Music

Oriental wisdom distilled into a trailblazing Dunhuang epic dedicated to humanity

Tan Dun, the Grammy and Academy Award-winning composer-conductor, boldly presents ancient narratives of Buddha’s teachings in a sweeping epic to celebrate universal values such as equality and sacrifice. Sung in Chinese and Sanskrit, Buddha Passion opens up unprecedented vistas for art and humanity, masterfully melding different cultures into an all-embracing unity.

Buddha Passion consists of six acts – Bodhi Tree, Nine-coloured Deer, Thousand-hand Guanyin, Zen Garden, Heart Sutra, and Nirvana – featuring a star-studded cast of top soloists who portray various characters from Buddhist legends. For this project, Tan Dun visited Dunhuang dozens of times over two years, studying murals in Mogao Caves and reconstructing musical instruments, such as the fantan pipa and xiqin depicted there. In this Asia premiere, he will lead a 200-strong cast from the International Choir Academy Lübeck and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus in his extraordinary quest to revive long-lost sounds from the Tang dynasty.