News & Events
10 Oct 2022 07:00 PM
Renowned Balinese composer-ethnomusicologist I Wayan Sudirana will lead a discussion on musical fundamentals of Balinese Gamelan, its cultural context, and his work as a composer and director of Gamelan Yuganada in contributing to the living, evolving Gamelan tradition.
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Bio Born in Ubud, Bali, I Wayan Sudirana is one of Indonesia’s most well-known composers. With an international profile as a performer and educator, he is also one of the most recognized professors at the Indonesian Institute for the Arts in Denpasar. After graduating from the Institute, Wayan Sudirana studied at the University of British Columbia in Canada, where he received his MA and PhD in Ethnomusicology. He was commissioned by the Canadian government to compose a piece combining Balinese gamelan, Japanese Taiko, and bagpipes, to be performed at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He has collaborated with renowned composers and other artists, including Michael Tenzer (2003–2013), Andrew Clay McGraw (2006–2010), Peter Michael Steele and Joshep Sandino (2007), Gamelan X, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, New York. Sudirana has authored a book on the future of the Balinese sacred ensemble (2019) and released two albums featuring his own compositions (2019 and 2020). Read more
Bio Born in Ubud, Bali, I Wayan Sudirana is one of Indonesia’s most well-known composers. With an international profile as a performer and educator, he is also one of the most recognized professors at the Indonesian Institute for the Arts in Denpasar. After graduating from the Institute, Wayan Sudirana studied at the University of British Columbia in Canada, where he received his MA and PhD in Ethnomusicology. He was commissioned by the Canadian government to compose a piece combining Balinese gamelan, Japanese Taiko, and bagpipes, to be performed at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He has collaborated with renowned composers and other artists, including Michael Tenzer (2003–2013), Andrew Clay McGraw (2006–2010), Peter Michael Steele and Joshep Sandino (2007), Gamelan X, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, New York. Sudirana has authored a book on the future of the Balinese sacred ensemble (2019) and released two albums featuring his own compositions (2019 and 2020). Read more
12 Oct 2022 07:30 PM
Renowned Balinese composer-ethnomusicologist I Wayan Sudirana and his 20-piece ensemble Gamelan Yuganada will present Balinese Gamelan as a living, evolving tradition, performing a spectacular program of sacred classical pieces alongside premieres of new repertoire composed specifically for the Cosmopolis Festival. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, this event has been moved online.
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Program
Classical Semara Pegulingan piece
Neoclassical Pelegongan piece
New work for New Gender (metallophone ensemble)
New work for full Yuganada ensemble
Gamelan Yuganada
I Wayan Sudirana, composer and director
Bios
Born in Ubud, Bali, I Wayan Sudirana is one of Indonesia’s most well-known composers. With an international profile as a performer and educator, he is also one of the most recognized professors at the Indonesian Institute for the Arts in Denpasar. After graduating from the Institute, Wayan Sudirana studied at the University of British Columbia in Canada, where he received his MA and PhD in Ethnomusicology. He was commissioned by the Canadian government to compose a piece combining Balinese gamelan, Japanese Taiko, and bagpipes, to be performed at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He has collaborated with renowned composers and other artists, including Michael Tenzer (2003–2013), Andrew Clay McGraw (2006–2010), Peter Michael Steele and Joshep Sandino (2007), Gamelan X, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, New York. Sudirana has authored a book on the future of the Balinese sacred ensemble (2019) and released two albums featuring his own compositions (2019 and 2020).
Gamelan Yuganada is a Balinese gamelan and performing arts ensemble that focuses on traditional and contemporary Balinese music and dance. The group strives to perform and teach at the highest levels of artistry, worthy of its growing international reputation, while remaining equally committed to the children, youths, elders, and master artists that are the heart of our community in Bali. Gamelan Yuganada has collaborated with Jack Morton World Wide to produce a major event for the International Meeting for IBM in 2017, 2018, and 2019. The group has also performed in Korea (World Samulnori Competition 2015), and Malaysia (Kaleidoscope Drumming Festival 2016; George Town Festival, and Taksu Production, 2019; Taksu Ubud with the Titimangsa Foundation, 2020). Gamelan Yuganada has recorded two CDs: New Music for Gamelan by the composer I Wayan Sudirana; and Geguntangan, for ancient Balinese-style vocal ensemble, both released in 2019.
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18 Oct 2022 07:30 PM
「絃歌不絕——粵粹縱橫」音樂會特邀「萬能泰斗」阮兆輝教授、粵樂名家高秩群先生、「萬能樂師」高潤鴻先生與竹韻小集合作,並由音樂學者白得雲教授導賞。節目為竹韻小集「絃歌不絕」計劃整理並復刻丘鶴儔《絃歌必讀》(1916)等專著所收錄的作品,讓互有關連的三大廣府音樂文化遺產「器樂」、「戲曲」和「說唱」共冶一爐,擴闊大眾對粵樂的理解,把香港的傳統音樂文化瑰寶活態呈現。
Everlasting Cantonese Music: Treasure from A Century Ago by the Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble features Professor Yuen Siu-fai, a leading authority on Cantonese music, and Maestro Ko Tit-kwan and Ko Yun-hung, and music scholar, Professor Christopher Pak. The project focuses on the organizing and reviving The Essentials of Strings and Vocal Music (1916) by Yau Hok-chou, a major figure in Cantonese music. The ensemble will perform pieces from this collection, linking up three interrelated major Cantonese music heritages: instrumental music, Chinese opera, and narrative singing, with the aim to broaden the public's understanding of Cantonese music and to present treasures of Hong Kong's traditional music culture.
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Program
雁落平沙 Wild Geese on the Sandbank
小桃紅 The Little Red Peach
小調聯奏 A Medley of Folk Tunes
客途秋恨(上卷) A Wanderer's Autumn Grief (Part I)
昭君怨 The Lament of Lady Zhaojun
連環扣 United We Go
柳搖金(選段) The Swaying Willow’ s Golden Sounds (Excerpt)
娛樂昇平 In Celebration of Good Times
思賢調 Thinking of the Sages
Bios
竹韻小集為重視本土、製作精緻、充滿活力的專業中樂室內樂團,香港藝術發展局資助團體及註冊慈善機構,成立於2003年,除深入研習嶺南傳統樂種,亦致力發展本地原創中樂,秉承「本土精英,文化傳承;植根嶺南,融會中西」的使命宣言,展現「最傳統,最當代;小而美,簡而精」的藝術特色,以嶄新的面貌展示多采與多元的「香港中樂文化」,以卓越的演繹呈獻香港的聲音。2011年起以「竹韻小集有限公司」運作,增設了理事會,由知名指揮家何文川擔任藝術指導及樂團創辦人陳照延出任行政總監,帶領樂團開創新里程。
樂團之常任樂師皆為香港各大專院校音樂科系畢業的優秀青年音樂家,具有豐富演出經驗。編制上繼承了傳統絲竹樂的演奏形式,樂器種類齊全,配備嶺南特色樂器,更設有專注於粵樂演奏、創作、推廣及研究的「竹韻五架頭」組合,薪傳具有香港特色的廣府音樂文化。
樂團與國際及與香港本地名家多次合作演出,至今已舉行樂季專場音樂會逾六十場及教育外展音樂會逾六百場,首演香港作曲家新作逾六十首。2007年起十四度獲選為康樂及文化事務署「社區文化大使」,2008年起多次代表香港前往海內外交流演出,介紹「香港中樂文化」,足跡遍及亞洲、北美洲及歐洲二十多個國家和地區。
The Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble is a professional Chinese chamber music ensemble with its focus on the local community and on producing quality chamber concerts. Founded in 2003, it has a mission of developing Chinese music culture in Hong Kong. From its traditional Lingnan culture foundations to merging the aesthetics of the East and West, the Ensemble lives up to its artisitc motto of “small but elegant, simple but refined” by presenting traditional and contemporary works with a distinctive local flair. In 2011, the Ensemble was incorporated as the “Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble Limited”, with renowned conductor Ho Man-chuen as its Artistic Advisor and the Ensemble’s founder, Chan Chiu-yin, as Executive Director. It was a landmark for the way forward for the Ensemble. The Ensemble is a grantee of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and a charitable institution of a public character in Hong Kong.
