Melodies of Mah Jongg

The Cleveland Chinese Music Ensemble will present an intimate evening of graceful and exotic music inspired by the fanciful images on mah jongg tiles—the four seasons, winds, flowers and dragons—played on traditional Chinese instruments. Selected readings (in Chinese and English) of poems from China’s classical antiquity will be interspersed between the musical pieces.

Internationally renowned Cleveland-based klezmer violinist Steven Greenman will join the ensemble for a cross-cultural performance of a Jewish favorite, recreating the kind of musical interaction that could have taken place between Jewish and Chinese musicians in the Lower Manhattan of the early 20th century.