musical sights in the city and have a cultural exchange with the Shanghai orchestra members. The Shanghai orchestra members bring with them their dedication, discipline and well-trained talent, while the American students will share their creativity and passion. Playing songs by American composers such as George Gershwin is a great thing for the Shanghai students as well, she adds, as it teaches them musical stylings that they may not have learned before.

"America is a crossroads," Cheng says, "we like to mix things up and see what comes out of it."

And in the Internet era, dragging kids away from the computer and into a group, cultural activity is good for their development. The compositions that MFC creates are musically exciting, with an emphasis on exploration.

"Some things work and some things don't work," Cheng says. "Traditional music is always the same. It doesn't have the same challenge."

Over the past 25 years, MFC has performed 111 new works by 67 composers. Half of those were commissioned pieces by well-known composers, and the other half were from unknown, emerging composers who were winners in MFC's annual International Composition Competition. The competition, which has been held since 1992, encourages emerging Chinese composers to write pieces for traditional instruments. Since the prize money for the winners is relatively small, the contest tends to attract young composers at the college, and even high school, level in China. These emerging artists then get a chance to have their composition performed by MFC in their annual performance.

"Every year the contestants get younger and more talented," Cheng says. "As China grows richer, there is more opportunity for composers to get funding, so ours is a little award aimed at the young."

Music From China's work has earned them numerous awards and accolades. It was the first Chinese ensemble to receive an Adventurous Programming award from Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for its creative programs. The group has collaborated with famous groups such as Four Nations Ensemble, Ethos Percussion Group and Present Music and with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Fred Sherry, Alan Kay and Rao Lan.

As a small ensemble, Music From China is on a constant search for funding to enable it to carry out its educational programs and to commission new works of blended East/West compositions. The group has seven core musicians as members, and then hires Western Instrumental performers as needed. In addition to local funders such as the New York Foundation for the Arts and New York State Music Fund, the group is also supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Chamber Music America and other notable organizations. CDs of the group's music and performance schedule are available at www.musicfromchina.org.

(Reporting from New York)

Traditional Chinese Instruments

Guzheng

The guzheng is built with a special wooden sound body with strings arched across movable bridges along the length of the instrument for the purpose of tuning. The guzheng nowadays has 12 or 13 strings. The pitch of a given string is determined by the position of the bridge.

Dizi

The dizi is a flute known for its bamboo body, edged tone and side-holes. The modern flute has an octave range of about two and a half. It can have a membrane over an extra hole to give the characteristic rattle effect. The dizi is played by blowing across the mouthpiece and produces different notes by stopping the six holes found in the rod.