Canadian violinist Lara St. John and Israeli pianist/composer Rechtman are expected to generate excitement among concert-goers in their recital at the Forbidden City Concert Hall on Saturday.

St. John's recital with Rechtman is the second concert in the series, a collaboration between the Forbidden City Concert Hall and the International Concert Alliance, a non-profit organization headquartered in New York City.

"We want to work together to create a series that is befitting the great capital city of Beijing," said Dan-Wen Wei, president and artistic director of the International Concert Alliance.

"And we want to give the audiences in Beijing the kind of concerts the people living in New York, Paris, London and many other arts capitals would enjoy on a regular basis."

"I have been drawn to Wei's idea of such a series because the concerts help bring to Beijing most popular young classical musicians in the world today," said Qian Cheng, the concert hall's general manager.

Wei, himself an established concert pianist with music degrees from the Julliard School of Music, opened the 2001 season of the Imperial Garden Concert Series on July 22.

The season's next concert is scheduled for September 21 and will feature Russian cellist Nina Kotova, a child prodigy who enrolled in the Moscow Conservatory at the age of 7 and won her first international competition at the age of 15.

The program for October 7 will star Israeli pianist Yaara Tal and her German partner Andreas Groethuysen, one of the foremost piano four-hand teams in the world.

The Empire Brass Quintet, one of the best known brass ensembles in the world, will close the 2001 season with a New Year Concert on December 29.

"I hope the Imperial Garden Concert Series will become one of the favorites among the music lovers in Beijing," Wei said.

(China Daily 08/24/2001)