The Ensemble’s resident musicians are young and talent music graduates from local institutes with rich experience in concert performance. The performances typically follow the traditional combinations of sizhu (silk and bamboo, or strings and winds), and the repertoire showcases the Lingnan vernacular instruments. In a bid to perpetuate the unique Cantonese music culture of Hong Kong, the Windpipe Cantonese Music Quintet was founded in 2018.
The Ensemble has given more than 60 subscription concerts and 600 educational outreach concerts, premiered over 60 new works by local composers, and performed with numerous virtuosi both at home and overseas. Since 2007, it has taken part in 14 editions of the Community Cultural Ambassador Scheme organised by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. Representing Hong Kong internationally since 2008, the Ensemble has gone on tour and cultural exchange to more than 20 countries and regions in Asia, North America and Europe.
Casts
演唱︰阮兆輝
音樂領導︰高秩群、高潤鴻
導賞︰白得雲
演奏︰竹韻小集
Vocal: Yuen Siu-fai
Ensemble Leader: Ko Tit-kwan, Ko Yun-hung
Docent: Christopher Pak
Performer: Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble
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09 Nov 2022 07:30 PM
The venerated Ivry Gitlis described Gian Paolo Peloso as “a true musician, of the highest quality as a soloist and chamber music performer, and a top-class violin teacher, whose practice honors our profession and its future.” Rachel Cheung was hailed by The Dallas Morning News as “a poet, but also a dramatist” displaying “the most sophisticated and compelling music-making.” These two musicians together on stage can only be described as magical. Featuring staples of the violin repertoire by Tartini, Respighi, Debussy, and Franck, this concert will delight and wow.
Co-organizer: Italian Cultural Institute in Hong Kong REGISTER Program Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770): Sonata for Violin in G Minor The Devil’s Trill (arr. Fritz Kreisler) Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936): Sonata for Violin and Piano in B minor, P. 110
– Intermission (15 minutes) –
Claude Debussy (1862-1918): Sonata for Violin and Piano in G minor, L. 140 Cesar Franck (1822-1890): Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major
Bios
Gian Paolo Peloso is regarded as one of the most accomplished Italian violinists. He has studied with some of the finest pedagogues of the 20th century, including the legendary Ruggiero Ricci, Viktor Tretyakov, Ivry Gitlis, Igor Ozim, Viktor Pikaisen, and Pierre Amoyal. Peloso made his debut at the age of ten under the direction of composer Luciano Berio. He has performed internationally in Europe, Asia, and the US as a soloist with orchestras, in recitals, and in chamber music concerts. He has been regularly invited to participate in the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland, the Martha Argerich Festival in Switzerland, and has made appearances at the Societa dei Concerti in Milan, the Moscow International House of Music, the Singapore Sun Festival, the Archipel Festival in Geneva, the Hong Kong Musicus Fest, the Cannes Festival in France, and the Weill Recital Hall in New York. He has toured extensively with the Camerata de Lausanne and performed chamber music with Sofia Gubaidulina, Mark Lubotsky, Vladimir Mendelssohn, and Bruno Canino. Appointed Violin Professor at the Conservatory of Music of Neuchatel in Switzerland, he has recorded sonatas by Saint-Saens and Poulenc for the National Swiss Radio. Peloso is a Sony Classical artist, and has recorded in New York Sonatas by Respighi Busoni, and Faure (complete Sonatas) with pianist Bruno Canino. Peloso is presently on faculty at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and plays a Matteo Goffriller violin of 1710. Pianist Rachel Cheung has appeared with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Sydney Symphony, London Chamber, and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras, collaborating with conductors including Edo de Waart, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jaap van Zweden, Leonard Slatkin, Sir Mark Elder, Christopher Warren-Green, and Nicholas McGegan. Rachel is also interested in play-conducting; following her Prix du Jury win at the 2017 Play-Direct Academy for her performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, she play-conducted the same concerto with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2019. She was also invited to return to the Play-Direct Academy in 2019 as a member of the jury. She has performed in recital at the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Steinway Hall in London, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Richmond Hill Centre for Performing Arts in Toronto, the Philharmonie de Paris, and in other cities across the United States, Europe, and Asia. As an active chamber musician, Rachel has worked with world-renowned musicians including violinists Latica Honda-Rosenberg and Ning Feng, violist Vladimir Mendelssohn, cellists Jan-Erik Gustafasson and Trey Lee, mezzo-soprano Virpi Räisänsen, clarinetist Michel Lethiec, the Brentano String Quartet, and Quatuor Leonis. She also enjoys community residencies and outreach events, which allow her to make a deeper connection with audiences and share her passion of storytelling through music. Read more
Co-organizer: Italian Cultural Institute in Hong Kong REGISTER Program Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770): Sonata for Violin in G Minor The Devil’s Trill (arr. Fritz Kreisler) Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936): Sonata for Violin and Piano in B minor, P. 110
– Intermission (15 minutes) –
Claude Debussy (1862-1918): Sonata for Violin and Piano in G minor, L. 140 Cesar Franck (1822-1890): Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major
Bios
Gian Paolo Peloso is regarded as one of the most accomplished Italian violinists. He has studied with some of the finest pedagogues of the 20th century, including the legendary Ruggiero Ricci, Viktor Tretyakov, Ivry Gitlis, Igor Ozim, Viktor Pikaisen, and Pierre Amoyal. Peloso made his debut at the age of ten under the direction of composer Luciano Berio. He has performed internationally in Europe, Asia, and the US as a soloist with orchestras, in recitals, and in chamber music concerts. He has been regularly invited to participate in the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland, the Martha Argerich Festival in Switzerland, and has made appearances at the Societa dei Concerti in Milan, the Moscow International House of Music, the Singapore Sun Festival, the Archipel Festival in Geneva, the Hong Kong Musicus Fest, the Cannes Festival in France, and the Weill Recital Hall in New York. He has toured extensively with the Camerata de Lausanne and performed chamber music with Sofia Gubaidulina, Mark Lubotsky, Vladimir Mendelssohn, and Bruno Canino. Appointed Violin Professor at the Conservatory of Music of Neuchatel in Switzerland, he has recorded sonatas by Saint-Saens and Poulenc for the National Swiss Radio. Peloso is a Sony Classical artist, and has recorded in New York Sonatas by Respighi Busoni, and Faure (complete Sonatas) with pianist Bruno Canino. Peloso is presently on faculty at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and plays a Matteo Goffriller violin of 1710. Pianist Rachel Cheung has appeared with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Sydney Symphony, London Chamber, and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras, collaborating with conductors including Edo de Waart, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jaap van Zweden, Leonard Slatkin, Sir Mark Elder, Christopher Warren-Green, and Nicholas McGegan. Rachel is also interested in play-conducting; following her Prix du Jury win at the 2017 Play-Direct Academy for her performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, she play-conducted the same concerto with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2019. She was also invited to return to the Play-Direct Academy in 2019 as a member of the jury. She has performed in recital at the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Steinway Hall in London, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Richmond Hill Centre for Performing Arts in Toronto, the Philharmonie de Paris, and in other cities across the United States, Europe, and Asia. As an active chamber musician, Rachel has worked with world-renowned musicians including violinists Latica Honda-Rosenberg and Ning Feng, violist Vladimir Mendelssohn, cellists Jan-Erik Gustafasson and Trey Lee, mezzo-soprano Virpi Räisänsen, clarinetist Michel Lethiec, the Brentano String Quartet, and Quatuor Leonis. She also enjoys community residencies and outreach events, which allow her to make a deeper connection with audiences and share her passion of storytelling through music. Read more
10 Nov 2022 07:30 PM
Conducted by the violin virtuoso Gian Paolo Peloso, Senior Lecturer (Strings) at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and internationally recognized concert performer, the workshop will feature students of string instruments desiring to enrich their knowledge through in-depth discussion on styles and skills.
