Thirty Westchester County, NY Golden Chordsmen, twenty of their wives and children plus five Manhattan, NY Big Apple singers along with a nearly equal number from Queensboro, NY Community College Chorus left New York on August 11, 1995 for the adventure of a lifetime. As we departed, all we knew was that we had air flights over and back, and we would sing two concerts in Xian (the ancient capital of China) and two concerts in Beijing (the modern capital of China). We were assured that all arrangements had been made, but had no idea of what they were. We didn't even find out the name of our hotel in Xian until the day before we left, and we didn't get our passports with visas until we checked in at the airport. Talk about misgivings!! But we happily boarded the plane for the 20 hour trek to Xian (pronounced She On).

Our first hint at the how great it was going to be, came in Beijing as we were hustled through immigration and custom formalities, and got on a plane for Xian that was held for our departure. At Xian, we began to notice lots of people who seemed to just get things done. The occasional wait was followed by something clearly important such as government officials greeting us at the Xian airport. Arriving at the hotel in late afternoon, our leaders were greeted with flowers and our rooms were pre-assigned. Our only instruction was to be at the welcoming banquet that evening.

This banquet was our first truly Chinese meal, so we thought the 18 courses were quite overwhelming. We found out soon enough that this was the norm for our Chinese meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner. At the banquet, the many courses were interspersed by welcoming speeches from various dignitaries of the city and the Chinese cultural organization. At the dinner, we also finally got a schedule for the week, and began to sense that this trip was indeed a grand adventure.

I'll spare you the detailed itinerary, but in Xian we gave two concerts, one of which was broadcast in its entirety on national television (in China, of course). We visited several museums and archeological digs highlighted by a visit to the site of the Qin Terra-Cotta Warriors -- recently featured in National Geographic. On the city wall, we found a bell large enough for a quartet -- you ain't never rung chords until you've done it in a bell.

The China Chorus singing at the Great Wall

Each concert was a mixture of English and Chinese material. Our chorus did four classic barbershop songs in English, for which we got polite applause. Then we sang a favorite Chinese song about guerrilla soldiers and the audiences became very responsive and usually sang along. The entire chorus, men and women, followed with several English songs and then several Chinese songs. Again, the native tongue got a much better reception. For the second half, the symphony orchestra joined us as we sang a major work called the Yellow River Cantata. Rather late in our preparations, most of us learned that the Cantata glorifies the Chinese victory over the Japanese in 1945 and the rise of communism -- oh well, such is music. We learned all of this Chinese material phonetically, over about a two month period. I must say our teachers were exceptionally tolerant of our pronunciation faux pas.

In Beijing, we had more banquets, and we visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City -- in reality, the royal palace of old. Within the Forbidden City, we sang in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony to the great amazement of hundreds of local visitors. There, we also found Kenosha East -- the Hall of Preservation of Harmony, but we couldn't get inside. We were honored at the Chinese Opera (really a vaudeville show from a 1000 years ago). We sang for the cast afterwards; we sang in almost every restaurant we visited; we sang in the hotel lobbies; we sang in the airport waiting rooms -- always with the same results, great appreciation for our singing in Chinese despite our butchered pronunciation.

The China Chorus singing in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony

What a trip and all we had to pay for was the airfare. All the hotels, meals, buses, guides, etc., etc., etc. were compliments of the Chinese Cultural Operation. Suffice to say, our Chinese hosts were outstanding and could not have been more gracious and accommodating. Great kudos go to our two barbershopper leaders -- administratively, Angelo Sticca and musically, Alan Fennell. Another key leader was the conductor of the Queensboro chorus was Dr. John Specht and our Chinese leader who really made it all come together was Yao Hsueh-Yen, a masterful and charismatic musical talent.