Chinese jazz band makes breakthrough exchange

The Salt Lake International Jazz Festival will once again bring Washington Square to life, beginning Friday, July 10, and running through Sunday, July 12.

This year will mark the first time a youth band from China will perform.

The Youth Jazz Band of Tianjin Conservatory in China is excited to participate in the festival, said Danny Dong, who works as a cultural-exchange producer for the Chinese government, in an interview with the Deseret News.

The 18 musicians who comprise the Youth Jazz Band are all top youth musicians in China.

"This exchange is important because it will show American audiences how Chinese musicians can play American jazz," said Dong, who also is vice president of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology. "The musicians will also return to China and help their teachers study how American jazz is played."

The musicians' cultural exchange is a major breakthrough because in the past, it was illegal for any Chinese artist to perform foreign art in China, Dong said.

"Until 1986, no one could perform jazz in China," he said. "In 1986, during the country's reformation, popular music gradually entered China. And from 2002, popular music was able to be performed formally in the society."

Now, Dong said, the three top conservatories in China, one being Tianjin, want to push jazz music onto the public stage.

"Last year, the national conservatories had many discussions of how they could come together and unite to promote American jazz," said Dong. "The reason is because the universal culture of the world includes jazz."

Dong, who worked with the Chinese Ministry of Culture to bring the musicians to the jazz festival, said the Salt Lake performances will change the young musicians' lives.

"Not only will they get to perform American jazz, but they also have reworked Chinese folk songs into an American jazz style," he said. "And they will also perform and have interactions with American jazz musicians.

"And they will go back to China and share their experiences and inspire their colleagues."

The Chinese government has said that Dong, who now lives in Salt Lake City, is a pioneer in China/U.S. cultural exchange.

"When I started to try to bring American artists to China, it was very difficult," Dong said. "Now, it has become so easy. But before, there were a lot of challenges. And the government told me that through my initial hard work, they were able to bring in other performing groups like the Three Tenors and Celine Dion."

In addition to the performances, the Youth Jazz Band of Tianjin Conservatory will be on hand for a free question-and-answer session at the University of Utah's Libby Gardner Hall on Saturday, July 11, at 11 a.m.