On the Road with Joanne Robinson: Shows 258 and 259 in Beijing, China

The From the Top crew at the Great Wall International Music Academy in Beijing

Never would I have imagined when I joined From the Top over a decade ago, that there would come a day when our crew would travel all the way to China to tape our radio show, but earlier this summer, we had the amazing opportunity to tape not one, but two episodes of our radio show in the incredible city of Beijing!

As exciting as it was for all of us, taping our show outside of the U.S. posed some unique challenges. For example, we wanted to make sure the shows featured several native Chinese musicians (why else go all the way to China after all?) yet still produce the program for an American broadcast audience. While some of the young musicians were very comfortable speaking English, others were less familiar, so it was especially important for us to take extra steps to make sure everyone understood what was happening and felt totally comfortable. We also performed our show using a reduced stage set and local electronic equipment because we were unable to ship some of our items abroad, and to complicate matters one step further, one of the key members of the sound team suffered an injury a day before we left and was unable to make the trip! Thankfully, he is doing just fine.

Despite the challenges, both tapings went off without a hitch and were very well received. Our host was the Great Wall International Music Academy founded by the violin pedagogue Kurt Sassmannshaus. All of the young performers featured were studying there this summer, and the artistry we witnessed was astonishing. I was especially taken with 13-year-old Beijing native Ji Bolin who played the traditional Chinese ehru with incredible expressiveness, and I also just loved 9 and 10 year old violinists Christina Nam and Skye Park from the Cincinnati area, who played Bach.

And did I mention the delicious food in China? Or the awesomeness of the Great Wall? Fantastic music-making and extraordinary scenery definitely made this trip one to remember!

Enjoy this sneak peek of both shows, and be sure to tune in when they hit the airwaves in November!

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