2 . How similar are language and music?

Language is part of our daily lives, no matter where we live in the world.     1     Both language and music play a huge role in our culture and here are some of their similarities.

Both language and music have a writing system.

Both language and music have their own systems of notation. Language uses alphabets to represent sounds and create meaning.     2     By reading and writing in these systems, we can communicate and preserve ideas and compositions through time.

    3    

Listening to the language someone speaks can provide valuable clues about their geographical origin. In the same way, we know that styles of music are different around the world, giving us the opportunity to explore many different cultures through their music and providing us with music for every situation.

Both share emotion.

    4     While you may be able to perceive it through my facial expressions, you can judge it with certainty through my words. Similarly, music has the ability to convey emotions such as anger, sadness, or happiness through its sound. Music can show you exactly how the composer was or is feeling, and allows us to share that emotion. When you feel happy, you might want to sing and dance to a happy song to celebrate your happiness.     5     I think we have all used music to express or process our emotions, often combining it with language in the form of song lyrics (歌词).

4 . Now，jazz music is an important part of Indianapolis’ culture. Jazz clubs around the city still host concerts with local jazz musicians like Rob Dixon and Joel Tucker. One of these clubs, the Chatterbox Jazz Club, still has live jazz seven nights a week.

But the real history of jazz in Indy is much less simple. Along with the Avenue's culture, jazz music was gone from the streets for many years.

Indiana Avenue was the heart of a neighborhood along the White River. It was a center for black music and live street music. The wealthy avoided this area. So it became a place that poorer families, including many African-American and immigrant ( 移民) families, moved to.

Jazz prospered in the mix of American cultures around the Avenue in the 1930s and 1940s. But in the 1950s, things changed. After the war, there were projects to make the city beautiful and build a university nearby. Both of these seemed like good changes. However, the new university and buildings caused poorer families to have to leave the area. This destroyed the Indiana Avenue community and with it, its jazz culture.

After many years, Indianapolis remembered the value of its arts and music culture. It began to bring back lost cultures such as live music on the Avenue. To do so, it began to make new changes. The changes included repairing historic areas like the Avenue. Once again, the high living costs in these historic arts areas pushed low-income families out.

Today there are several old-style jazz clubs where friends can meet up to remember the past or just enjoy a summer evening. It might seem at first that jazz is alive again, but there is a sad reality behind these jazz clubs: Modern Indy jazz is only a shadow (影子) of the lively culture that was once on Indiana Avenue.

5 . A music festival is a community event focusing on live performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme. On the list are the music festivals for fans around the world. Find your favorite now!

Field Day

January 1, 2023, Sydney

Field Day means New Year’s Day for young people in Sydney. Seen as the city’s original multi-stage party, it’s a gathering of friends coming together for a great fun-filled first day of the year. There’s an air of hope and positive energy on a perfect summer’s day.

The Envision Festival

February 27—March 6, 2023, Uvita

The Envision Festival is an annual gathering in Costa Rica that aims to provide an opportunity for different cultures to work with one another to create a better community. The festival encourages people to practice art, music, dance performances, and education. Meanwhile, our connection with nature is expected to be strengthened.

The McDowell Mountain Music Festival

March 2—4, 2023, Phoenix

The McDowell Mountain Music Festival is Phoenix’s musical celebration of community culture. Since its foundation in 2004, it has been the only 100% non-profit music festival designed to support, entertain and educate the community. The festival attracts thousands of visitors each year from around the country, and it is an opportunity to experience true culture.

The Old Settler’s Music Festival

April 20—23, 2023, Dale

The Old Settler’s Music Festival is a nationally known music festival for American music. The festival is held in the country of Texas at the height of the wild flower season. The Old Settler’s Music Festival offers great music and activities for the whole family.

9 . George Li was born in 1995 and now is a young pianist on the rise. At age 10，he gave his first public concert and in 2015, he won a silver medal at International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Li recently released his first album, performing with some of the world’s great orchestras.

The centerpiece of Li’s album is the passionate Piano Sonata No. 2 by Chopin—the one with the funeral march as its third movement. Chopin is close to Li’s heart, as it was Chopin’s music that earned him the top prize at the Cooper International Competition at Oberlin Conservatory when he was just 15.

Li’s album, Live at the Mariinsky, released last fall on Warner Classics, opens with the Piano Sonata in B minor by Haydn. Li’s gentle touch makes the music shine. “I think the main requirement is the touch. It has to be so sensitive,” he says about Haydn. Imagine the champagne bubbles, or just that sound when the champagne pours into glass. ”

Li was born in Boston. His parents came to the U. S. from China in the 1980s. he says they had few opportunities to hear classical music in the process of growing up. Li began playing the piano at age four and thought of it only as a hobby. But one day, when he was 11, playing Beethoven’ First Piano Concerto, everything changed.

“All of a sudden，in the middle of the performance I felt different,” he says. “I was kind of transported in some other reality. And I felt all these emotions within the piece and within myself.” And that’s when Li’s light bulb switched on. After that moment he wanted to do this for the rest of his life. Fortunately for George Li’s fans，that’s likely to be a very long time.