Mr. Peloso will select 8 registrants to play their music and discuss and give advice to them during the workshop through an audition. You are invited to share by sending an email to artsctr@ust.hk with a downloadable link of a 3-minute video recording of a music performance by yourself for Mr. Peloso’s consideration.
The deadline of the submission is now extended to Oct 31 and the quota is 30. Act fast to get a place!
Registrants selected by Mr. Peloso will receive a confirmation email.
Other registrants are welcome to join the workshop as an audience.
Co-organizer: Italian Cultural Institute in Hong Kong
REGISTER
Bio
Gian Paolo Peloso is regarded as one of the most accomplished Italian violinists. He has studied with some of the finest pedagogues of the 20th century, including the legendary Ruggiero Ricci, Viktor Tretyakov, Ivry Gitlis, Igor Ozim, Viktor Pikaisen, and Pierre Amoyal. Peloso made his debut at the age of ten under the direction of composer Luciano Berio. He has performed internationally in Europe, Asia, and the US as a soloist with orchestras, in recitals, and in chamber music concerts. He has been regularly invited to participate in the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland, the Martha Argerich Festival in Switzerland, and has made appearances at the Societa dei Concerti in Milan, the Moscow International House of Music, the Singapore Sun Festival, the Archipel Festival in Geneva, the Hong Kong Musicus Fest, the Cannes Festival in France, and the Weill Recital Hall in New York. He has toured extensively with the Camerata de Lausanne and performed chamber music with Sofia Gubaidulina, Mark Lubotsky, Vladimir Mendelssohn, and Bruno Canino. Appointed Violin Professor at the Conservatory of Music of Neuchatel in Switzerland, he has recorded sonatas by Saint-Saens and Poulenc for the National Swiss Radio. Peloso is a Sony Classical artist, and has recorded in New York Sonatas by Respighi Busoni, and Faure (complete Sonatas) with pianist Bruno Canino. Peloso is presently on faculty at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and plays a Matteo Goffriller violin of 1710.
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21 Feb 2023 07:30 PM
Patrick Yim (United States) introduces the audience to the world of virtuosic contemporary solo violin repertoire. Professor of Violin at the University of Notre Dame, Dr. Yim has performed worldwide as a soloist and chamber musician, and will be joined on stage by two of the evening’s composers.
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The event is free and open to the public.
Program
Leilehua Lanzilotti: koʻu inoa (2017) — Asian premiere
Juri Seo: One (2020) — world premiere
John Liberatore: Between Light and Shade (2023) — world premiere
Ilari Kaila: Solitude (2021)
Timothy Page: Aerial Roots (2023) — live concert premiere
Takuma Itoh: A Melody from an Unknown Place (2020)
Bios
Praised for his "deeply expressive, finely nuanced playing" (The Strad Magazine) and "superb performances" (Fanfare), Honolulu-born violinist Patrick Yim has performed throughout the world at venues including Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Harpa Concert Hall, Severance Hall, Orchestra Hall, Teatro alla Scala, and the Musikverein. Yim made his solo debut with the Honolulu Symphony. He has performed chamber music with members of the Juilliard, Emerson, St. Lawrence, Pacifica, and Ying Quartets, and musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and on tour with the Cleveland Orchestra in the US and Europe. Recent performances include a concert at Carnegie Hall with members of the Emerson Quartet, a collaboration with pipa virtuoso Wu Man in Lou Harrison’s Pipa Concerto, and a collaboration with Juilliard Quartet violinist Joel Smirnoff involving the premieres of two newly commissioned works. Yim has commissioned 35 works and performed them around the world as part of international music festivals, including Seoul International Computer Music Festival and the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival. His debut CD, Memory, features world premiere recordings of works by Yao Chen, Michael-Thomas Foumai, Austin Yip, Kai-Young Chan, and Chen Yi. His second CD with pianist Kiu Tung Poon featuring violin and piano music of contemporary American composers was released on the Naxos label in September 2022. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music (BM, MM) and Stony Brook University (Doctor of Musical Arts). Yim serves as Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Notre Dame. Between 2017–2021, he was Professor of Violin at Hong Kong Baptist University. He has also taught violin and chamber music at Stony Brook University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Sulzbach-Rosenberg International Music Festival, Rushmore Music Festival, Flatirons Chamber Music Festival, Har Paw ChamberFest, and the Interlochen Arts Camp, in addition to masterclasses at MIT, the Royal Academy of Music Aarhus, University of Colorado, University of Oklahoma, University of Hawaii, Central Michigan University, and many universities in Hong Kong. Leilehua Lanzilotti (b. 1983) is a Kanaka Maoli musician from Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, dedicated to the arts of our time. A “leading composer-performer” (The New York Times), Lanzilotti’s “conceptually potent” work is characterized by explorations of timbre and an interest in translating everyday sounds to concert instruments using nontraditional techniques. Lanzilotti has composed words for ensembles such as the GRAMMY-winning Roomful of Teeth, Argus Quartet, and Chamber Music Hawaiʻi. Her works have been performed at international festivals such as Ars Electronica (Austria), Thailand International Composition Festival, and Dots+Loops in Australia. Lanzilotti is the recipient of a 2020 Native Launchpad Artist Award, a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Award, 2021 McKnight Visiting Composer Residency, and 2022 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership Fellow. As a recording artist, Lanzilotti has played on albums by artists such as Björk, Joan Osborne, Dai Fujikura, and David Lang. Lanzilotti’s upcoming solo performance projects include Wayfinder, a new viola concerto by Dai Fujikura inspired by Polynesian wayfinding. Juri Seo (b. 1981) is a Korean-American composer and pianist based in New Jersey, where she works as Associate Professor of Music at Princeton University. She seeks to write music that encompasses extreme contrast through compositions that are unified and fluid, yet complex. She merges many of the fascinating aspects of music from the past century—in particular its expanded timbral palette and unorthodox approach to structure—with a deep love of functional tonality, counterpoint, and classical form. Her composition honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Koussevitzky Commission from the Library of Congress, Goddard Lieberson Fellowship and Andrew Imbrie Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Copland House Residency Award, and the Otto Eckstein Fellowship from Tanglewood. She has received commissions from the Fromm Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, the Goethe Institut, and the Tanglewood Music Center. Her portrait albums Mostly Piano and Respiri were released by Innova Recordings. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she studied with Reynold Tharp, having also attended the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, and Yonsei University, Seoul. She has been a composition fellow at the Tanglewood, Bang on a Can, and SoundSCAPE festivals, the Wellesley Composers Conference, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. John Liberatore is a composer, pianist, and one of the world’s few glass harmonica players. His music seeks poignancy through levity, ambiguity through transparency, and complexity within simple textures—“to feel pulled along at varying speeds in multiple directions, but always forward” (Cleveland Classical). Over the past several years, his music has received hundreds of performances in venues around the world. He is the recipient of Fellowships from MacDowell (2017, 2020), Tanglewood, Yaddo, the Brush Creek Arts Foundation, the I-Park Artist’s Enclave, and the Millay Colony. Other notable distinctions include commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation and the American Opera Initiative, two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, and the Brian Israel Prize. Through a 2012 Presser Music Award, he studied in Tokyo with Jo Kondo—a mentorship that made an indelible impression on his music. He has collaborated as a composer and performer with Roomful of Teeth, percussionist Daniel Druckman, soprano Jamie Jordan, and several others. In 2018, Albany Records released Line Drawings, a portrait album of Liberatore’s chamber music. The album features his recording debut on the glass harmonica (alongside Druckman and Jordan), as well as pieces for The Mivos Quartet, pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, Bent Frequency, and Duo Damiana. Other recordings of his work are available on Centaur, Innova, and Ravello record labels. A portrait album with Zohn Collective is forthcoming in 2023. