The Ma Lanhua Children's Choir sang in Greek at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Hebei Daily reporter Huo Yanen photographed
On the evening of February 4, at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Ma Lanhua Choir sang an Olympic song "Ode to the Olympics" in Greek.
The choir is composed of 44 children from Fuping County, Hebei Province, the oldest of whom is 11 years old and the youngest is 5 years old, and the choir has only been established for more than 3 months.
How was this elementary school choir formed? What's the story behind the 140-second show? The children in the mountains let the world sound, what dreams do they have in the future?
● Fuping children's musical dreams, a 79-year-old man who insisted on 18 years
Although the Ma LanHua Choir has only been established for more than 3 months, in fact, this group of children is no stranger to music. Among them is a group of children from Maran Elementary School, and their music story begins in 2004. That year, an old man from Beijing came to the village.
Deng Xiaolan (right) teaches children to play musical instruments at Malan Elementary School. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of Baoding Municipal Party Committee
She is Deng Xiaolan, the daughter of Deng Tuo, the former editor-in-chief and president of Jin-Cha-Ji Daily. She was born in Malan Village, Fuping, Baoding, where she lived for three years and has always regarded Malan Village as her second home.
In the early morning of 2003, Deng Xiaolan returned to Malan with the old newspaper people to visit the graves of the revolutionary martyrs. On the Rouge River, they met a group of primary school students in the village, and when Deng Xiaolan proposed that everyone come together for a small chorus, they found that most of the children could not sing, which made Deng Xiaolan feel unspeakably uncomfortable. Since then, Deng Xiaolan has traveled between Beijing and Malan Village dozens of times a year, determined to help the children here make up for the music lesson.
Deng Xiaolan paid out of his own pension to repair the school building, replace the desks and chairs, and purchase musical instruments. He began the initiation of music and art education for the children in the mountain village, and formed the "Malan Small Band" and opened the Malan Music Festival.
Since then, this small mountain village has been surrounded by beautiful music and beautiful songs. In 2008, Deng Xiaolan took the children of The Malan Band out of the mountains and was invited to Beijing, Zhejiang and other places to participate in program recording, and in 2012, he also appeared on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala of Beijing Television.
Deng Xiaolan (right) teaches children to learn to play musical instruments. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of Baoding Municipal Party Committee
In the past 18 years, Deng Xiaolan's students have changed stubble after stubble, and children from many surrounding villages have also come to visit. Driven by Deng Xiaolan, many volunteers have joined the big family of the Malan Small Band, bringing more diversified music education to the small mountain village, and closely linking the remote Malan village with the outside world.
In October 2016, Fu Baohuan, as the first batch of old principals from the Beijing Municipal Education Commission's "Old Principals Going to the Countryside" activity, came to Fuping County Stone Monkey Primary School to teach.
"Some primary schools don't have music teachers, and children sing and shout, not at all." Fu Baohuan said that in the past few years, some children have the concept of pitch, Fu Baohuan also helped the stone monkey and Jinggou two primary schools composed school songs, "good" songs began to ring in the mountain village primary school.
These are one of the reasons why the voices of Fuping children can be discovered by the director team of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
●Can our rural primary school attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics? The children in the mountains let out the world
In mid-September 2021, Liu Kai, principal of the Xiazhuang School District Central School in Nanzhuang Town, Fuping County, received a phone call from the director team of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, who inquired about the situation of Stone Monkey Primary School on the phone.
"Can our rural primary school attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics?"
At the same time, Fu Baohuan also received a phone call, and Wang Jun, deputy director of the venue of the National Stadium Operation Team and director of the Performance Ceremony Department of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies Department, found her and proposed to go to the Stone Monkey Primary School in Fuping County, where she had been teaching for 5 years, and set up a children's choir to perform at the opening ceremony.
