Our September Guest @The Fireside Zi Lan Liao

 

I am so blessed to have surrounded myself with likeminded people who share my values and believes and it’s when we come together that we make real change and when we are given that forum real change happens.
Our Fireside bloggers will leave a legacy for future generations to enjoy

So today I am pleased to inform you that with great pleasure that I introduce my colleague  Zi Lan Liao  who will be our September guest at the Fireside. 

 Zi Lan is deeply committed to making the music of her native country known in the West and has a rare talent for sharing her insight into its cultural setting and spirit. Despite her busy performance schedule Zi Lan still finds time to assist the Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra and Dance Group in Liverpool, both as musician and choreographer and, as visiting teacher, Chethams Music School and King’s College, besides giving workshops ‘nationwide’.

 

 

Last Tuesday, was the date when my father passed away three years ago. I went to his grave with my oldest son, my mother and sister to lay some flowers. I was wondering would he approved of me if he is still alive, with the works I have been carried out after him.

 

He started the Pagoda Chinese Ensemble in 1982, through his hard work of promoting Chinese culture, by 1983, he established the first and largest Chinese youth orchestra in Europe. The orchestra flourished and he led the young people performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1988, the orchestra took part at the National Youth Music Festival and School Prom. Towards the end of his life, he always said his proudest moment was leading members of the youth orchestra performed with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Shanghai World Expo 2010.

 

Mr KH  Li  Founder 

There had been times, while he was teaching the young people in Liverpool,  he wondered if he had made the right decision of leaving China? His friends, colleagues and students in Guangzhou became the Culture Ministers of the Province; CEO of the orchestra where he was the principle flutist and composer; artistic director of the Guangdong Opera etc… The conclusion for him always was: “Liverpool gave me the time and space for me to concentrate on my musical instrument development. If I was still in China, I maybe side tracked to work on the administration, and not doing the practical side which I loved the most!”

 

Before he passed away, he told me over and over again: “it is good you are willing to continue what I have left. I had lay a good foundation for you and hopefully it will last you for some years. But don't forced yourself to continue because the atmosphere is very different from when I started. With the financial uproar, immigration policy changing, to promote a foreign culture in a foreign country is difficult and there always many obstacles around.”

 

Three years on, I am still battling to keep the Pagoda centre going, with the great supports from all the volunteers. However, the youth orchestra continue to thrive. They'd performed at the 3^rd Wales International Harp Festival in 2014; new collaborative works with reggae, hiphop; and the most excited performance was the orchestra played for the Queen in June 2016.

 

When Karen asked me to write a blog remit about my journey and tips. The first thing came to my head was my father, how he laid my path from the age of three, and how he had influenced my way of conducting myself through my life. His advices to me when I was young still guide me through my life: “If you play less now, you will play in further and better places. The more you put in, the better it will flourish.”

 

How truth it is as I am reflecting back of my life, I had travelled to lots of places around the world through my music: The USA, Australia, Europe and met many interesting people who inspired me. Even my husband, I met him in Finland while we performed for the WOMAD Festival in 1993.



Pagoda Arts
c/o Henry Street
Liverpool
L1 5BU
Email: info@pagodaarts.org.uk
Telephone: 0776 933 0440
Orchestra information
E-mail: zilan@pagodaarts.org.uk
Tai Chi information
E-mail: m.x.li@pagodaarts.org.uk
School and Performance opportunity:
E-mail: zilan@pagodaarts.org.uk
Workshops in Pagoda Chinese Community Centre:
E-mail: info@pagodaarts.org.uk
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