I had the pleasure of attending a Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra Concert last night. It was called "The Soaring Dragon: Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China." I was curious about how the concert would be organized. Would politics or propaganda play any role in the concert? It didn't feel that way at all. It appeared to simply be musicians from Hong Kong and Mainland China coming together to present an energizing concert celebrating chinese music and the art of drumming.

The concert opened in a spectacular fashion. Young students from local primary schools performed a mass drum piece. There were about 60 drummers on stage. I was impressed with the amount of communication going on in order to keep the large group together. I was also impressed with the energy given off by the students (approximately 7-17 years old) as they played complex rhythms and single stroke rolls. BAM! It reminded me of the potential of young people and the vast amounts of knowledge and skills their young brains can process. Despite all of the bad news we tend to hear about "young people these days," the performers really brought some good back into this world through their music.