Chinese folk music part of New Zealand church reopening event
On Aug 1, a musical group from the China Cultural Center in Wellington joined a celebration to mark the reopening of the historical landmark of St Paul's Cathedral.
Chinese musicians performed Western classical pieces like Ave Maria (Schubert) and Air on the G String (Bach) with the bamboo flute. An erhu player presented a duet of the Chinese piece Elixir of Love with the mellifluous bamboo flute.
One of New Zealand's greatest heritage sites, Old St Paul's was built by the Anglican Church between 1864 and 1866 on what was originally the site of Pipitea Pa, a Maori settlement on Wellington's waterfront.
As one of the best examples of Gothic Revival architecture in the world, the 154-year-old cathedral had served the Anglican community up to the 1960s and was renovated last May.