The Ma Lanhua Choir participated in the training at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games. The video is from the Propaganda Department of baoding municipal party committee
In this way, the children from Bayi School, Stone Monkey Primary School, Jinggou Primary School, Da'andi Primary School and Malan Primary School in Nanzhuang Town, Fuping County, formally formed the Ma LanHua Choir.
On September 28, the person in charge of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics listened to the children's singing and decided on the spot that this program could be on.
The teachers were surprised and excited, happy for the children, some of the children in the mountains, some of them were as far away as Fuping County, how rare this opportunity was.
After the task was set, it was first taught by two teachers, Deng Xiaolan and Fu Baohuan, as well as the special gang teachers in the town. But the song was very difficult to professionally, beyond the ability of the town, and they asked Fuping Middle School for help.
After only two weeks, Su Zhiyan, a music teacher at Fuping Middle School, found that the choir urgently needed more professional teachers to solve the many skills of language and singing.
On October 18, Zhang Hongyu, dean of the School of Music and Dance of Baoding University, and his party were invited to Fuping. The first time I met with the choir, Zhang Hongyu frowned and frowned, "The children have no musical foundation, but the Olympic songs they want to learn have a wide range, complex melodies, and many changes." The 2008 Beijing Olympics sang the song by the famous Beijing Philharmonic Choir. ”
Moreover, the Olympic anthem is an a cappella chorus, which can be more difficult than an accompaniment chorus. In addition, this song should be sung in Greek, not to mention the children, the teachers will not.
The Ma Lanhua Choir participated in the training at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of Baoding Municipal Party Committee
The difficulties are great and the determination is greater. The village primary school teachers, the county middle school music teachers, and the university conservatory of music experts immediately formed a teaching team, and the teachers were determined to turn the 44 ordinary children into a stage choir by the end of December.
In mid-November, Qin Yezhen, a Greek teacher at the School of European Language and Culture at the University of Foreign Chinese in Beijing, rushed to Fuping with her student Lin Jiahao and spent 10 days teaching children Greek and helping them pronounce them standards. In early December, when Lin Jiahao arrived in Fuping for the second time, he said the children's performance was "amazing".
According to the requirements of the director group, the training video of the choir should be sent to them every week, and at the end of December, the last group of children's rehearsal video was sent over, Liu Kai They received the final notice, and the performance of the Ma Lanhua Choir was officially included in the opening ceremony program list.
● From tearful withdrawal to returning from the by-election, her insistence on music makes people's eyes wet
On the evening of February 4, 2022, in Malan New Village, Fuping County, Xi Jinhai's eyes were about to be pasted on the TV, and he was looking for the figure of his daughter Xi Qingru, "My daughter, my daughter!" Xi Jinhai smiled, "I don't understand, but it's strange and good." ”
Xi Qingru, 11 years old, has some special experience.
After returning home, Xi Qingru, a student of Malan Elementary School, a member of the choir, is still very proud. Hebei Daily reporters Kou Guoying and Li Liancheng took photos
During the training camp in Chengnanzhuang, Fuping County, Xi Qingru's mother suddenly fell seriously ill, and she had to withdraw from the Winter Olympic training camp. With a crying voice, "It's okay, they sing on stage, I sing offstage..." made everyone wet their eyes.
In this way, Xi Qingru gave up training and went home to accompany her mother on the last journey.
Music supported her out of the pain of losing her loved ones, but the dream of music has always been in her heart, and she wants to step onto a bigger stage. In the course of a by-election, Xi Qingru was once again given the opportunity to participate in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. This time, she finally realized her musical dream and stood on the stage of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
Xi Qingru said, I want people all over the world to hear the voice of our Ma Lanhua Choir!
After returning from the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Xi Qingru still took out the violin as soon as she had time to practice seriously as usual.
Gently wiping the bow with rosin, carefully adjusting the strings, stretching and gently pulling the arms, the melodious tune of the world famous song "Ode to Joy" flows through the living room...
She said it was the first piece she had learned to play the violin. Grandma Deng (Deng Xiaolan) said that this song is simple and good, and it is most suitable as an introductory etude.
