Tang Junqiao among winners of Bravo Awards

Chinese bamboo flute (dizi) master Tang Junqiao is among winners of the VI International Professional Music Awards Bravo whose award ceremony was staged at Bolshoi on March 19th, just days before the massacre took place in a Moscow concert hall.

The awards, an annual event since 2017, were founded and presented by the Russian Media Group, which has a strong tie with the Russian government and Presidency.

Dubbed as the Russian Grammy, the Bravo Awards recognize distinctive contributions by international musicians made on recorded music distributed online or physically in two major categories: classical and popular music. Among the recipients and performing guests of this year's gala are Indian instrumentalist Samanwaya Sarkar, Iranian musician Ali Ghamsari, and UAE soprano Fatima Al-Hashmi, among others from the BRICS countries.

It is reported that Tang was informed of her nomination in early March. With a special visa granted by the Russian Embassy in Beijing, she travelled to Moscow on March 17th and stayed at the Four Seasons, one of the sponsors of the Awards. She performed Morning of Miao Mountain, a classic Chinese piece adapted for dizi and orchestra under the baton of Pavel Klinichev, music director of Bolshoi.

According to an official statement released by the TASS, Russia's national news agency, the Awards intend to "make classical art accessible to a wide audience with increasing social relevance". Previous winners of the awards include composer Du Yun, basses Tian Haojian and Li Xiaoliang.

Tang won Best Concerto for the two dizi concertos that she champions: Wild Fire and Sorrowful Desolate Mountain, both by Guo Wenjing.