Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai presents a paper-cut rooster to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts President Deborah Rutter, before a performance by the Beijing Symphony Orchestra on Monday night in Washington. [Photo by Zhao Huanxin/China Daily]

Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai presented a paper-cut rooster to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts President Deborah Rutter, before a performance by the Beijing Symphony Orchestra on Monday night in Washington.

The program includes Austrian composer Gustav Mahler's masterpiece The Song of the Earth in a special United States premiere performance. The show was the highlight of the Kennedy Center's Chinese New Year celebrations from Feb 3 to Feb 6.

As the center's website said, "the Kennedy Center's 2017 Lunar New Year Celebration culminates with one of China's most internationally acclaimed orchestras in a fascinating program led by Tang Muhai - the only Chinese conductor to have won a Grammy Award".