Daniel Kellogg is an American composer. His piece Western Skies was performed by the NSO on this tour in Beijing and Xi'an, China, and will be performed in Seoul on June 18.

I am in the Beijing airport and have just finished 5 days of traveling with the National Symphony Orchestra on their Asian tour.  They have brought along my piece Western Skies, which I wrote for this occasion, and I was able to catch the Beijing and Xi'an performances.

It has been a great honor to be in China with the NSO representing America.  This is a unique time to travel to China in the wake of the 2008 Olympics.  I think of that event as some sort of grand debut on the world stage for a country that is growing and changing at an astounding rate.  I was certainly mesmerized along with the rest of the world at the magnitude and excellence of the Opening Ceremony (as well as the rest of the games).  I was eager to see how this city has changed since my last visit in 2000.  This time around, it is almost a completely different city.  It is clear this country will be a focal point for the whole world in decades to come.

This has also been a moment of great family pride to have my work presented at the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing.  Although my ancestry is as mixed European as they come, my wife, pianist Hsing-ay Hsu, was born in Beijing and lived here until the age of eight.  Beijing is the home city of my wife's family and is now the ancestral home of my daughter.  Hsing-ay comes from a family of musicians.  Her parents played in the Central Philharmonic and the Central Opera Orchestra, and her father played for Pres. Nixon back in 1972.  Their musical lives are entwined with this grand city.  I feel like I have joined the musical heritage of my family by having a Chinese premiere in the grand new hall of Beijing.

Many thanks to the NSO for all the wonderful performances and detailed travel planning!
 
Truly Memorable Moments from the tour…

-- An amazing braised ox shank dish shared with bass player Paul DeNola.  The whole meal (shared by 3 people) was fantastic and included 7 dishes, 5 big beers, and only cost $20USD a person.

-- Closing down a bar with trumpet player Tom Cupples and bass trombone player Matt Guilford at Houhai Lake.  We got back to the hotel at 3AM.

-- Buying custom tailored suits from the embassy recommended tailor Wendy.  Probably 30 NSO musicians bought something from this person and at the time of my fitting, there were around 12 of us chatting back and forth about material, cuffs, pleats, etc.  The suit is fantastic.

-- Seeing the National Performing Arts Centre for the first time.  This is an extraordinary building that looks like half of a giant egg sticking out of the ground.  Definitely the biggest performing arts structure I have ever seen.

-- Checking out the 798 Arts area with the many hip galleries and cafes that would easily fit in with the coolest American or European cities.  Half of the people in this popular but very out of the way area were Westerners.

-- Sharing a Peking Duck meal with my wife's aunt and uncle near their home on the third ring.  Even though I have only met them once, they treated me like intimate family.

-- Getting to hear two more performances of my music by the amazing NSO, and Maestro Fisher's emotionally charged finale to Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony one more time.

-- Reconnecting with old Curtis classmates who now perform and live in Beijing.