Music Confucius Institute facilitates Sino-Danish musical exchange

The Danish Cultural Institute met with the Music Confucius Institute at the Royal Danish Academy of Music to learn more about the institute’s purpose, organisation, and activities.

On November 29, a DCI representative met with International Coordinator Marie Nørskov Bærentsen and Assistant Professor/Academic Advisor and Coordinator Tuan Hao Tan at Music Confucius Institute to learn more about the institute.

The Music Confucius Institute (MCI) was established in 2012 as an institute within the Royal Danish Academy of Music (RDAM). “But what is a Confucius Institute?” one may ask. A Confucius Institute is a non-profit educational organisation and a tripartite joint venture between a Chinese partner institution, a foreign partner institution, and Hanban (Confucius Institute Headquarters) in Beijing. Hanban,  which oversees the Confucius Institutes around the world, is a non-profit organisation affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education. As stated on the organisation’s website, “Hanban is committed to provide Chinese language and cultural teaching resources and services worldwide, nourishing the demands of foreign Chinese learners that contributes to the development of multiculturalism and the building of a harmonious world.”

While the Confucius Institute program was only initiated in 2004, more than 500 Confucius Institutes have already been established wordwide. Three of them are located in Denmark, including MCI at RDAM in Copenhagen.

When the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) was planning to establish the world’s first Music Confucius Institute, it chose RDAM as its foreign partner institution. CCOM and RDAM already had a long history of cooperation and an agreement between the two music conservatories on the establishment of MCI was signed within a few months after CCOM first contacted RDAM about the plan. MCI has a Danish director appointed by RDAM and a Chinese director appointed by CCOM and is jointly financed by Hanban as well as the two music conservatories.

In order to spread knowledge about Chinese music and culture, promote musical and cultural exchange between China and Denmark, and contribute to international music development, MCI offers performances and courses.

Each year, a number of Chinese conservatory teachers and students appointed by CCOM come to Copenhagen to teach and perform at MCI. For the Chinese conservatory students, their stay functions as an internship and a part of their education. The performances explore an enchanting repertoire of traditional and contemporary Chinese music featuring traditional Chinese instruments. Compositions combining traditional Chinese instruments and classical Western instruments as well as Chinese and Western musical elements are also an important part of the repertoire. MCI brings together musicians from different backgrounds to learn and experience the differences and the similarities between Western and Chinese instruments and music tradition. An example of a duo who has performed together on several occasions is RDAM student Dávur Birgisson who plays the guitar and former MCI teacher intern Chen Bai’an who plays the dizi (transverse bamboo flute). They also performed together at Danish Cultural Center in Beijing.

Traditional Chinese instrument courses are available for RDAM students and staff as well as external students. MCI offers a wide range of courses, including courses in erhu, guqin, guzheng, pipa and yangqin performance. The courses are taught in English by MCI teachers and teacher interns. A traditional Chinese instrument course extends over a semester (October-December or March-May), includes a minimum of 5 one-to-one lessons, and costs 500 DKK for external students. A course ends with an informal concert allowing students to showcase what they have learnt. While RDAM students do not receive credits for these courses, they get to expand their horizons and grow as musicians. RDAM students do receive credits for participating in cross-cultural MCI projects.

As a special offer for RDAM students, MCI offers Chinese language and tai ji quan courses. The language courses at MCI are meant to give the students a basic command of the language which is particularly useful for students who wish to study in China. Tai ji quan is a Chinese martial art practiced for both its defense training and its health benefits. The tai ji quan courses at MCI are specially targeted at musicians who practice for many hours each day to help them treat sore muscles and avoid injuries. In addition to the language and tai ji quan courses, RDAM students also have the opportunity to participate in the annual International Music Summer Camp which is held in China and hosted by Hanban.

