US orchestra returns for China tour

A cellist from the Philadelphia Orchestra shakes hands with a blind student at the Dongcheng District Special Education School in Beijing in 2013. Photos provided to China Daily

Chinese saxophonist and US jazz maestro tour China

A night at the Sydney Opera

Platt, now 78, recently recalled this story in a conversation with China Daily ahead of the orchestra's 2014 China tour, which kicks off on May 21 and runs through to June 5.

It is just one of the backstage stories Platt recounts in his autobiography, China Boys.

"I'm getting older. I really appreciate every opportunity to return to China," says Platt, who became one of the three members of the US Liaison Office in Beijing in April 1973, and worked on many exchange events to pave the way for the two countries to establish a formal diplomatic relationship in 1979, including the Philadelphia Orchestra's 1973 tour.

"In the early days of our relationship, nothing was simple. Everything was complicated. It took months to solve one small thing that we had different points of view on, and I had to deal with a whole bunch of crises," he says.

Western classical music was controversial in China at the time. Jiang Qing, wife of Chairman Mao Zedong, was in charge of the country's arts and culture. She decided on the program that the orchestra could play.

"Every piece of music we discussed until the last minute. She really liked Beethoven's Sixth Symphony while Ormandy really hated to play it. Thank God, I finally persuaded Ormandy to play this piece," he says.

Platt was later reassigned to work in places other than China but continued to act as a consultant to the orchestra.

In May 2010, the Philadelphia Orchestra performed at the Shanghai Expo. Allison Vulgamore, who had just become the orchestra's president and CEO, met Platt backstage.

She knew the orchestra had returned to China in 1993, 1996, 2001 and 2008, but she wanted to do more than just perform in concert halls. She wanted to do residency work and to engage Chinese music lovers both in concert halls and through community engagement.

"Over the years, China has changed dramatically and the relationship between the two countries accordingly changed. This is a turning point and we are proud to play an important role in the relationship," Platt says.

"China has been paying attention to enhance soft power. It has been largely urbanized and almost every city has a new beautiful concert hall. Therefore, we can communicate on how to train orchestras, how to get the halls to host more concerts. There are many more things we can do today."