Orchestrating a boom_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Orchestrating a boom

All of this is made possible with money - lots of money, to the tune of tens of millions of yuan each year. And that's not counting the housing subsidy in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the whole country.

As Zhang, the Shanghai conductor, says, "You cannot have a good symphony orchestra without money, though it does not necessarily mean money can make a good orchestra."

Those vying for a top position in the country are all sufficiently funded. For the rest, it's more practical to aim for the grassroots market. Classical music is by nature upscale, but it takes education to cultivate a core audience.

In the southern city of Shenzhen, the municipal government spends 40,000 yuan ($5,858) each week on a free weekend concert, which has become something of a local tradition.

A charity in Beijing, Wings of Music, has a different approach. It uses music education not to cultivate good taste but to boost self-confidence in a demographic that's falling through the cracks of our society. Funded by the China Symphony Development Foundation, it collects musical instruments and donates them to a school in the Beijing outskirts where poorly educated and financially strapped migrant workers send their kids. These children have never seen a violin or a cello and now they are experiencing the joy that only music can bring.

It is similar to the story in the movie Music of the Heart, starring Meryl Streep, only more poignant. When Guo Shan, president of the foundation, talks about using music to care for these children, she can't contain her tears.