top of page

Featured Workshops

Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society

A free workshop on the history and future of Chinese music is shared every year during Asian Heritage Month by volunteers from the Vancouver Instrumental Music Society and members of the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble.

discover music _web.jpg

Chinatown Storytelling Centre
June 15, 2024
11 am - 1pm

The Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble and 2024 Juno-nominated singer Ginalina invites you on a cross-cultural adventure of songs and stories with the swirling sounds of ancient Chinese instruments, erhu, suona, and guzheng.

With a playful storyteller as your tour guide, children will be invited to make a new friend, take a pretend mountain train ride, and dance to the world-famous Jasmine Flower song!

 

Sing-alongs will be shared, special instruments will be plucked, and new languages will be spoken.

 

Discover Chinese Instruments by embarking on this cross-cultural journey with Ginalina and friends to celebrate the beauty of Canada’s diversity. Through music, stories and language, children will be entertained and gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of different cultures.

​

Discover Chinese Instruments

Discover Chinese Instruments

Getting to know Chinese Folk Musical Instruments: Embarking on this cross-cultural journey with Ginalina and friends to celebrate the beauty of Canada’s diversity. This workshop is free for kids under 17 and will be presented at the Chinatown Storytelling Center. June 15, 11-1pm. Sign up for a spot.

Read More
Chinese Instrumental Music Symposium

Tradition in the Future 《傳統與未來》2020

Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society presents its first Online Symposium - Balancing the preservation and transference of traditional Chinese music with innovation in the 21st Century.

Read More
Write Your Own Chinese Opera 101 A Public Workshop with Composer Alan Lau and Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble Director Jirong Huang Saturday, April 22, 2017, 2:00 pm Chinese Cultural Centre Museum (555 Columbia St., Vancouver) Free admission. All welcome. No registration required. Limited Seating. First-come, first-served. Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society presents Write Your Own Chinese Opera 101, an interactive public workshop on Chinese opera, with Composer Alan Lau and Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble Director Jirong Huang. Participants will experience the life of an ancient Chinese literati through interactive activities based on language tones, calligraphy, poetry and lyric writing, and explore the multi-faceted relationship between music and other Chinese art forms. The workshop will be held on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum. The workshop will survey the development of the Chinese operatic tradition, from Yuan dynasty opera of the 13th century, to kunqu opera during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the birth of Beijing Opera in the late 1700s. Participants will be able to gain hands-on experience with calligraphy, Chinese language tones, and even designing their very own simple poetry and opera skits in an informal setting. The Write Your Own Chinese Opera 101 workshop is presented as part of the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble’s upcoming concert Future in Past. The concert program includes an original piece by Composer Alan Lau, which he believes to be the first chamber opera written in Vancouver by a Chinese-Canadian. Future in Past will be held on Sunday, May 7, 2017 at the Norman Rothstein Theatre. More information can be found on the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble’s website: vancouverchinesemusic.ca Composer, painter, independent scholar Alan Lau collaborated with Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble on several projects including Autumn Flight (2014) and Sino-Electric Explorations (2015). His artistic involvements include theme and background music for the Interwoven Stories exhibition (2015), presenter/facilitator for the Greeting Fluency Initiative (2010), and curatorial work for a series of musical instrument exhibition/installation projects with the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and the UBC Asian Library (2012-15). The UBC Music Composition and Visual Arts graduate is currently on the editorial board of the journal, Asian Musicology. He is the co-author/assistant editor of international research projects, including Qupai in Chinese Music (Routledge, 2016) and The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Music. Jirong Huang is the founder and artistic director of the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble, the first professional Chinese group formed in Canada. The Shanghai Conservatory of Music graduate has been recognized in China for his performance on traditional instruments and has won many awards around the world. He plays erhu (Chinese violin) and other bowstring instruments as well as composes and arranges music. For more information please contact: Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society / cenk@dkam.ca / 604 683 8240

Write Your Own Chinese Opera 101

A Public Workshop on How to write your own Chinese opera 101 -with Composer Alan Lau and Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble Director Jirong Huang

Read More
New Music for Chinese Instrumental Music

New Music for Chinese Instruments

A Public Reading Session performed by the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble featuring music written by four Canadian composers

Read More
Creative process Chinese Instrumental Music

Open Rehearsal

Featuring the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble and the Barvinok Choir

Read More
Compositions on Chinese Instruments

Chinese Musical Instruments Workshop

Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble presents an Chinese instrumental workshop for composers

Read More
Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble Workshop poster

Kaleidoscope

A Continuum of Chinese Instrumental Music

Read More
Chinese music and opera

Musical Dimensions

Chinese Opera

Read More
A musical atlas of Chinese instrumental music

Atlas of Asia

A musical atlas of Asia, China and beyond.

Read More
A history of Chinese Instrumental Music

5000 Springs

Chinese Music Through the Ages

Read More
lucky cat.gif

To volunteer and get involved, reach out to us.

Our activities take place on the unceded and traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples – sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council, the Province of BC through the Community Gaming Grant and the City of Vancouver. 

Vancouver, BC V6B 1H4

  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • Spotify
  • Facebook
bottom of page