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D., M.M.) and Syracuse University (B.M., summa cum laude). Ilari Kaila is a Finnish-American composer whose music has been described with words such as “haunting”, “intriguing”, “engaging … soulful” (The New York Times), “nearly unbearable beauty… A modern masterpiece” (The WholeNote), “melodically euphoric” (Rondo Classic), “hypnotic… trancelike… fascinatingly colorful” (New York Music Daily), “I kept coming back to it… the music is so beautiful, and I want to experience it again and again” (Orchestergraben—5 Best New Music Albums of 2020), “magnificent and glistening” (Amfion), “powerfully resonating” (Helsingin Sanomat), “haunting” (The New Yorker), and “Kaila brings with him an exciting message of rebirth built upon classical foundations” (Percorsi Musicali—Best of 2020). His work has been presented by the MATA Festival in New York City, including the inaugural composer portrait concert in the “MATA Continued” series (“offering return engagements by some of its brightest discoveries” — Steve Smith, The New Yorker); as the Composer-in-Residence of the Chelsea Music Festival in New York and Taipei; at the American Music Festival in Albany; the Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong; the Metropolis Festival in Australia; the Banff Centre Summer Arts Festival in Canada; and the New York International Fringe Festival. Artists and ensembles Kaila has worked with include the Escher String Quartet, Aizuri Quartet, Tanglewood New Fromm Players, Alcott Trio, Kamus Quartet, Uusinta Ensemble, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Emil Holmström, Melinda Masur, Rachel Cheung, Olli Mustonen, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Avanti Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, Joensuu Symphony Orchestra, Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra, and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s chamber ensembles. An album of Kaila’s chamber music, recorded by the Aizuri Quartet and pianist Adrienne Kim, was released on the Innova Recordings label in March 2020. Chicago-born composer, musician, and performance artist Timothy Page creates works that revolve around play with style and context, body, physical materials, and space. Page holds degrees from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, where he established himself as a composer and studied with Veli-Matti Puumala; and the University of Chicago, where he completed his PhD with mentors Augusta Read Thomas and Anthony Cheung. In 2019 he was appointed Lecturer in Music and Digital Arts at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Page is a founder and co-director of Dayjob Collective – a Helsinki-based interdisciplinary ensemble investigating meeting points between contemporary music and performance art. His works have been performed around the globe by ensembles such as Ensemble Dal Niente (US), Third Coast Percussion (US), Eighth Blackbird (US), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FI), Avanti! (FI), Uusinta (FI), Defunensemble (FI), Dayjob Collective (FI), S.E.M. Ensemble (US/CZ), Caput (IS), and Cikada (NO). Takuma Itoh spent his early childhood in Japan before moving to Northern California where he grew up. His music has been described as "brashly youthful and fresh" (New York Times). Featured amongst one of "100 Composers Under 40" on NPR Music and WQXR, he has been the recipient of such awards and commissions as: the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Music Alive: New Partnerships grant with the Tucson Symphony, the Barlow Endowment, the Chamber Music America Classical Commission, the ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prize, six ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, the Leo Kaplan Award, the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings, the Symphony in C Young Composer Competition, the New York Youth Symphony First Music, The New York Virtuoso Singers, Maui Arts & Cultural Center, and the Renée B Fisher Foundation. Itoh's music has been performed by the Albany Symphony, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Ensemble Échappé, Ossia New Music, the New York Youth Symphony, Symphony in C, the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra (Poland), the Shanghai Quartet, the St. Lawrence Quartet, the Cassatt Quartet, the Momenta Quartet, Invoke Quartet, Sara Davis Buechner, Jeffrey Jacob, Joseph Lin, Ignace Jang, Syzygy Ensemble (Australia), H2 Quartet, Kyo-Shin-An Arts, the Music from Copland House, the Varied Trio, Kojiro Umezaki, HUB New Music Ensemble, Duo Yumeno, Post-Haste Reed Duo, Pro Musica Nipponia, and Linda Chatterton. In addition, his works can be heard on Albany and Blue Griffin Records, and is published by Theodore Presser, Resolute Music, and Murphy Music Press. In 2015, Itoh scored the music for the short film Salesi directed by Garin Nugroho and Vilsoni Hereniko that was featured at the Honolulu Film Festival. Itoh has been a fellow at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, Cabrillo Composer Workshop, Wellesley Composers Conference, Copland House CULTIVATE, Pacific Music Festival and the Aspen Music Festival. He holds degrees from Cornell University, University of Michigan, and Rice University. His past teachers include Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra, William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, Shih-Hui Chen, Anthony Brandt, Pierre Jalbert, and Karim Al-Zand. Since 2012, Itoh has been teaching at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa where he serves as an Associate Professor of Music. Program notes
Leilehua Lanzilotti: koʻu inoa (2017) — Asian premiere
Described as "a homesick bariolage based on the anthem Hawaiʻi Aloha," koʻu inoa exists in several forms. Lanzilotti began composing the original solo viola work by playing the anthem in Germany to feel closer to home, taking time to explore the soothing melody, and feeling the resonant vibrations of home through the fingers on strings. Since its premiere in 2017, koʻu inoa has found continuing international life in solo violin and solo cello incarnations, often in the hands of fellow Hawaiʻi-born artists who also feel the homeward calling. The work extensively uses bariolage, a string technique whereby notes rapidly alternate between fingered pitch and open strings, creating subtle shifts in timbre, an effect of creating different vowel sounds. Beginning with the cello, the bariolage alternates between the open C-string and its fingered octave. Immediately meditative and focused, the music embraces stasis, being rooted. koʻu inoa translates from ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi to "my name is" and frames a perspective and statement to absorb the meaning of identity. Melody is the most substantial element to impart musical distinction and identity. A succession of pitches is the equivalent of letters to a name. Even when the rhythm is altered, the original melody lingers and is recognizable. This connection between pitch, melody, time, and personal identity is one of many metaphors at the heart of this music. Gradually, Hawaiʻi Aloha (in the key of C-major) ebbs and flows from and through the texture, then recedes into an oceanic bariolage. The melody will even whisper when the winds exhale through the instrument without producing pitch. The anthem's presentation is not immediately recognizable. Lanzilotti removes the melody's rhythm, extracting just the pitch (not including repeated notes), and spaces them widely apart across the bariolage, a musical quilt of sorts; the tune sewn into the fabric. Lingering on each note, there is a comfort to be taken, a curated sonic pool to explore, feel, and embrace the meaning of these individual notes to the whole, at first far apart, then closer together. For five minutes, koʻu inoa invites us to listen on three planes: to listen closely (focus on immediate changes), listen broadly (connect changes over time), and listen metaphorically (distill meaning from sound). If there is an allegory in music, this is a well-spring; Lanzilotti offers the awakened Hawaiian consciousness, a journey of one distantly far from home but connected with resounding clarity. — Excerpted from program notes by Dr. Michael-Thomas Foumai, Director of Artistic Engagement and Composer-in-Residence, Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra, originally written for the orchestral premiere of koʻu inoa, April 2022
Juri Seo: One (2020) — world premiere
One comprises twelve vignettes of twelve months that are arranged in cyclic form. The performance may begin or end with the month in which the performance takes place, going through all twelve in order without breaks. The form should be conveyed to the listener ahead of performance (verbally, or as movement headings on the program). One was written in the summer of 2020 during the Coronavirus Pandemic in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. It was commissioned by and dedicated to the violinist Patrick Yim.
John Liberatore: Between Light and Shade (2023) — world premiere
This short virtuosic piece is the first in a series written for violinist Patrick Yim and drawing inspiration from Lu Hsun's Wild Grass. Patrick introduced me to this marvelous collection of aphoristic stories as a way for pairing my piece with other pieces in his repertoire. Reading the collection, I was particularly taken by the story The Shadow's Leave-Taking, in which the shadow (your shadow) says: "I shall leave you and sink into darkness. Yet darkness will swallow me up, and light also will cause me to vanish." I hesitate to assign a specific, programmatic relationship between my piece and this short story. Doing so seems antithetical to the text, with its layers of ambiguity and meaning. It would dispel the shadow, so to speak. Instead, I will say that the music and the text "fit" together in my imagination, in that mysterious way in which music interacts with the written word.
Ilari Kaila: Solitude (2021)
Dedicated to violinist Patrick Yim who commissioned the work at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with funds from Hong Kong Baptist University. Premiered in an online recital at the Chung Chi College Chapel, and broadcast as part of the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s concert series on March 14, 2022, under social distancing measure imposed during Hong Kong’s first major outbreak.
