"(The Map) revealed itself as a work of profound beauty and spirit that taps into a kind of primal sound language that is nothing less than thrilling to experience." — Boston Herald

What can you do with a sheet of paper? Not a lot? But put in the hands of award-winning composer Tan Dun, even the most disparate elements of our mundane lives can be transformed into inspiring, creative treasures.

As a child, Tan loved to create his very own musical instruments out of paper shreds, cardboard boxes, paper fans, umbrellas and bags... Incorporating this special collection of home-made instruments into the latest work of his “Organic Music” series Paper Concerto, a work that opened the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles last October, Tan extends his battery of paper percussion with three gigantic paper sails hung from the ceiling to create the most wondrous array of sounds from the twitter of birds in the forest to the thunderous roar of a storm.

In The Map, a 2003 work premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony, Tan recreates for his audience a journey to his childhood home among the villages of the ethnic minorities in rural Hunan province. Entranced by the Tujia, Miao and Dong people's music-making, Tan instills the essence of their music into Western orchestral music to add a fresh dimension to Chinese and Western music. By combining video footage of the folk musicians with live music, Tan makes possible a musical dialogue through not only time and space, but also across cultures. Come and hear for yourself the passionate feige (flying love song) of a young Miao girl echoed by the amorous whisper of the cello!