun. After the performance, the German musician Bach, who was produced by AI, also introduced the origin story of this piece “in person.” The second piece was the “Chaconne” by Vitali, an Italian composer of the same period as Bach. This piece is characterized by a slow triple meter and a recurring melodic theme, with slight variations each time it is repeated. In this ever-changing dance piece, the listener can feel the composer's deep emotions, both in terms of impacting passion and melancholy. The delicate and melancholic strains of the violin seem to evoke thoughts of a hundred years ago when Vitali sat alone in a cabin deep in the jungle on a rainy night with howling winds, composing this lonely and desperate variation. It also allowed the audience to follow the sound of Ms. Guo 's violin and feel the journey of life with all its tangles and ups and downs in the midst of wind and rain.
After the intermission of the concert, AI Schubert invited Ms. Guo to play the fifth piece─ “Serenade.” The “King of Songs,” AI Schubert described, “by himself,” that this song mainly expresses the longing and bitterness between lovers, and under the guidance and accentuation of the piano, it resounds with a young man's heartfelt confession to his beloved. In this concert, in order to allow us to better compare the emotional changes brought about by the difference in tunes between the violin and the viola, this “Serenade” was the only piece by Ms. Guo who used different playing techniques and two main instruments (violin and viola) to perform it.
Not only did Ms. Guo perform classical pieces of Western music for the audience but she also presented the famous Chinese violin piece, “Liang Zhu,” which originated from one of the four great love stories of ancient Chinese folklore, “Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai.” Additionally, Ms. Guo combined classical music with modern pop, showcasing the Paganini blast melody implicit in the song ‘shutdown’by Korean girl group BLACKPINK. Ms. Guo performed a fusion of Asian pop king Jay Chou's 'Piano Wound' with a centuries-old Tchaikovsky tune. Additionally, she added variations to the well-known children's song 'Little Star' and played a string of classic film interludes.
Ms. Guo gave a technically impressive and emotionally engaging performance, providing the audience with an hour and a half of delightful music. The classical music pieces were presented in a way that allowed the audience to experience the unique style of the masters. After the concert, Ms. Guo held five interactive Q&A sessions, during which the audience enthusiastically shared their views.
The concert was a fusion of musical ideas and an artistic celebration. Finally, the Phoenix Concert drew a successful conclusion in the warm and joyful exchanges.
About the performer:
Ms. Guo studied for double masters’ degrees in viola and violin in Belgium and Holland. She graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Holland with a high score of 9.5 out of 10, and was later awarded the title of Outstanding Performer by the Dutch government. She was employed by the Hague Symphony Orchestra, one of the three major symphony orchestras in Holland, as the deputy principal viola for a world tour, during which she worked with Lang Lang and many other famous musicians. During that decade, she toured with the world-renowned Royal Symphony Orchestra of Amsterdam as a guest musician, and returned to Asia in 2011 to perform with the Macao Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Translator: Wang Lihong
Proofreading: Martin Wittenberg
