Western classical music has become as Chinese as Peking Opera, and it has woven its way into the hearts and lives of ordinary Chinese people. This lucidly written account traces the biographies of the bold visionaries who carried out this musical merger.

Rhapsody in Red is a history of classical music in China that revolves around a common theme: how Western classical music entered China, and how it became Chinese.

China’s oldest orchestra was founded in 1879, two years before the Boston Symphony. Since then, classical music has woven its way into the lives of ordinary Chinese people. Millions of Chinese children take piano and violin lessons every week. Yet, despite the importance of classical music in China — and of Chinese classical musicians and composers to the world — next to nothing has been written on this fascinating subject.

The authors capture the events with the voice of an insider and the perspective of a Westerner, presenting new information, original research and insights into a topic that has barely been broached elsewhere.

The only other significant books touching on this field are Pianos and Politics: Middle Class Ambitions and The Struggle Over Western Music by Richard Kurt Kraus (1989), and Barbara Mittler's Dangerous Tunes - The Politics of Chinese Music. Both target the academic market. Pianos focuses narrowly on the political aspects of the Cultural Revolution and subsequent re-opening. Rhapsody in Red is a far better read and benefits from considerably more research with primary source material in China over the past decade; and it covers classical music in general over all the history of East-West interaction.

This book will appeal to a general readership interested in China - the same readers who made "Wild Swans" a bestseller. It will also appeal to all who are interested in the future of classical music. It could easily be used for college courses on modern China, cultural history, and ethnomusicology.

Sheila Melvin lived in China from 1995 until September of 2000. She now splits her time between the US and China, with bases in Baton Rouge and Beijing.

Sheila Melvin is a regular contributor to The Asian Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune, and The New York Times. She often writes on music-related subjects, including Western classical music in China, and Chinese opera. In 1998-99, she wrote a series of ten articles for The Wall Street Journal on the Kunju opera “Peony Pavilion,” which was produced by Lincoln Center. Ms. Melvin’s stories on the arts, travel, business, politics, human interest, and economics in China have been carried by a number of publications, including USA Today, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Opera News, The South China Morning Post and Catholic Digest. She is a native of Washington, DC and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Conductor Jindong Cai was born in Beijing, and became his career during the Cultural Revolution. He has first-hand knowledge of many of the movements and events described in Rhapsody. In 1985, he went on to study with Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood. He graduated from New England Conservatory and he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting from the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati.

Prof. Cai is also the Director of Orchestral Studies at Stanford University. He has conducted many professional and university orchestras in the United States and China. He has a special interest in the works of Chinese composers. He received the ASCAP award for his support of contemporary music in 1998 and 2002.

Ms. Melvin and Mr. Cai are married and have two children.