Universal impulse

Calling the Bard project a "trailblazing step" for promoting Chinese music worldwide, CCOM president Yu Feng says it is creating a new channel for cultural exchange between the two countries.

"Traditional Chinese culture is the basis of Chinese music and Chinese instruments," Yu says.

For the past 400 years, there has been much development regarding the teaching of Western instruments and Western music in China, Yu notes.

"Music is not only an international art, but an international impulse," Bard College President Leon Botstein said in his address to the education conference.

"I hope others will follow our lead and create programs here. I'm very encouraged the Central Conservatory has reached out to us and formed a wonderful partnership. I think institutions, in the arts especially, are able to do this kind of thing," Martin adds.

Xavier Bouvier, a professor at the Geneva University of Music, says: "Many Westerners don't know about China. Sometimes there are misrepresentations and the only thing people like me can do is to act as a bridge and to try to explain to Westerners how it is. So this is what we are trying to do using music."