‘Music is an international cultural gateway, a language that embraces both the opportunities of technological delivery and the cross-border talents of musicians,’ said Professor Kim Walker, Dean and Principal of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music speaking last week in Beijing at a forum celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Central Conservatory of Music.
‘Twenty years ago, I came to this magnificent Conservatory and I was deeply moved to hear, for the first time, the music of China – by which I mean both the traditional music of this great culture and the music of the European classical tradition, played beautifully by Chinese musicians,’ she said in her speech. Now, however, she reflected the music of China, Europe, Siberia, Australia, Asia and the USA is readily accessible in a way that could scarcely have been imagined then.