Lincoln Center in New York is decorated with a Happy Chinese New Year theme for the New York Philharmonic’s annual Chinese Lunar New Year concert, Feb 20, 2018. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

The New York Philharmonic held its annual Chinese Lunar New Year concert to welcome the Year of the Dog at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall in New York on Feb 20.

The concert, held for seven years, has become a major part of the series events themed, “Happy Chinese New Year: Fantastic Art China New York”.

Under the baton of Chinese conductor Yu Long, the concert opened with The Spring Festival Overture, a cheerful Chinese orchestral work. It featured Andy Akiho’s experimental concerto, Ricochet, Concerto for Ping-Pong, Violin, Percussion, and Orchestra. In the performance, Ariel Hsing and Michael Landers, two US national table tennis champions, played live at the back of the stage while the full symphony orchestra played to the sounds from the intense table tennis match. Audiences were wowed by the innovative performance, which also was a special tribute to the “ping-pong” diplomacy of the early 1970s.