My camera goes on stage

The great thing about living in Shanghai is that it is full of surprises and opportunities that sometimes seem to appear out of the blue. Here is an example:

Two weeks ago I was sitting in Chinese class when my phone rang. "Hi, my name is Jon, you may have heard about me from Greig".. mhh..Yes I have...you are a friend of his  and I know also that you are a professional photographer doing cool stuff for no one less than "Der Spiegel, ect.." - I thought to myself.

 "I was wondering if you can help me" he continued " I made this commitment to a friend to shoot pictures during a concert. But I have to leave the city for another job. The concert is going to be in the Shanghai Oriental Art Center and I was wondering if you can - jump in for me?" ....?!!!?!!!!!!!!??!!! I nearly fell of my chair....

"Oh my God!"- was my first thought. I had absolutely no idea what I was letting myself into. All I was sure about  that it was going to be a low light event, not too easy to tackle. But if I learnt something in my previous job than it is there is no need to be scared because nevermind how cold the waters - I can swim! And Jon said "I think it will be fun, just enjoy it".  "OK" I said "Let´s do it!"

The next day I shouldered my bag and went Pudong to find out what it was all about.
The event was called AMRATA MUSIC SCENE. It is an ongoing music project with Chinese music on it´s core but incorporating styles of eastern, western as well as specially made instruments.

Five musicians, some of them professors for music, created some of  the most beautiful and pure music I have ever heard that night. It was just wonderful and whilst they were playing you could feel that each one of them truely loves what they do. They didn´t just play music, they WERE music.
This is what I tried to capture with my camera which didn´t let me down despite the low light :-).

In invite you to virtually enjoy some of the moments of  AMRATA SONG 2011 at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center on December 1st 2011:

Enter HERE