Timothy Page: Aerial Roots (2023)
Aerial Roots is a solo concert piece for violin and electronic sounds taken from a multimedia work I am creating with Finnish violinist Eriikka Maalismaa. An online, site-specific version of this piece is featured in the virtual exhibition Electric Dreams, opened on August 25, 2022 and presented by the Computational Media and Arts Thrust (CMA) at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou Campus. Among the sound sources for the work’s electronics are field recordings I gathered in Hong Kong in late February 2022, a historical moment in which silence following political upheaval coincided the with peak of the catastrophic fifth wave of the pandemic. It was possible, for example, to record the creaking of bamboo swaying lightly in the wind in the village of Wu Kau Tang, with nearly zero intrusion from the ambient urban soundscape. For me this period conjured images of Hong Kong returning to a state of nature.
Takuma Itoh: A Melody from an Unknown Place (2020)
Commissioned by violinist Patrick Yim, and premiered in Hong Kong at the CUHK's Midday Oasis recital series in 2022. Read more
Praised for his "deeply expressive, finely nuanced playing" (The Strad Magazine) and "superb performances" (Fanfare), Honolulu-born violinist Patrick Yim has performed throughout the world at venues including Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Harpa Concert Hall, Severance Hall, Orchestra Hall, Teatro alla Scala, and the Musikverein. Yim made his solo debut with the Honolulu Symphony. He has performed chamber music with members of the Juilliard, Emerson, St. Lawrence, Pacifica, and Ying Quartets, and musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and on tour with the Cleveland Orchestra in the US and Europe. Recent performances include a concert at Carnegie Hall with members of the Emerson Quartet, a collaboration with pipa virtuoso Wu Man in Lou Harrison’s Pipa Concerto, and a collaboration with Juilliard Quartet violinist Joel Smirnoff involving the premieres of two newly commissioned works. Yim has commissioned 35 works and performed them around the world as part of international music festivals, including Seoul International Computer Music Festival and the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival. His debut CD, Memory, features world premiere recordings of works by Yao Chen, Michael-Thomas Foumai, Austin Yip, Kai-Young Chan, and Chen Yi. His second CD with pianist Kiu Tung Poon featuring violin and piano music of contemporary American composers was released on the Naxos label in September 2022. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music (BM, MM) and Stony Brook University (Doctor of Musical Arts). Yim serves as Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Notre Dame. Between 2017–2021, he was Professor of Violin at Hong Kong Baptist University. He has also taught violin and chamber music at Stony Brook University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Sulzbach-Rosenberg International Music Festival, Rushmore Music Festival, Flatirons Chamber Music Festival, Har Paw ChamberFest, and the Interlochen Arts Camp, in addition to masterclasses at MIT, the Royal Academy of Music Aarhus, University of Colorado, University of Oklahoma, University of Hawaii, Central Michigan University, and many universities in Hong Kong. Leilehua Lanzilotti (b. 1983) is a Kanaka Maoli musician from Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, dedicated to the arts of our time. A “leading composer-performer” (The New York Times), Lanzilotti’s “conceptually potent” work is characterized by explorations of timbre and an interest in translating everyday sounds to concert instruments using nontraditional techniques. Lanzilotti has composed words for ensembles such as the GRAMMY-winning Roomful of Teeth, Argus Quartet, and Chamber Music Hawaiʻi. Her works have been performed at international festivals such as Ars Electronica (Austria), Thailand International Composition Festival, and Dots+Loops in Australia. Lanzilotti is the recipient of a 2020 Native Launchpad Artist Award, a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Award, 2021 McKnight Visiting Composer Residency, and 2022 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership Fellow. As a recording artist, Lanzilotti has played on albums by artists such as Björk, Joan Osborne, Dai Fujikura, and David Lang. Lanzilotti’s upcoming solo performance projects include Wayfinder, a new viola concerto by Dai Fujikura inspired by Polynesian wayfinding. Juri Seo (b. 1981) is a Korean-American composer and pianist based in New Jersey, where she works as Associate Professor of Music at Princeton University. She seeks to write music that encompasses extreme contrast through compositions that are unified and fluid, yet complex. She merges many of the fascinating aspects of music from the past century—in particular its expanded timbral palette and unorthodox approach to structure—with a deep love of functional tonality, counterpoint, and classical form. Her composition honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Koussevitzky Commission from the Library of Congress, Goddard Lieberson Fellowship and Andrew Imbrie Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Copland House Residency Award, and the Otto Eckstein Fellowship from Tanglewood. She has received commissions from the Fromm Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, the Goethe Institut, and the Tanglewood Music Center. Her portrait albums Mostly Piano and Respiri were released by Innova Recordings. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she studied with Reynold Tharp, having also attended the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, and Yonsei University, Seoul. She has been a composition fellow at the Tanglewood, Bang on a Can, and SoundSCAPE festivals, the Wellesley Composers Conference, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. John Liberatore is a composer, pianist, and one of the world’s few glass harmonica players. His music seeks poignancy through levity, ambiguity through transparency, and complexity within simple textures—“to feel pulled along at varying speeds in multiple directions, but always forward” (Cleveland Classical). Over the past several years, his music has received hundreds of performances in venues around the world. He is the recipient of Fellowships from MacDowell (2017, 2020), Tanglewood, Yaddo, the Brush Creek Arts Foundation, the I-Park Artist’s Enclave, and the Millay Colony. Other notable distinctions include commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation and the American Opera Initiative, two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, and the Brian Israel Prize. Through a 2012 Presser Music Award, he studied in Tokyo with Jo Kondo—a mentorship that made an indelible impression on his music. He has collaborated as a composer and performer with Roomful of Teeth, percussionist Daniel Druckman, soprano Jamie Jordan, and several others. In 2018, Albany Records released Line Drawings, a portrait album of Liberatore’s chamber music. The album features his recording debut on the glass harmonica (alongside Druckman and Jordan), as well as pieces for The Mivos Quartet, pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, Bent Frequency, and Duo Damiana. Other recordings of his work are available on Centaur, Innova, and Ravello record labels. A portrait album with Zohn Collective is forthcoming in 2023. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D., M.M.) and Syracuse University (B.M., summa cum laude). Ilari Kaila is a Finnish-American composer whose music has been described with words such as “haunting”, “intriguing”, “engaging … soulful” (The New York Times), “nearly unbearable beauty… A modern masterpiece” (The WholeNote), “melodically euphoric” (Rondo Classic), “hypnotic… trancelike… fascinatingly colorful” (New York Music Daily), “I kept coming back to it… the music is so beautiful, and I want to experience it again and again” (Orchestergraben—5 Best New Music Albums of 2020), “magnificent and glistening” (Amfion), “powerfully resonating” (Helsingin Sanomat), “haunting” (The New Yorker), and “Kaila brings with him an exciting message of rebirth built upon classical foundations” (Percorsi Musicali—Best of 2020). His work has been presented by the MATA Festival in New York City, including the inaugural composer portrait concert in the “MATA Continued” series (“offering return engagements by some of its brightest discoveries” — Steve Smith, The New Yorker); as the Composer-in-Residence of the Chelsea Music Festival in New York and Taipei; at the American Music Festival in Albany; the Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong; the Metropolis Festival in Australia; the Banff Centre Summer Arts Festival in Canada; and the New York International Fringe Festival. Artists and ensembles Kaila has worked with include the Escher String Quartet, Aizuri Quartet, Tanglewood New Fromm Players, Alcott Trio, Kamus Quartet, Uusinta Ensemble, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Emil Holmström, Melinda Masur, Rachel Cheung, Olli Mustonen, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Avanti Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, Joensuu Symphony Orchestra, Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra, and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s chamber ensembles. An album of Kaila’s chamber music, recorded by the Aizuri Quartet and pianist Adrienne Kim, was released on the Innova Recordings label in March 2020. Chicago-born composer, musician, and performance artist Timothy Page creates works that revolve around play