PROGRAM NOTES

Viet Cuong - Well-Groomed

Recently featured as one of The Washington Post‘s “21 for ’21: Composers and performers who sound like tomorrow,” Viet Cuong (b.1990, Marietta, GA) writes captivating, “wildly inventive” music (The New York Times) that explores the unexpected and whimsical.

Cuong is often drawn to projects where he can make peculiar combinations and sounds feel enchanting or oddly satisfying, as is certainly the case of Well-Groomed, which combines the the three simple components of a plastic card, a hair comb, and a snare drum to create a hypnotically alluring and unique sound world. Written for the 2019 Modern Snare Drum Competition, this short work is sure to invigorate the repertoire with its quirky humor, original vocabulary, and unexpected beauty.

Ke-Chia Chen - Taiwanese Children’s Games

A graduate of and current faculty member of the Curtis Institute, Ke-Chia Chen (b. 1979, Taichung, Taiwan) has received great acclaim for her work in both Asia and America, with commissions from the Philadelphia Orchestra and Taiwan Philharmonic and performances by leading ensembles and soloists worldwide. Chen fuses her inspirations from Western and Asian classical traditions into a unique personal voice that speaks directly to listeners of either heritage. 

In the composer’s own words, “Taiwanese Children’s Games contains four individual movements, each representing one type of traditional Taiwanese Children’s game. 

I. Hoop Rolling.  To roll a metal hoop on the ground requires great control and balance. The player needs to run and roll the hoop and at the same time trace the hoop. Sometimes the hoop stops suddenly and sometimes it unexpectedly runs off the path. In the beginning of this movement, the main theme contains a group of running notes followed by a sudden stop that depicts the essence of this game – motion and pause. 

II. Sword Play.  This movement presents an image of children playing the roles of heroes or heroines during a mock fight. In this game, children often play with plastic or wooden swords imbued with imaginary powers. In this movement, the melody represents the excitement of this game with clusters depicting the sound of clashing swords in an epic battle. 

III. Haunted House.  Many dissonant chords are heard in this movement. These chords provide a sense of tension and uncertainty recalling memories of walking inside of a holiday haunted house. 

IV. Yo-Yo.  The final movement contains many running notes between both pianos. The rapid passages and the use of a wide register best represents the bouncing, mesmerizing character of the Yo-Yo.

All in all the different kinds of musical expressions in this work mimic the images of children playing these games and the emotional excitement therein.”

Paul Chihara - Haiku

With an extensive catalogue of concert works performed worldwide as well as over 100 film score credits, Paul Chihara (b. 1938, Seattle, WA) is a true giant among living Asian-American composers. His many successes and generous mentorship of younger musicians defy the early trauma of his childhood as a prisoner of the U.S. government for three years in the WW II-era Minidoka Relocation Center.

Chihara’s eclectic work covers stylistic ground from serialism to jazz, and often incorporates elements of Japanese or other Asian culture, as in his lyrical Haiku for two flutes. In three short movements, Haiku, Song, and Ragu (rag), Chihara explores the delicate sonorities of the flute duo with elements of both Japanese folk music and early American jazz.

Jiyoun Chung - Freestyle Battle

The work of composer and pianist Jiyoun Chung (b. 1982, South Korea) has received many distinctions and awards and is often heard in festivals and concerts in Asia, Europe, and the United States. She currently resides in Seattle and is a Lecturer in composition at Central Washington University. Chung’s current interest in composition lies in encompassing various cultural influences into her works. Her own identity as a Korean immigrant plays a big factor in her music making. Having two different cultural perspectives as she has enculturated into the United States allows her to see one culture as an abundant source of creations from the point of view of the other. Thus, embracing both in the compositional process comes naturally to her, however, Chung’s works are not limited to the fusion of Korean and concert music. While the wealth of inspiration derives from the East Asian culture, other inspiration comes from various musical portraits and genres such as contemporary concert music, K-pop, jazz, musical theater, hip-hop, street music, and world traditional music. Languages, structures, timbres, and vocabularies from those different musical arts have expanded her musical palette, which helps to speak to a broad range of audiences.

