Staff Members Join in Chinese New Year Celebrations
Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, began on Jan. 29, 2025, and continued through Feb. 12. It is a celebration of the arrival of spring and the beginning of a new year on the lunisolar calendar, according to the National Museum of Asian Art.
Yi Guan-Raczkowski, Director of Distance Learning at CT State Middlesex, is a member of the Yale Chinese Chorus. Yi has been singing with several Chinese choruses in Connecticut and Massachusetts for 19 years. The Yale Chinese Chorus performs a few times a year, particularly around Chinese New Year.
For this year’s celebrations, the choir performed three Chinese songs—“Fairy Tale,” “The Mountains of Mourne” and “To the Cloud”—at Guilford High School and Yale Woolsey Hall on February 1 and 2.
Her most memorable performances include singing under the baton of Eric Whitacre at Carnegie Hall and performing the Chinese contemporary cantata “Asking the Sky and the Earth” at the Sydney Opera House. She has traveled to Frankfurt, Munich, Prague and Vienna, where her choral group performed two songs in the Golden Hall of Vienna Musikverein and won a Gold Award in the 2012 Vienna World Choral Festival of Adults.
Before the COVID pandemic, the group led various Chinese choruses in performances of Chinese cantatas in New York as well as other U.S. cities, Germany, Australia and China. The Yale group was planning to perform in China again in 2020, but the trip was canceled due to the pandemic. Instead, they practiced via Zoom and recorded several videos published on YouTube.
“All the singing experiences I’m involved in fulfill my passion with music and build strong friendships with people like me,” said Yi.
Artist Landi Hou, computer support specialist, was invited to several weekend Chinese New Year galas in Greater New Haven and Hartford, where she demonstrated the art of papercutting and taught children how to design and carve their own pieces.
Papercutting, a traditional art form involving the meticulous cutting of paper with scissors or a knife, is practiced in diverse cultures worldwide, ranging from simple designs to intricate, detailed patterns.
“Graceful ballet dancers, galloping herds of horses, and lively, vividly detailed goldfish and roaring tigers are a few of the intricate artistic creations I brought to life,” said Landi.
Landi’s approach to papercutting blends Eastern and Western techniques, resulting in unique, sophisticated designs. In 2023 and 2024, she held two solo exhibitions in Connecticut, including the Pegasus Gallery at CT State Middlesex, garnering media coverage from the Hartford Courant and PBS.
In January 2024, the Chinese American Heritage Association honored Landi with the Outstanding Chinese Heritage Advancement Award for her contribution to the community.
One of her most significant achievements was showcasing and demonstrating her artwork at the 2024 Eastern States Exposition (Big E). She became the first folk artist to introduce papercutting to the Creative Arts Building since the Big E’s founding. Audiences were captivated by Landi’s craftsmanship and the intricate designs of this traditional folk art, which dates back over 2,000 years.