New York Chinese Traditional Orchestra

The Chinese National Orchestra of New York (CMENY) was founded in 1961 by the late conductor Mr. Zhang Chuannian (1917-1997). It has grown from a few music lovers to the oldest and largest Chinese orchestra in the United States and even the Americas. The orchestra has nearly fifty members, playing almost all types of Chinese instruments. As the only non-teenage large-scale Chinese orchestra in the Americas, the New York Chinese Traditional Orchestra maintains excellent artistic standards through musical exchanges with professional musicians from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Many award-winning musicians in the orchestra graduated from national conservatories in Shanghai, Beijing, Sichuan, Tianjin, Shenyang, Guangzhou and Taipei, and have served as performers in well-known orchestras across Asia. The orchestra's performances range from small chamber music to large orchestras, covering a variety of Chinese bowed string instruments, plucked instruments, wind instruments and percussion instruments. The Chinese Music Orchestra's repertoire ranges from ancient classical music to modern works, spanning more than 1,500 years of history. The orchestra also performs folk music from different ethnic groups across China. One of the main goals of the Chinese National Orchestra is to introduce Chinese music to a broad audience, including ordinary music fans and professional musicians, in order to enrich public culture, strengthen cross-cultural exchanges, and help Chinese music make a new voice in the West. To this end, the orchestra has performed at Lincoln Center Outdoor Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Ivory Fisher Hall, City Hall, Asia Society, Carnegie Hall, Newport Music Festival and Music Festival. The band has also performed at many museums, libraries, universities, and elementary and secondary schools along the East Coast. We attach great importance to the protection and inheritance of Chinese music heritage, so the orchestra provides Chinese music lecture demonstration services for primary and secondary schools and colleges and universities, and provides free musical instrument courses for primary and secondary school students in the summer. The orchestra has partnered with the Weill School of Music at Carnegie Hall in the past to provide educational programs, including Carnegie Children’s Concerts, Global Exchange Concerts, Community Concerts and Carnegie Hall Family Concerts.