with style and context, body, physical materials, and space. Page holds degrees from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, where he established himself as a composer and studied with Veli-Matti Puumala; and the University of Chicago, where he completed his PhD with mentors Augusta Read Thomas and Anthony Cheung. In 2019 he was appointed Lecturer in Music and Digital Arts at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Page is a founder and co-director of Dayjob Collective – a Helsinki-based interdisciplinary ensemble investigating meeting points between contemporary music and performance art. His works have been performed around the globe by ensembles such as Ensemble Dal Niente (US), Third Coast Percussion (US), Eighth Blackbird (US), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FI), Avanti! (FI), Uusinta (FI), Defunensemble (FI), Dayjob Collective (FI), S.E.M. Ensemble (US/CZ), Caput (IS), and Cikada (NO). Takuma Itoh spent his early childhood in Japan before moving to Northern California where he grew up. His music has been described as "brashly youthful and fresh" (New York Times). Featured amongst one of "100 Composers Under 40" on NPR Music and WQXR, he has been the recipient of such awards and commissions as: the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Music Alive: New Partnerships grant with the Tucson Symphony, the Barlow Endowment, the Chamber Music America Classical Commission, the ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prize, six ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, the Leo Kaplan Award, the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings, the Symphony in C Young Composer Competition, the New York Youth Symphony First Music, The New York Virtuoso Singers, Maui Arts & Cultural Center, and the Renée B Fisher Foundation. Itoh's music has been performed by the Albany Symphony, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Ensemble Échappé, Ossia New Music, the New York Youth Symphony, Symphony in C, the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra (Poland), the Shanghai Quartet, the St. Lawrence Quartet, the Cassatt Quartet, the Momenta Quartet, Invoke Quartet, Sara Davis Buechner, Jeffrey Jacob, Joseph Lin, Ignace Jang, Syzygy Ensemble (Australia), H2 Quartet, Kyo-Shin-An Arts, the Music from Copland House, the Varied Trio, Kojiro Umezaki, HUB New Music Ensemble, Duo Yumeno, Post-Haste Reed Duo, Pro Musica Nipponia, and Linda Chatterton. In addition, his works can be heard on Albany and Blue Griffin Records, and is published by Theodore Presser, Resolute Music, and Murphy Music Press. In 2015, Itoh scored the music for the short film Salesi directed by Garin Nugroho and Vilsoni Hereniko that was featured at the Honolulu Film Festival. Itoh has been a fellow at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, Cabrillo Composer Workshop, Wellesley Composers Conference, Copland House CULTIVATE, Pacific Music Festival and the Aspen Music Festival. He holds degrees from Cornell University, University of Michigan, and Rice University. His past teachers include Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra, William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, Shih-Hui Chen, Anthony Brandt, Pierre Jalbert, and Karim Al-Zand. Since 2012, Itoh has been teaching at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa where he serves as an Associate Professor of Music. Program notes
Leilehua Lanzilotti: koʻu inoa (2017) — Asian premiere
Described as "a homesick bariolage based on the anthem Hawaiʻi Aloha," koʻu inoa exists in several forms. Lanzilotti began composing the original solo viola work by playing the anthem in Germany to feel closer to home, taking time to explore the soothing melody, and feeling the resonant vibrations of home through the fingers on strings. Since its premiere in 2017, koʻu inoa has found continuing international life in solo violin and solo cello incarnations, often in the hands of fellow Hawaiʻi-born artists who also feel the homeward calling. The work extensively uses bariolage, a string technique whereby notes rapidly alternate between fingered pitch and open strings, creating subtle shifts in timbre, an effect of creating different vowel sounds. Beginning with the cello, the bariolage alternates between the open C-string and its fingered octave. Immediately meditative and focused, the music embraces stasis, being rooted. koʻu inoa translates from ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi to "my name is" and frames a perspective and statement to absorb the meaning of identity. Melody is the most substantial element to impart musical distinction and identity. A succession of pitches is the equivalent of letters to a name. Even when the rhythm is altered, the original melody lingers and is recognizable. This connection between pitch, melody, time, and personal identity is one of many metaphors at the heart of this music. Gradually, Hawaiʻi Aloha (in the key of C-major) ebbs and flows from and through the texture, then recedes into an oceanic bariolage. The melody will even whisper when the winds exhale through the instrument without producing pitch. The anthem's presentation is not immediately recognizable. Lanzilotti removes the melody's rhythm, extracting just the pitch (not including repeated notes), and spaces them widely apart across the bariolage, a musical quilt of sorts; the tune sewn into the fabric. Lingering on each note, there is a comfort to be taken, a curated sonic pool to explore, feel, and embrace the meaning of these individual notes to the whole, at first far apart, then closer together. For five minutes, koʻu inoa invites us to listen on three planes: to listen closely (focus on immediate changes), listen broadly (connect changes over time), and listen metaphorically (distill meaning from sound). If there is an allegory in music, this is a well-spring; Lanzilotti offers the awakened Hawaiian consciousness, a journey of one distantly far from home but connected with resounding clarity. — Excerpted from program notes by Dr. Michael-Thomas Foumai, Director of Artistic Engagement and Composer-in-Residence, Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra, originally written for the orchestral premiere of koʻu inoa, April 2022
Juri Seo: One (2020) — world premiere
One comprises twelve vignettes of twelve months that are arranged in cyclic form. The performance may begin or end with the month in which the performance takes place, going through all twelve in order without breaks. The form should be conveyed to the listener ahead of performance (verbally, or as movement headings on the program). One was written in the summer of 2020 during the Coronavirus Pandemic in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. It was commissioned by and dedicated to the violinist Patrick Yim.
John Liberatore: Between Light and Shade (2023) — world premiere
This short virtuosic piece is the first in a series written for violinist Patrick Yim and drawing inspiration from Lu Hsun's Wild Grass. Patrick introduced me to this marvelous collection of aphoristic stories as a way for pairing my piece with other pieces in his repertoire. Reading the collection, I was particularly taken by the story The Shadow's Leave-Taking, in which the shadow (your shadow) says: "I shall leave you and sink into darkness. Yet darkness will swallow me up, and light also will cause me to vanish." I hesitate to assign a specific, programmatic relationship between my piece and this short story. Doing so seems antithetical to the text, with its layers of ambiguity and meaning. It would dispel the shadow, so to speak. Instead, I will say that the music and the text "fit" together in my imagination, in that mysterious way in which music interacts with the written word.
Ilari Kaila: Solitude (2021)
Dedicated to violinist Patrick Yim who commissioned the work at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with funds from Hong Kong Baptist University. Premiered in an online recital at the Chung Chi College Chapel, and broadcast as part of the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s concert series on March 14, 2022, under social distancing measure imposed during Hong Kong’s first major outbreak.
Timothy Page: Aerial Roots (2023)
Aerial Roots is a solo concert piece for violin and electronic sounds taken from a multimedia work I am creating with Finnish violinist Eriikka Maalismaa. An online, site-specific version of this piece is featured in the virtual exhibition Electric Dreams, opened on August 25, 2022 and presented by the Computational Media and Arts Thrust (CMA) at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou Campus. Among the sound sources for the work’s electronics are field recordings I gathered in Hong Kong in late February 2022, a historical moment in which silence following political upheaval coincided the with peak of the catastrophic fifth wave of the pandemic. It was possible, for example, to record the creaking of bamboo swaying lightly in the wind in the village of Wu Kau Tang, with nearly zero intrusion from the ambient urban soundscape. For me this period conjured images of Hong Kong returning to a state of nature.
Takuma Itoh: A Melody from an Unknown Place (2020)
Commissioned by violinist Patrick Yim, and premiered in Hong Kong at the CUHK's Midday Oasis recital series in 2022. Read more
23 Feb 2023 07:30 PM
Prof. Patrick Yim (University of Notre Dame, United States) is an internationally noted violinist and music pedagogue. In this masterclass, HKUST's outstanding string instrument students perform and receive coaching from Prof. Yim in front of a live audience.
The event is free and open to the public.
