The concert drew some 300 audience members. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

As a first-time co-organizer of the 20-year-old orchestral concert, Guo Zongguang, director of the China Cultural Center in New Zealand, expressed his enthusiasm for the potential of more of these events to build people-to-people connections between China and New Zealand.

Jeff McNeill, president of the Manawatu Youth Orchestra, said it was thanks to the support of the China Cultural Center that so many of the young musicians were able to attend the weekend festival and play alongside their counterparts from other orchestras. "A number of our players have a Chinese cultural background and it is great to use the festival to explore the Chinese orchestral repertoire.”