(See photos from event)

The San Diego Symphony, accompanied by the San Diego Children's Choir and musicians playing ancient Chinese bells, will perform on the steps of the San Diego Museum of Art on Friday, June 11, 1999 at 6:30 PM. Admission is free to the public. This special performance will kick off the opening of the museum's summer exhibition, "Ringing Thunder: Tomb Treasures from Ancient China", which will open to the public on Saturday, June 12, 1999.

"This concert is a wonderful opportunity to join past and present, east and west", said Dr. Caron Smith, San Diego Museum of Art curator of Asian art and acting director. "Sounds that were heard in the 5th century B. C. China can be heard 2,400 years later in Balboa Park. It is marvelous."

"San Diego is getting a rare chance to hear the sounds of the past intermingled with modern instruments," said Wes Brustad, the museum's deputy director of programming and former executive director of the San Diego Symphony. "This is a unique opportunity for the public to experience the music of China - old and new."

San Diego Symphony artistic director Jung-Ho Pak will conduct the Symphony as the musicians and choir perform an epic, large-scale orchestral and choral work, which was commissioned specifically for the historic international event of the official reunification of Hong Kong with China in 1997. This piece, Symphony 1997: Heaven Earth Mankind, was written by the renowned Chinese composer Tan Dun. The performance will also feature San Diego's own virtuoso cellist, Felix Fan. The Children's Choir will be directed by Polly Campbell.

"This performance, is without a doubt, going to be one of the biggest spectacles the San Diego community has ever seen," said Jung-Ho Pak. "Performing a work of this magnitude is a once in a lifetime opportunity. In addition to its historical significance, this event represents a wonderfully unique collaboration between many of San Diego's finest arts organizations and artists."

The bells - exact replicas of the ones that were found in a 2,400 year old Chinese tomb - are remarkable for their enormous size and exquisite tonal quality. The original bells are in the collection of the Hubei Provincial Museum in China. The tomb where they were found also yielded treasures in jade, gold, lacquer, and bronze which make up the bulk of the artifacts on display in the Ringing Thunder exhibition.

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