Gansu Song and Dance Theatre National Orchestra

The Gansu Song and Dance Theatre National Orchestra is the flagship traditional ensemble of Gansu Province in northwestern China — a region whose cultural geography runs through the painted murals of Dunhuang, the great oasis cities of the Hexi Corridor, and the bronze-chime tombs of the Silk Road. The parent theatre, founded in 1961, is internationally celebrated for the dance drama Rain of Flowers Along the Silk Road, which has toured to more than forty countries and become one of the defining works of modern Chinese stagecraft.

The orchestra itself draws on the music that grew up along the trade routes between Chang'an and Central Asia: the suona traditions of the Yellow River loess, the dance rhythms of Turpan, the herdsmen's songs of Inner Mongolia, and the polyphony preserved in the Mogao Caves. In its programming, the orchestra moves between traditional repertoire and newly-commissioned works rooted in regional folklore — including Zhao Jiping's Flying Apsaras from Dunhuang and the suite-form National Symphony Dunhuang.

For Mid-Autumn Festival 2023, the orchestra brought this music to Sydney for Strolling Through Gansu — A National Symphony, performing at Sydney Town Hall under conductor Zhang Zhao and led by concertmaster Zhang Tao. The concert was the first time a Chinese performing-arts company toured Sydney post-pandemic, and the programme closed on the traditional Mid-Autumn melody Blooming Flowers and Round Moon — the song that gives the festival its name.