Freestyle Battle is very representative of Chung’s approach, drawing from the street culture of B-boy dancing to create an analogous musical vocabulary reflecting the gestures, rhythms, and expressive physicality of this art form.

Dai Fuikura - Akiko’s Piano

The United Kingdom-based Dai Fujikura (b. 1977, Osaka, Japan) is one of the most prominent and prolific composers today, with sensational success in Europe, Japan, and more recently in the United States as well. The composer of several operas, many large scale orchestral works, chamber music, as well as film, collaborative and experimental works, Fujikura also works as a producer, curator, and teaches composition to children ages 4-14 at an El Sistema Japan program in Fukushima.

Akiko’s Piano is a short solo work excerpted from Fujikura’s 4th piano concerto of the same title, written for and dedicated to the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra's Peace and Music Ambassador, Martha Argerich. Here, in the composer’s own words, is an explanation of the title: “In Hiroshima, there is a piano that survived the atomic bomb, the smashed glass window from the blast is still stuck to the piano’s body. This piano belonged to a 19-year-old girl, Akiko. Akiko was born in LA to Japanese parents. There was a strong friendship, especially in L.A., between the American and Japanese people before the Second World War. Akiko got the piano when she was still in America, this piano is also American, Baldwin, made in Cincinnati. When Akiko was six, she and her parents moved to Japan, to live in Hiroshima. She kept practicing the piano, having lessons, and when she was 19 years old, while she was working as a mobilized student, the atomic bomb was dropped. She walked and swam as the bridge had been destroyed, to her home where her parents were that day. Then, the next day, she died in her parents’ arms. Her parents cremated their daughter’s body under a big persimmon tree which still exists today. Her last words were ‘Mom, I want to have a red tomato.’ Though naturally this work will have ‘music for peace’ as its main message, as a composer I like to concentrate on the personal point of view. This microscopic view to tell the universal subject, is the way to go, I feel, in my compositions: the view of Akiko's, ordinary 19-year-old-girl who didn’t have any power over politics (and she was born in US, which means she is also an American). At the time of her death, she didn’t know what had happened, or what killed her (radiation poisoning, as she didn’t die from the initial blast). There must be similar stories to that of this 19-year-old girl in every war in history and in every country in the world. Every war will have had an ‘Akiko.’”

Wu Man - Glimpses of Muqam Chebiyat

Recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Grammy Award–nominated musician Wu Man (b. 1963, Hangzhao, China) has carved out a career as a soloist, educator, and composer giving her lute-like instrument — which has a history of over 2,000 years in China — a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. Though a longtime collaborator as a performer with the Kronos Quartet, Glimpses of Muqam Chebiyat is her first work written for the ensemble, as part of the Kronos 50 for 50 commission initiative.

About this work, Wu Man writes: “Glimpses of Muqam Chebiyat is adapted from the Uyghur Muqam Chebiyat. I feel quite grateful to be able to bring these old styles of traditional music — Uyghur Muqam, Jiangnan Silk-and-Bamboo music, and ancient pipa music — into the repertoire of Western string ensembles. The left-hand portamento, or sliding, technique called for here is quite distinct from the types of expression found in Western music. I hope that audiences will come to better understand the richness and diversity of music from China through these stories.”

Hiromi Uehara - BQE

From her first piano lessons at age 6, Hiromi Uehara (b. 1979, Hamamatsu, Japan) was encouraged to explore multiple genres of music, as well as improvising and composition. A chance meeting with Chick Corea at age 14 in Tokyo led to a number of opportunities including training at the Berklee School of Music and collaborations with mentors including Ahmad Jamal and Stanley Clarke.

Hiromi’s uniquely exuberant virtuosity shines no brighter than in her blisteringly virtuosic solo piano work, BQE, which Hiromi describes as a metaphor for the duality of fantasy (the iconic Manhattan skyline as seen from the essential outer-borough artery of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) and reality (the frenetic energy of trying to survive while driving said expressway). In her own words, Hiromi says “You have to take that expressway, and when I'm on it, I'm facing the reality, and to the side, there is a dream, and that really makes me think that when you want to catch a dream, you have to face the reality!”

Program notes by Kenji Bunch, Artistic Director.