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Sister city shares music

Taiwanese to perform

Brian Wilkinson

(Updated: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 12:00 AM)

The Formosa Melody Music Center from I-Lan, Taiwan, will perform 7 p.m. Saturday at the Golden Chain Theatre.

The performance will benefit the Oakhurst Boys and Girls Club.

Conductor Vincent Li and his wife, Anny, were escorted to Oakhurst last week by county assessor Tom Kidwell and his wife Crystal, following a trip to Yosemite, to check the sound and light system at the theatre. Li, his wife and 14 students are part of a cultural sister city program with Madera and I-Lan.

The center has visited Madera for seven years and this is the second time the group has performed in the Mountain Area, performing at the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad 7 years ago.

This year the group was part of a weeklong summer camp program in Madera provided by the Madera Parks and Community Services Department. The students from I-Lan taught Madera children crafts such as Chinese knotting, bamboo toy and mask making and presented two community concerts.

Rima Runtzel, president of the Oakhurst Boys and Girls Club says those attending the performance will enjoy "an experience of extraordinary musical talent. The students play Chinese instruments that look and sound nothing like what you would see in an American school band."

One such instrument, the Sheng, which existed 3,000 years ago, consists of 36 pipes packed together and is the only traditional Chinese instrument that can play harmonies. In the song, "Train Passing Through Tongxiang," the musician cleverly imitates the sound of a train.

Members of the group have won numerous music competitions and are known throughout their homeland as some of the most accomplished young musicians in the country.

The music center was established in 1994. Performances have taken the group to Europe, Canada, France, Switzerland and Germany.

Songs performed by the group will include traditional Chinese songs along with familiar American tunes.

A dessert reception and raffle and door prizes will follow the two-hour concert. Tickets are $18 each or a table of eight for $120 and are available at Sierra Telephone.

"I would like to thank our Oakhurst friends who have offered their support," Li said. "I invite the community to come and see us as we turn our greatest fantasies into reality."