The Orchid Ensemble kicked off its two-week tour in America at Eastern Monday night.

The ensemble was originally schedule to perform on Sunday evening; however, because of issues with immigration, the group had to delay their travels from Canada.

The group started off the performance with a Chinese folk song, “Meeting in the Yurt,” the group arranged themselves and even incorporated their own improvisations throughout the song.

The song started out as all of the instruments playing together and eventually transitioned into solos by each performer.

As the song came to a close, the group came back together as a whole and ended on a good note.

Lois Dickenson, said “Meeting in the Yurt” was her favorite of the band’s performance.

Dickenson said she liked “Meeting in the Yurt” because it appealed to her the most and with her love for world music, she liked all of the different sounds of the instruments.

The Eastern and Charleston community have been waiting for the Orchid Ensemble to make an appearance for about three years.

Between each piece the ensemble informed the audience about the history of each song and how they tie in multiple cultures in their arrangements.

Larry Stephens, a regular audience member at Doudna, said that the Orchid Ensemble was a great sounding group and thought that this was a great opportunity to hear something different at Doudna.

Another popular piece of the night was “Xiao He Tang Shui,” a Cultural southeastern Asian song that is about a woman singing to search for her true love.

As beautiful and longing as it sounded, it ended with the woman asking if her true love can actually hear her.

Towards the middle of the performance, “The Gallop” was introduced as a fun cartoonish song that was described by Jonathan Bernard, the percussionist of the group, as “A between scenes” song.

The band said the song was played in a Chinese and a movie.

The Orchid Ensemble closed the night with “Ya Ribon”, a sacred melody that they arranged as a group.

This Orchid Ensemble said they perform “Ya Ribon” at the end of every performance and that it has become a tradition of theirs.

The audience was very pleased with the performance and intrigued by the multiple cultural sounds that the ensemble performed even giving a standing ovation at the conclusion of the performance.

At the end of the performance the group announced they are planning to perform at the Food Court in the Union Tuesday afternoon for the Eastern community, as well as having a workshop with a Q and A session.

Liz Gomez can be reached at 581-2812 or ecgomez@eiu.edu