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Sonata no. 8 in G major, op. 30, no. 3 (1803)
III. Allegro vivace
Peter Yeh, violin Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor (1904)
I. Allegro moderato
Sonia Choy, violin Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor (1904)
III. Allegro, ma non tanto
Anthony Wong, violin Dmitri Shostakovich: Cello Concerto no. 1 in Eb major (1959)
I. Allegretto
Christopher Tim Ng, cello
Accompanists: Coco Liu (Beethoven), Rod Yu (Sibelius, Shostakovich) Bio Praised for his "deeply expressive, finely nuanced playing" (The Strad Magazine) and "superb performances" (Fanfare), Honolulu-born violinist Patrick Yim has performed throughout the world at venues including Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Harpa Concert Hall, Severance Hall, Orchestra Hall, Teatro alla Scala, and the Musikverein. Yim made his solo debut with the Honolulu Symphony. He has performed chamber music with members of the Juilliard, Emerson, St. Lawrence, Pacifica, and Ying Quartets, and musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and on tour with the Cleveland Orchestra in the US and Europe. Recent performances include a concert at Carnegie Hall with members of the Emerson Quartet, a collaboration with pipa virtuoso Wu Man in Lou Harrison’s Pipa Concerto, and a collaboration with Juilliard Quartet violinist Joel Smirnoff involving the premieres of two newly commissioned works. Yim has commissioned 35 works and performed them around the world as part of international music festivals, including Seoul International Computer Music Festival and the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival. His debut CD, Memory, features world premiere recordings of works by Yao Chen, Michael-Thomas Foumai, Austin Yip, Kai-Young Chan, and Chen Yi. His second CD with pianist Kiu Tung Poon featuring violin and piano music of contemporary American composers was released on the Naxos label in September 2022. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music (BM, MM) and Stony Brook University (Doctor of Musical Arts). Yim serves as Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Notre Dame. Between 2017–2021, he was Professor of Violin at Hong Kong Baptist University. He has also taught violin and chamber music at Stony Brook University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Sulzbach-Rosenberg International Music Festival, Rushmore Music Festival, Flatirons Chamber Music Festival, Har Paw ChamberFest, and the Interlochen Arts Camp, in addition to masterclasses at MIT, the Royal Academy of Music Aarhus, University of Colorado, University of Oklahoma, University of Hawaii, Central Michigan University, and many universities in Hong Kong. Read more
III. Allegro vivace
Peter Yeh, violin Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor (1904)
I. Allegro moderato
Sonia Choy, violin Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor (1904)
III. Allegro, ma non tanto
Anthony Wong, violin Dmitri Shostakovich: Cello Concerto no. 1 in Eb major (1959)
I. Allegretto
Christopher Tim Ng, cello
Accompanists: Coco Liu (Beethoven), Rod Yu (Sibelius, Shostakovich) Bio Praised for his "deeply expressive, finely nuanced playing" (The Strad Magazine) and "superb performances" (Fanfare), Honolulu-born violinist Patrick Yim has performed throughout the world at venues including Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Harpa Concert Hall, Severance Hall, Orchestra Hall, Teatro alla Scala, and the Musikverein. Yim made his solo debut with the Honolulu Symphony. He has performed chamber music with members of the Juilliard, Emerson, St. Lawrence, Pacifica, and Ying Quartets, and musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and on tour with the Cleveland Orchestra in the US and Europe. Recent performances include a concert at Carnegie Hall with members of the Emerson Quartet, a collaboration with pipa virtuoso Wu Man in Lou Harrison’s Pipa Concerto, and a collaboration with Juilliard Quartet violinist Joel Smirnoff involving the premieres of two newly commissioned works. Yim has commissioned 35 works and performed them around the world as part of international music festivals, including Seoul International Computer Music Festival and the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival. His debut CD, Memory, features world premiere recordings of works by Yao Chen, Michael-Thomas Foumai, Austin Yip, Kai-Young Chan, and Chen Yi. His second CD with pianist Kiu Tung Poon featuring violin and piano music of contemporary American composers was released on the Naxos label in September 2022. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music (BM, MM) and Stony Brook University (Doctor of Musical Arts). Yim serves as Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Notre Dame. Between 2017–2021, he was Professor of Violin at Hong Kong Baptist University. He has also taught violin and chamber music at Stony Brook University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Sulzbach-Rosenberg International Music Festival, Rushmore Music Festival, Flatirons Chamber Music Festival, Har Paw ChamberFest, and the Interlochen Arts Camp, in addition to masterclasses at MIT, the Royal Academy of Music Aarhus, University of Colorado, University of Oklahoma, University of Hawaii, Central Michigan University, and many universities in Hong Kong. Read more
16 Feb 2024 07:30 PM
Pianist Chris Carpio and his quartet perform a dynamic set of original acoustic and electric jazz, including music from their new fusion project Soul Funk’d Ape. Mainstays of the jazz world in Hong Kong and top representatives of the city’s vibrant Filipino musician scene, Carpio and his quartet groove hard whether plugged in or unplugged.
The event is free and open to the public. REGISTER Bios
The Chris Carpio Quartet is a modern jazz ensemble based in Hong Kong with a style that combines multiple genres to create its own distinctive sound. Known for their high energy performances, the band has appeared at clubs, concert halls, and high-profile jazz events across Asia.
Chris Carpio, keyboard
Surrounded by music and rhythm since birth, Chris Carpio’s journey as a musician has been unique. From being a passionate sportsman who represented Hong Kong Rugby U20s, to performing in and directing many prestigious events and projects around the globe, his life experiences have had a great influence on his musical creativity.
Whether working as a session musician, composer, arranger, or musical director, Chris strives for perfection, as was noted by Tatler Hong Kong in their inaugural Generation T List. In 2022, Chris was showcased in two concerts, “Carpio Brothers: Back to the Dickens,” featuring the Tony Carpio Big Band, and “The Little Giant: Michel Petrucciani Tribute” in collaboration with French May Hong Kong.
Alongside his performances, Chris’s passion for music has led him to educating and inspiring others.
Bernard Carpio, saxophone
Bernard found his love for music at a very early age. From the age of three, he would lead his father’s big band around Dickens Bar with his toy saxophone as they completed their final songs for the afternoon. Now an established performer, he is the frontman for a big band and has also been featured by several top Hong Kong artists, such as Kenny B and Teresa Carpio.
In 2022, he co-hosted the concert “Carpio Brothers: Back to the Dickens” with his brother Chris, performing the big band music of their childhood, their father's compositions and jazz classics with their own twist.
As he has developed into a world-class saxophonist, Bernard has worked to bring more awareness to jazz and other live music traditions in Hong Kong and around the world.
Huang Tzu Yu (Fish), drums
Huang is a Taiwanese drummer based in Hong Kong and Taipei. After becoming the youngest winner of Best Drummer of Yamaha Asian Beat Grand Final, he began playing jazz professionally around the world. Adept in various genres and styles, Huang’s skills are also much sought after in the Mandopop and Cantopop scenes, and he has participated in countless pop music productions and concerts.
In 2014 and 2015, he played with Crowd Lu for his Taipei Arena concerts and several music festivals; in 2015 he became bandleader for Sky Wu’s tour playing with him throughout Asia in almost 20 concerts. In 2016, he toured with Aga (Agatha Kong). He was also the drummer on Andy Lau’s world tour “My Love Andy Lau.” He was a member of the jury for the 2020 Golden Indie Music Awards and hosts the YouTube Channel “Fish Huang on Drums.” He is currently working on the band R.O.O.T’s new album.
Huang is an endorser for Canopus Drums, Meinl Cymbals & Schlagwerk.
Jezrael Lucero, bass
Blind since birth but endowed with perfect pitch, Jezrael Lucero was singing Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night” at the age of 13 months, playing classical concertos on the piano at age two, and has been performing at hotels and appearing on TV shows since he was four. A tremendously gifted jazz pianist whose fingers can prance on the keyboard like praying mantises or scramble like frenzied locusts, Lucero is also a singer, arranger, drummer, guitarist, and bass player. Read more
The event is free and open to the public. REGISTER Bios
The Chris Carpio Quartet is a modern jazz ensemble based in Hong Kong with a style that combines multiple genres to create its own distinctive sound. Known for their high energy performances, the band has appeared at clubs, concert halls, and high-profile jazz events across Asia.
