By Song Peijing

Special to the Tsinghua News Center

"Berkeley Evening", a joint student performance presented by the U.C. Berkeley Men’s Octet and the Tsinghua University Student Arts Troupe, was staged on the evening of May 26 in the Multi-functional Hall of Tsinghua’s Meng Minwei Building.

 “Berkeley Evening” is one of the major student activities of Berkeley Week at Tsinghua. Berkeley Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer and the Tsinghua University Council’s Vice Chairmen Shi Zongkai attended the performance. They expressed their hope that more student collaborative activities could be organized in the future to extend and deepen mutual understanding and enhanced communication between the Tsinghua and Berkeley communities.

The Berkeley Men’s Octet began its performance with the American gospel song “Amazing Grace” as an expression of condolence for Sichuan’s Wenchuan earthquake victims. The Tsinghua students performed the American symphony “Appalachian Spring” by Aaron Copeland. The symphony was followed by Chinese folk music arrangements of “Horse Racing”, the pipa solo “Spring Rain”, and the flute solo “Spring in the Erdos”. The students’ excellent performances were received with repeated rounds of enthusiastic applause from the audience.

The performance was also attended by Berkeley delegation members, Tsinghua students and faculty members, and some invited guests.