MCI also aims to bring Chinese music to the younger generation and runs projects with Danish primary/lower secondary and upper secondary schools. The institute cooperates with Levende Musik i Skolen (Live Music in Schools) and held concerts at 11 primary/lower secondary schools this year. When Tan Tuanhao joins these school visits, he makes a special effort to teach the students about concert etiquette. Good concert etiquette can be applied to other types of concerts as well, he noted.

MCI has developed teaching materials about traditional Chinese music that can be included in the national curriculum for music students or Chinese language students at Danish upper secondary schools.

Finally, MCI has access to technical equipment which allows distance learning. The equipment was for instance used in spring and in fall to teach musicology students at Sydney Conservatory of Music in Sydney.

This school year, MCI received six students and one teacher from CCOM. After MCI’s concert on 30 November 2017, a representative of DCI met with two of them, Qi Jie who plays the pipa and Mi Xuanye who plays the yangqin.

Qi Jie has been teaching pipa performance at Department of Traditional Instruments of CCOM since 2013. Owing to her many hours of teaching each week, Qi has already gained much experience and deep insight into the teaching of traditional Chinese music performance and many of her students have performed very well at examinations, concerts, and competitions. In addition to teaching, Qi is also an active soloist and chamber musician and she has won many awards, including the Gold Award in both “Long Yin Cup” Chinese Folk Instrument Competition and Chu Han Cup Pipa Competition.

Mi Xuanye is a graduate student at the Traditional Instruments Department of CCOM majoring in yangqin. She has received the first-class academic scholarships for graduate students for three consecutive years and won prizes at several music competitions. Mi Xuanye also worked at Center for Chinese Music and Culture of Middle Tennessee State University as a government-sponsored music teacher from September 2016 to July 2017.

Qi Jie has been playing the pipa and Mi Xuanye the yangqin from early childhood. “This is necessary if you want to reach a professional level,” Mi explained. Qi and Mi played the piano for a while as part of their bachelor’s degree studies. Apart from that, Qi never strayed away from the pipa nor did Mi from the yangqin.

When asked about their instruments, Qi and Mi effortlessly explained the structure of the pipa and the yangqin as well as the basic techniques used to play them. Qi’s pipa (also known as the Chinese lute) has four strings, 33 frets, and a pear-shaped wooden body. It is played in a vertical or near-vertical position and its strings are plucked by the fingernails on the right hand. The strings can also be plucked by artificial nails attached to the player’s fingertips. Only the very bottom of the body is hollow which is quite different from the guitar. Mi’s yangqin (also known as the Chinese hammered dulcimer) has 153 strings, 4 bridges, and a trapezoidal wooden body. The strings are struck with a pair of flexible bamboo beaters tipped with rubber (also known as hammers). The rubber sides produce a softer sound while the bamboo sides produce a crisper sound. The ends of the beaters are slightly pointed and can be used to pluck the strings producing a sharp, clear sound. “Because the yangqin has so many strings, it takes around 30 minutes to tune the instrument,” Mi informed.

Qi and Mi both agreed that the students who come to learn a traditional Chinese instrument at MCI are very smart and quick to learn. Students with no musical background start to play by ear and then they can advance to sheet music. RDAM students usually go directly to sheet music, even though traditional Chinese music is often written using Chinese numbered musical notation.

Qi and Mi arrived to Copenhagen three months ago and they will be staying for 10 months in total.

On 30 September 2017, MCI celebrated China Day and its 5th anniversary. What has MCI learned during these five years? “I believe that our first five years was very much about getting to know the system and our partners. […] Another important aspect is how we spend our time and our resources effectively,” said Tan. “Now we’ve figured out what we can do, the next thing is to figure out what we want to do,” Bærentsen elaborated.

During the next five years, MCI will focus more on innovation and creating new music. Furthermore, while MCI’s activities have primarily been focused in Greater Copenhagen due to logistical challenges, MCI has concrete plans to expand its geographic range in the coming year.

Thanks to Marie Nørskov Bærentsen, Tuan Hao Tan, Qi Jie, and Mi Xuanye for participating in this article.

Photos: Music Confucius Institute and Simone Bayer