Chaoge, director Jiang Ying, composer and arranger Liu Sha, conductor Tang Feng, Erhu Jin Yue, Erhu Wang Ciheng, Dizi and Xiao Wu Yuxia, Pipa and deputy president of the orchestra Zhao Cong, Pipa Yu Yuanchun, Pipa Wei Yuru, Ruan Feng Maintain, Ruan Niu Jiandang, Suona Zhu Jianping, percussion Yu Xin, percussion Chen Shasha and Ding Xiaokui, Dizi Zhang Jiali, Guan Lu Ning, Guqin Creative team Li Bin, stage design Wang Yugang, lighting design Gan Hua, multimedia design Zheng Zejian, multimedia design Zuo Huanyu, costume design Shen Tian, sound design Performances The orchestra has performed throughout China and visited dozens of nations on five continents. Highlights In 1984, American classical composer Shen Sinyan, a member of the Chinese Music Society of North America, invited the orchestra to tour the United States. The orchestra became "the first Chinese orchestra of Chinese instruments" to do so. In 1996, the Carnegie Hall Corporation commissioned Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng to create Spring Dreams, a concerto for Yo-Yo Ma and the orchestra. In 1997, Spring Dreams was performed by the orchestra and the famed cellist. In 1998, the orchestra performed for the first time at a special New Year concert in the Vienna Golden Hall (a.k.a. Wiener Musikverein). In 2004, the orchestra cancelled its appearance at a concert that contained Christian content. In 2011, the orchestra became the first traditional Chinese music group to perform at Austria's Salzburg Summer Festival. In 2014, American pop music artist Katy Perry visited the orchestra to hear an arrangement of her song "Roar" played on traditional Chinese instruments. In December 2015, members from the orchestra performed for and with students of Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School in a school assembly; the first time the orchestra had performed for local primary school students. The school's chorus – 40 singers, ages 9 to 11 – also performed a song with the orchestra during its Kennedy Center concert dates. Criticism The China National Traditional Orchestra has faced its share of criticism in the past – both at home and abroad – in that it did not actually promote actual traditional Chinese music in the beginning, but rather, it used the Western-style orchestra model that was prevalent in much of the orchestra world. Historically, traditional Chinese music was performed with soloists or in small ensembles rather than in large concert halls. What's more, to be more accessible to Western audiences when playing internationally,