JERSEY CITY, NJ / ACCESS Newswire / August 24, 2026 / Presented by the Chinese Musicians Association of North America (CMA-NA), Sound of Harvest 2026 will take place on September 12 at the Rutgers University Nicholas Music Center and on September 13 at the Montclair State University Memorial Auditorium.

For three consecutive years, this autumn musical celebration has brought together musicians across different cultures, musical traditions, and generations onto a single stage.

New Friends and Returning Artists

This year, several artists will be joining Sound of Harvest for the first time:

Kaoru Watanabe: Composer and cross-cultural musician, collaborator on the Grammy Award-winning album Sing Me Home, and longtime collaborator with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silkroad Ensemble. His cross-cultural artistic project Bloodlines Interwoven received support from the Mellon Foundation. This year, he joins Sound of Harvest with the taiko drum and shinobue.

Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng: Ghanaian master drummer, composer, dancer, and educator who has taught at Brown University since 1988. He has long been dedicated to building bridges and connections across cultures through rhythm and music.

Jason Priset: Lute player and faculty member at Montclair State University. The classical lute will bring a rare and distinct tone to this year’s stage.

At the same time, core members of Sound of Harvest will return to the stage:

SHU Zhan: First Assistant Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra and Visiting Professor at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Cathy Yang: Erhu virtuoso, founding member of the 6-Wire Ensemble, and Artist-in-Residence at the University of Delaware.

XIA Jing: Guzheng virtuoso, advocate for cross-cultural arts, music scholar, and Visiting Professor at the Bard-US China Music Institute.

YANG JIN: Golden Bell Award-winning pipa virtuoso, Silkroad Ensemble collaborator, and Visiting Professor at the Bard-US China Music Institute.

Longtime friends will also return to this familiar stage:

BIN Hu: Classical guitarist and co-founder of Duo Chinoiserie.

Lina Zha: Vocalist specializing in Chinese traditional, classical, and jazz music.

Vince di Mura: Jazz pianist, composer, and arranger who has taught at Princeton University since 1987. Professor Vince returns to create brand-new arrangements for this fusion ensemble.

This year, it also welcomes new, young faces:

Yifei Xu: Pianist, Executive Director of BlackBox Ensemble, and Operations Manager for the New Jersey Festival Orchestra.

Matthew Armbruster: Cellist and co-founder of Tetractys New Music, dedicated to contemporary music composition and performance, making his debut at Sound of Harvest.

Even more special is the growing presence of the younger generation on stage:

Xitong Yao: Double bassist and Rutgers Honors College student studying philosophy and art history.

Tiffany Qianxun Zhao: 12th-grade composer and flutist who will perform her original chamber piece inspired by classical Chinese poetry alongside the ensemble.

Joyce Yan: 14 years old multi-instrumentalist performing in this year’s ensemble.

For the younger generation, preserving traditional Chinese music isn’t just about saving the past-it is about letting it continue to grow within new cultural environments, new sounds, and fresh imaginations.

First Half: From Dunhuang to the Silk Road

This year’s main concert opens in Dunhuang.

Earlier this year at Harvard, Professor Wang Lu-a tenured composer at Brown University-drew inspiration from ancient pipa manuscripts preserved in the Dunhuang Mogao Caves, leading musicians in a collective improvisation.

This project specially featured a replica of a Tang Dynasty five-stringed mother-of-pearl pipa, custom-crafted by CAMLab (Harvard University’s Chinese Art Media Lab).

An ancient musical score from a thousand years ago, an instrument recreated from Tang Dynasty designs, and contemporary musicians come together to form a musical encounter across time.

Following Dunhuang, the first half continues to unfold a conversation between traditional Chinese music and modern composition:

Shu Zhan will perform selections from Tan Dun’s Violin Concerto (Hero) alongside Fisherman’s Harvest Song, showcasing traditional Chinese musical voices through a contemporary lens.

