Peter Herrndorf, the doyen of Canadian culture, is leading a seven-city tour of China. He tells Joseph Catanzaro that the string of concerts is an overture to closer cultural ties between China and Canada.

There is an unbridled passion in Peter Herrndorf's voice when he speaks about the power of music to capture and captivate people, to transform their interactions into something approaching the symphonic. "Music is a powerful way of connecting people," he says. "Sometimes language is a way of separating people; music is a way of bringing them together."

He should know.