NEW YORK, March 4 (Xinhua) -- China Institute will launch a new educational program on traditional Chinese music in partnership with the Bard College Conservatory of Music (BCCM) on Sunday.

The New York City-based non-profit educational and cultural institution and BCCM's U.S.-China Music Institute will celebrate the opening of the new program -- Music at China Institute, Sunday afternoon with special guest Yu Feng, president of the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) in Beijing.

The program, a new addition to China Institute's School of Chinese Studies, aims to bring the beauty, wisdom and philosophy of traditional Chinese music to people of all ages and backgrounds in the heart of Lower Manhattan, the institute said in a press release.

In spring 2019, classes of eight sessions each will be offered at China Institute for music lovers to learn Guqin, Erhu, and Guzheng.

For toddlers, a Mommy and Me series will bring the fun of learning Chinese musical rhythms and movements to their intellectual and social development.

Small group classes are taught by professionally trained instructors who are also award-winning musicians and educators, each carefully selected by BCCM.

For over 5,000 years, music has been essential to Chinese culture. Its language is tonal, its poems were once sung, and traditionally an educated person was understood to be a musical expert.