Chamber Music - Hymm to the Fallen and Recessional
Guo Shang and Li Hun are the last two chapters of Jiu Ge (Nine Songs), a poem selection from an ancient Chinese anthology of poems, Chu Ci(Songs of Chu), by Qu Yuan. In Jiu Ge (Nine Songs), Guo Shang shows the most lamenting emotion for the fallen soldiers and Li Hun is a short concluding hymn or recessional. The two-movement of chamber music works are taken from Guo Shang: Hymn to the Fallen and Li Hun: Recessional. The composer restore the Chinese ancestors' perennial celebration of life and fear of the nature with skilled modern composing techniques. The Song cycle, Taking Leave of a Friend composed by Shen Yiwen will also be performed at the concert, which was commissioned by American soprano Dawn Upshaw and the Carnegie Hall.
Shen Yiwen
Shen Yiwen, a young composer and doctor of the Juilliard School. He won the silver award of the Chinese Golden Bell Award (the gold award is vacant), and both the third award and excellence award of the Chinese National Composi-tion Competitions, first prize from SCI/ASCAP Composition Commission, title of ’outstanding’ composers’ from American IBLA international competition, best band work and best chamber music work at Juilliard School. His works has been performed in Beijing Concert Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, the Carnegie Hall in New York, and Lincoln Center for several times. Shen Yiwen’s music has been praised as “a jaunty, vibrantly scored canvas" and "with a lucid, economical lyricism handed down by Barber and Rorem’ by The New York Times.
