East meets west at NAPA

A superb feast awaits music lovers when the Classical Music Development Foundation (CMDFTT) brings together two unique professionals from distinctly separate regions of the world, China and Trinidad and Tobago uniting their exceptional skills and talents in one breathtaking concert.

Every concert of the CMDFTT has been a huge success, each in unique ways, pursuing excellence for Trinidad and Tobago’s artistes and patrons alike. East Meets West is one more example of their determination to bring a very high standard of professionalism to our concert halls. 

Chinese multi-talented virtuoso musician, Coco Chen and Trinidad’s most outstanding dramatic coloratura soprano, Natalia Dopwell, treated patrons to music by some of the most beloved composers of all time, with songs by Debussy, Strauss and Donaudy, arias by Mozart and Puccini, and for the first time in Trinidad, music by Chinese composers Huanshen Zuo and Zi Huang. 

Coco and Natalia both graduated from Manhattan School of Music (MSM) in May this year—Coco with a Masters’ Degree in Vocal Accompaniment and Natalia with a Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance. Studying at MSM, Coco and Natalia collaborated on several performances over the past two years, and out of this friendship, East Meets West was born and Trinidad’s music loving audiences will benefit from the rich feast of the most beautiful music performance by these two young artistes.

Coco is “thrilled about the opportunity of performing in Trinidad, to visit Trinidad and meet all these amazing and interesting people here.” On top of all that, Coco wants “to bring even more ‘heat’ from her performance into the August of Trinidad.”