Next, the younger generation takes the lead. Tiffany Qianxun Zhao will present her original chamber work, Blossom Street, based on classical Chinese poetry. Classical poetry, modern creation, and youth voices intersect on one stage-representing how the next generation growing up abroad reinterprets and expresses Chinese culture in their own way.

The first half concludes with Ma Jiuyue’s Huxuan Dance (Hu Xuan Wu).

The Hu Whirl dance itself stands as a historical symbol of Silk Road cultural exchange. Long ago, music, dance, instruments, and people traveled along the Silk Road, giving birth to new artistic forms through every encounter.

Second Half: From Cross-Cultural Traditions to the Latin World

The second half opens with Kaoru Watanabe. As a composer and traditional artist, he brings the sounds of Japanese tradition through taiko and shinobue, opening another cultural window for the concert.

Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng, a Ghanaian musician, will invite the audience into the world of African rhythms-not just to listen, but to clap, move, and dance along. A lively, interactive musical experience that brings everyone into the rhythm.

Jason Priset, a guitarist and lutenist specializing in historical instruments, will introduce several lutes from different periods. His presentation offers a glimpse into the rich history and evolving sounds of these fascinating instruments.

Vince di Mura, who is of Italian heritage, will join singers and musicians from diverse musical backgrounds in a new arrangement of Cinema Paradiso, where Italian melodies meet the sounds of Chinese and Western instruments in an exciting cultural fusion.

The concert concludes with composer and Chinese Yang Qin master Xiong Junjie’s Passion Under the Moon. This piece blends the timbre of traditional Chinese instruments with Latin rhythms, finding a fresh soundscape between traditional Chinese imagery and Latin passion.

This year’s stage will feature pipa, guzheng, erhu, piano, strings, lute, jazz, vocals, and traditional instruments from Japan and Ghana. These musical elements are not merely lined up next to each other; they listen to, respond to, clash with, and create alongside one another through rehearsals and performances.

This is the true spirit of Sound of Harvest as it enters its third year.

From Dunhuang to the Silk Road, from cross-cultural traditions to Latin classics, and from ancient Chinese instruments to new works by young composers-this year’s Sound of Harvest continues to explore how music transcends time, geography, and culture to become a universal language shared by all.

Pre-show: Flying Strings Youth Ensemble

Directed by Jin Yang, the Flying Strings Youth Ensemble will present a diverse fusion performance, showcasing traditional Chinese and Arabic-style pieces. The pre-show will also feature a crowd-favorite handpan performance by students of Dr. Shiqi Zhong.

Event Details

September 12, 2026

Pre-show · 6:00 PM

Main Concert · 7:00 PM

Rutgers University, Nicholas Music Center

September 13, 2026

Pre-show · 2:00 PM

Main Concert · 3:00 PM

Montclair State University, Memorial Auditorium

Presented by:

Chinese Musicians Association of North America (CMA-NA)

CMA-NA Gracious Donors:

Gang Hou

Weiguo Zhang

Kai Yue Foundation

Lina Zha

China National Tourist Office

Fidelity Charitable

LC Quality Dental

Xiaoxing Zhao

North Bergen Title

Garden Home Realty

Journey Entertainment

Xusheng Yan

Shi Investments

Chenfen Wu

Princeton Area Community Foundation

Youjun Liu ChFC

DBA Sushi Palace

Tingzhou Wu

Schwab Charitable

Jenny Yonghong Jia

CHIU-TZE LIN

Special thanks to the Livingston Chinese Association, Millburn Short Hills Chinese Association, Summit Chinese Association and other local communities for their continued support and promotion of CMA-NA’s musical and cultural projects.

About The Chinese Musicians Association of North America

The Chinese Musicians Association of North America (CMA-NA) is a community of professional musicians based in the United States and Canada, with members from diverse regions of China. Guided by the belief that music is a universal language, CMA-NA promotes cross-cultural collaboration and the exchange of musical traditions, ideas and innovation across geographic boundaries.

Media Contact

Contact Person: Kathleen Kong
Email: hello@chinesemusiciansna.org

SOURCE: The Chinese Musicians Association of North America

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