Shelter Island Friends of Music concert opens season with a cultural celebration of East and West

The Shelter Island Friends of Music will open its nine-concert 2025 season on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 3 p.m. with a Chinese New Year concert at the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church.

Internationally acclaimed bass Hao Jiang Tian and six iSING! Festival singers will perform a repertoire of Western arias and songs, Chinese folksongs and art songs, including an ancient Tang poem, a Jewish folksong, and more. 

A 20-year veteran of the Metropolitan Opera, Tian has sung over 1,400 performances of 50 operatic roles worldwide. Since 2011 he has been the artistic director of iSING! Festival, founded by the Asian Performing Arts Council (APAC), a U.S. nonprofit fostering cultural exchange between U.S. and Asia.

So far, nearly 400 iSING! artists from over 30 countries have performed in more than 50 major concerts, most recently in January with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In an intensive program in China, all singers learn Mandarin as a lyrical language and are coached in Western operatic repertoire and performance by experts from leading conservatories and opera houses throughout the world. Many have gone on to careers in major opera houses.

During COVID, when training and performances were canceled, Tian sponsored an international iSING! composition competition to set to music 1,300-year-old poems of the Tang dynasty, considered the golden age of Chinese poetry and art. In its 2023 U.S. premiere, iSING! Festival and the Philadelphia Orchestra performed 14 of the winning pieces — all sung in Mandarin — at the Kimmel Center and Lincoln Center.

And just last month, a newly co-commissioned Tang poem by the Grammy-winning composer Mason Bates, sung by iSING!, premiered in Philadelphia. The Shelter Island audience will be treated to one of these “Echoes of Ancient Tang Poems.” 

A reception with the artists will follow the concert, featuring Chinese dumplings made by Martha Liao, iSING! general director, APAC’s founder, former geneticist, and Tian’s wife. 

Admission is free; donations are appreciated. For more information, please visit shelterislandfriendsofmusic.org.