During every season of Chinese New Year over the past three years, local Australians have had a rare chance to enjoy real Chinese chamber music in central Sydney, largely thanks to an Australian composer, John Huie.

Huie, 52, who returned from Shanghai to be the Artistic Director of the first Chinese chamber music festival in Australia in 2009, said he was trying to introduce Chinese chamber music to Australians and hoped they would like it just as the Chinese like Western music.

All these music festivals turned out to be successful, Huie told Xinhua in a recent interview in Sydney after holding the third Chinese Garden Chamber Music Festival in mid-February in the Chinese Garden near the famous tourist attraction Darling Harbor.

"Many Westerners reject Chinese music without even really hearing it, just as they might dismiss Arabic or Korean music. Without exposure to these cultures, it's natural to reject them," said Huie, who stayed in China for 18 years.

Thus, at the annual Chinese Garden Chamber Music Festival, Huie and his band of master instrumentalists from China and Australia showcase the best of Chinese music to Australian audiences, crossing cultures and bridging East and West to promote harmony and understanding.

In 1991 Huie moved from Sydney to Hong Kong, where he composed music for films and documentaries, and wrote an album, The Honourable Retreat, to mark the 1997 handover of the city from British to Chinese rule. In 2002, Huie moved to Shanghai, where he researched and reproduced the authentic songs and musical style of Shanghai in the 1930s, to release the albums Shanghai Jazz 1 and Shanghai Jazz 2.

Would the Australians love Chinese music? Huie's efforts proved they do.

"The first festival was a big eye-opener for most of the audience and for myself as well," Huie said, recalling the first Chinese Garden Chamber Music Festival in 2009 which he staged at the Chinese Garden of Friendship, a symbolic place close to Chinatown in downtown Sydney. He acknowledged the help of the Chinese Ministry of Culture in bringing China's best musicians to the festival and the active involvement of the Sydney Harbor Foreshore Authority to bring the music festival to fruition.

Huie believed that there were many highly virtuosic performances among the musicians who played at the first festival, but the popular highlight was the Suzhou Opera "Pingtan", a gentle chamber opera which features the ancient instruments of China.

The sound of Pingtan was "truly magical, drifting across the goldfish pond from a floating stage, transporting the listeners to a faraway place", Huie added.

As far as he knows, at least three Australian couples later travelled to Suzhou in Jiangsu province in east China because of that performance.

The second festival in 2010 was a very rainy affair, although to Huie's amazement, the rain only added to the beauty of the evening.

"They came in droves; we were turning people away at the door. The Australian musicians really enjoyed it as well being the first time most of them had ever played anything but old European music. Erhu player Xing Lu and pipa player Tong Ying were the big stars of 2010, performing the full spectrum of possibilities on their instruments, eastern, western and in between."

By the time Chinese New Year came around in Feb. 2011, Huie presented his third festival, joined by guzheng player Fang Yu, a Chinese National Guzheng Competition Judge, and dizi (Chinese bamboo flute) player Qian Jun, a National First Class Artist.

"Both of these artists knocked everyone out with their brilliant musical talent and coupled with other instrumentalists such as Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Principal Cello, David Berlin, and Australia's finest piano accompanist, Phillip Shovk. It was evident that the crowd loved it," Huie recalled with excitement.

"It was a great three days and just a small part of the inevitable cross-cultural development in Australia's future," the Australian composer noted.

"Although Europe has a rich and well-tempered musical history, which most of us learn about as children, much joy can also be found in the music of other cultures. China is one of the biggest and oldest, with instruments and musical styles which have developed over thousands of years."

Huie said he would continue his work to stage the Chinese Garden Chamber Music Festival every Chinese New Year so that more and more Australians would know and love Chinese culture through music.