Chris Carpio, keyboard
Surrounded by music and rhythm since birth, Chris Carpio’s journey as a musician has been unique. From being a passionate sportsman who represented Hong Kong Rugby U20s, to performing in and directing many prestigious events and projects around the globe, his life experiences have had a great influence on his musical creativity.
Whether working as a session musician, composer, arranger, or musical director, Chris strives for perfection, as was noted by Tatler Hong Kong in their inaugural Generation T List. In 2022, Chris was showcased in two concerts, “Carpio Brothers: Back to the Dickens,” featuring the Tony Carpio Big Band, and “The Little Giant: Michel Petrucciani Tribute” in collaboration with French May Hong Kong.
Alongside his performances, Chris’s passion for music has led him to educating and inspiring others.
Bernard Carpio, saxophone
Bernard found his love for music at a very early age. From the age of three, he would lead his father’s big band around Dickens Bar with his toy saxophone as they completed their final songs for the afternoon. Now an established performer, he is the frontman for a big band and has also been featured by several top Hong Kong artists, such as Kenny B and Teresa Carpio.
In 2022, he co-hosted the concert “Carpio Brothers: Back to the Dickens” with his brother Chris, performing the big band music of their childhood, their father's compositions and jazz classics with their own twist.
As he has developed into a world-class saxophonist, Bernard has worked to bring more awareness to jazz and other live music traditions in Hong Kong and around the world.
Huang Tzu Yu (Fish), drums
Huang is a Taiwanese drummer based in Hong Kong and Taipei. After becoming the youngest winner of Best Drummer of Yamaha Asian Beat Grand Final, he began playing jazz professionally around the world. Adept in various genres and styles, Huang’s skills are also much sought after in the Mandopop and Cantopop scenes, and he has participated in countless pop music productions and concerts.
In 2014 and 2015, he played with Crowd Lu for his Taipei Arena concerts and several music festivals; in 2015 he became bandleader for Sky Wu’s tour playing with him throughout Asia in almost 20 concerts. In 2016, he toured with Aga (Agatha Kong). He was also the drummer on Andy Lau’s world tour “My Love Andy Lau.” He was a member of the jury for the 2020 Golden Indie Music Awards and hosts the YouTube Channel “Fish Huang on Drums.” He is currently working on the band R.O.O.T’s new album.
Huang is an endorser for Canopus Drums, Meinl Cymbals & Schlagwerk.
Jezrael Lucero, bass
Blind since birth but endowed with perfect pitch, Jezrael Lucero was singing Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night” at the age of 13 months, playing classical concertos on the piano at age two, and has been performing at hotels and appearing on TV shows since he was four. A tremendously gifted jazz pianist whose fingers can prance on the keyboard like praying mantises or scramble like frenzied locusts, Lucero is also a singer, arranger, drummer, guitarist, and bass player. Read more
21 Feb 2024 05:00 PM
Following a performance with his quartet at the Cosmopolis Festival (February 16, 7:30 PM, Shaw Auditorium), jazz pianist Chris Carpio will lead preselected student musicians in techniques of jazz improvisation.
The event is free and open to the public. REGISTER Bio
Surrounded by music and rhythm since birth, Chris Carpio’s journey as a musician has been unique. From being a passionate sportsman who represented Hong Kong Rugby U20s, to performing in and directing many prestigious events and projects around the globe, his life experiences have had a great influence on his musical creativity.
Whether working as a session musician, composer, arranger, or musical director, Chris strives for perfection, as was noted by Tatler Hong Kong in their inaugural Generation T List. In 2022, Chris was showcased in two concerts, “Carpio Brothers: Back to the Dickens,” featuring the Tony Carpio Big Band, and “The Little Giant: Michel Petrucciani Tribute” in collaboration with French May Hong Kong.
Alongside his performances, Chris’s passion for music has led him to educating and inspiring others. Read more
The event is free and open to the public. REGISTER Bio
Surrounded by music and rhythm since birth, Chris Carpio’s journey as a musician has been unique. From being a passionate sportsman who represented Hong Kong Rugby U20s, to performing in and directing many prestigious events and projects around the globe, his life experiences have had a great influence on his musical creativity.
Whether working as a session musician, composer, arranger, or musical director, Chris strives for perfection, as was noted by Tatler Hong Kong in their inaugural Generation T List. In 2022, Chris was showcased in two concerts, “Carpio Brothers: Back to the Dickens,” featuring the Tony Carpio Big Band, and “The Little Giant: Michel Petrucciani Tribute” in collaboration with French May Hong Kong.
Alongside his performances, Chris’s passion for music has led him to educating and inspiring others. Read more
21 Feb 2024 07:30 PM
Filipino musicians have long had a central role in Hong Kong’s musical nightlife and entertainment. Pianist Chris Carpio will talk about his life as a member of, and an heir to, a Filipino music dynasty in Hong Kong, particularly as a jazz pianist. The talk will be moderated by ethnomusicologist Dr. Mercedes Dujunco, whose research addresses relationships between Filipino musicians in Asia and music as affective labor.
The event is free and open to the public. REGISTER Bio
Surrounded by music and rhythm since birth, Chris Carpio’s journey as a musician has been unique. From being a passionate sportsman who represented Hong Kong Rugby U20s, to performing in and directing many prestigious events and projects around the globe, his life experiences have had a great influence on his musical creativity.
Whether working as a session musician, composer, arranger, or musical director, Chris strives for perfection, as was noted by Tatler Hong Kong in their inaugural Generation T List. In 2022, Chris was showcased in two concerts, “Carpio Brothers: Back to the Dickens,” featuring the Tony Carpio Big Band, and “The Little Giant: Michel Petrucciani Tribute” in collaboration with French May Hong Kong.
Alongside his performances, Chris’s passion for music has led him to educating and inspiring others.
Mercedes M. Dujunco is currently Senior Lecturer in the Division of Humanities of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where she teaches ethnomusicology content courses as well as other music courses using an ethnomusicological perspective such as the undergraduate arts and humanities core course “East Asian Popular Music”. Her research areas include the string-and-wind ensemble traditions of China’s southeast coastal regions, particularly that of the Chaoshan region in eastern Guangdong, called Chaozhou xianshi; the music of the Chaozhou (Teochew) diaspora in Southeast Asia; and art and popular music in the Philippines. She has published papers on Chinese popular music in mainland China and on the funeral ritual and music of the Chaozhou community in Southeast Asia. She is currently working on producing a monograph about affective labor and Filipino musicians in Asia. Read more
The event is free and open to the public. REGISTER Bio
Surrounded by music and rhythm since birth, Chris Carpio’s journey as a musician has been unique. From being a passionate sportsman who represented Hong Kong Rugby U20s, to performing in and directing many prestigious events and projects around the globe, his life experiences have had a great influence on his musical creativity.
Whether working as a session musician, composer, arranger, or musical director, Chris strives for perfection, as was noted by Tatler Hong Kong in their inaugural Generation T List. In 2022, Chris was showcased in two concerts, “Carpio Brothers: Back to the Dickens,” featuring the Tony Carpio Big Band, and “The Little Giant: Michel Petrucciani Tribute” in collaboration with French May Hong Kong.
Alongside his performances, Chris’s passion for music has led him to educating and inspiring others.
Mercedes M. Dujunco is currently Senior Lecturer in the Division of Humanities of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where she teaches ethnomusicology content courses as well as other music courses using an ethnomusicological perspective such as the undergraduate arts and humanities core course “East Asian Popular Music”. Her research areas include the string-and-wind ensemble traditions of China’s southeast coastal regions, particularly that of the Chaoshan region in eastern Guangdong, called Chaozhou xianshi; the music of the Chaozhou (Teochew) diaspora in Southeast Asia; and art and popular music in the Philippines. She has published papers on Chinese popular music in mainland China and on the funeral ritual and music of the Chaozhou community in Southeast Asia. She is currently working on producing a monograph about affective labor and Filipino musicians in Asia. Read more