China Tour 2025

Very excited to share that David and I are funded by the Canada Council to tour in China this May/June. This has been a longtime dream and deeply personal project for me to pay tribute to my immigrant parents and return to visit their hometowns in Hunan and Harbin.

Thank you to the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing for inviting us.

We will be featuring Alice Ping Yee Ho’s “Four Impressions of China”, Fuhong Shi’s “The Reed”, and premiering a new commission by Wendy Lee.
5/26 Chinese University of Hong Kong
6/6 Central Conservatory of Beijing

Houston friends, we’ll also be performing this program a few times before hitting the road!
4/13 House Concert (private)
4/16 @12PM Houston Public Library
4/19 @7PM Memorial Classical Series

Looking forward to sharing this music with you all

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

#BringingTheArtsToLife
@canada.council @thechineseuniversityofhongkong @davidietz @alice_hopingyee @houstonpubliclibrary

“As a member of the Chinese diaspora, I commissioned “Four Impressions of China” in 2023 by fellow first-generation immigrant musician Alice Ping Yee Ho to further explore, understand, and rediscover my roots while paying homage to my parent’s personal stories of struggle and resilience as immigrants. “

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“Four Impressions of China” is a cello-piano tour by pianist Tong Wang and cellist David Dietz across China. The recital program features the international premiere of a Canada Council commissioned work by the Canadian-Chinese composer Alice Ping Yee Ho, “Four Impressions of China”, Turkish composer Fazil Say’s “Four Cities”, along with Chinese composer Fuhong Shi’s “Reed” and a new commission by the Hong Kongese composer Wendy Lee. This project will be presented in collaboration with the Central Conservatory of Music Beijing, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong

This program explores the themes of cultural roots for Chinese immigrants and diaspora - more specifically, both the internal and external challenges of finding, imagining, and idealizing our cultural roots through nostalgia, collective memory, and geographic means. Expressing that nostalgia through a dialogue of traditional and contemporary Chinese-Canadian music and capturing the longing for rootedness, homecoming, and belonging is the core of this program. This tour program aims at better understanding the roots of traditional music from different regions of China in order to advocate for their role and significance in the context of Canadian-Chinese contemporary music. 

Tong Wang

Tong Wang is a Canadian artist leading innovative initiatives across areas of performance, research, and community engagement. Her projects explore the role of art in relation to identity, culture, and current social-political issues. As a soloist and chamber musician, Tong has performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Red Deer Symphony Orchestra, and ensembles across North America and Europe. As a multidisciplinary artist, she has written the libretto of a new opera, “Labyrinth of Tears”, funded by the Canada Council, FRQSC, and SSHRC, participated in the Napoule Arts Foundation Residency in France, and published an award-winning photo-essay in the literary magazine Carte Blanche. Her other projects include the creative performances “Song of Praise”, “Ghiblilane”, “Once Upon a Pumpkin”, and research on the aesthetic of “cuteness” in popular and classical music. Tong recently toured a recital on multiculturalism, “我们Us” in Lunenburg, Montreal, Basel, and presented the interactive concerts “We’re Not Really Strangers” and “My Neighbours Totoro and Claude!” at the Verbier Festival. In 2022, Tong launched the Windwood Music Festival in Airdrie, Alberta to engage with and support rural farming communities through classical chamber music. In 2023, Tong will be touring with Duo Perdendosi across eastern US & Canada, as well as with Duo Incarnadine in Turkey and China to premiere a new commission by Alice Ho, Four Impressions of China. Using diverse mediums, Tong aims to share the power of art to reach across time, languages, borders, and cultures to connect people and kindle a shared understanding.

https://tong-wang.com
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