Xi Qingru practiced playing the violin at home. Hebei Daily reporters Kou Guoying and Li Liancheng took photos
Xi Qingru's two older sisters were once members of MaLan's small band, and one of them also followed Deng Xiaolan to participate in the "I want to go to the Spring Festival Gala" program.
The sisters' happiness and pride in learning music infected Xiao Qingru, and she was also envious, thinking that learning music was a happy and foreign thing.
Immersed in the world of music, Xi Qingru continued to grow, performing at the Malan Children's Music Festival, camel bay pop-up event, moon stage and many other occasions until she stepped onto the stage of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
"Music has given a child in the mountains a specialty and an eye-opening that will benefit them for the rest of their lives, and we support her in learning it forever!" Xi Jinhai said.
● The opening ceremony singing is tempered, and the children are plugged in the wings of their dreams
Music is like a seed sowing dreams, deeply rooted in the hearts of the children of the Fuping Ma Orchid Choir. "I learned to sing in Greek" "I learned to wash my own clothes and hair. "I went to Tiananmen Square to see the raising of the national flag" "I saw the high-tech content of the performance scene, the performance stage"... Nourished by music, children continue to transform, harvest and grow.
Video shooting: Hebei Daily reporters Kou Guoying and Li Liancheng Video producers: Hebei Daily reporters Wu Xiaomeng and Wang Muer
On February 5, the Ma Lanhua Choir completed its performance at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics and returned to Fuping. Chen Yulong, 10, got out of the car and asked his father, "Dad, are you cold?" "Father Chen Yongli was stunned." Our children in the mountains, who didn't talk like this before, didn't say anything in their hearts, and suddenly felt that this was warm in their hearts. ”
Han Shuxin, the youngest member of the choir. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of Baoding Municipal Party Committee
Han Shuxin is the youngest member of the choir, and after returning to Fuping, he is like a little trumpet, talking to his mother with a lot of energy. "Mom, did you see me yesterday?" Mother Yang Li said that I saw it, and you sang really well. "Then tell me what she saw in Beijing." When I left, I felt like a small baby, and when I came back, I suddenly became a big child. Yang Li said.
Wang Yujia's father is an individual, and his mother Jiao Jie is currently seconded to work in the forest farm in Chengnanzhuang Town. "Yu Jia also has a sister, usually, this child is more obedient, homework and nothing to worry about." As soon as I came back this time, I found that the child spoke more methodically than before, and his vision was larger. ”
"I learned to brush my shoes and wash my clothes, and I was more self-reliant than before." Wang Yujia said that in the choir, she is a big child, she will help the younger children pour hot water and tie their shoelaces, "Before, I wouldn't help my sister tie it, ha." She laughed herself.
This time to Beijing to participate in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, to the children in the mountains to open a door to a larger world, but also greatly stimulated the children's hearts.
Video shooting: Hebei Daily reporter Li Liancheng Kou Guoying Video production: Hebei Daily reporter Xu Jiaqi
"My dream in the future is to become a music teacher." Wang Yujia said that a few months ago, she also aspired to become a doctor, "I learned the pitch, can hear the level of singing." I know that there is so much learning in singing. ”
On January 30, Chen Yulong said in an interview that he wanted to be a singer. After participating in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, back in Fuping, has Chen Yulong's dream changed? "I want to be a music teacher like Grandma Deng (Deng Xiaolan) in the future." Chen Yulong said.
Asked why, Chen Yulong was silent for a while, "Someone has to build my home, and I want to pass on the knowledge." ”
Dreams in the heart are precious, and dreams are realized happily. Dreams, even if far away, the tempering journey of singing for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics has given children wings to pursue their dreams.
(Hebei News Network comprehensive Hebei Daily client, Jishi client, Xinhua News Agency, etc., editor Wei Yu)
Source: Hebei News Network Synthesis