Rising Artists' Works

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Chamber Music - Death and the Maiden

Loosely based on Nobel Prize Winner Elfriede Jelineks play, Zolans composition discards the profound philosophical and even obscure metaphorical elements in the original work, and interprets the lifetime paradoxical development of women from the unique musical perspective. In contrast to the playwrights parallel exploration to the six female characters from fairy tales or real life, Zolan takes an arresting music expedition into an individual woman, who, like everyone, is born with the Six Desires - a Buddhism concept, i.e. six sensory pleasures derived from the eyes, ears, nose, body and mind - vastly enriching the experience and understanding of life. The work consists of three movements: Respiration, Throbbing, and Rebirth. ZolanBorn in Inner Mongolia, Zolan studied music composition in Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. After graduation, she went to France to pursue her degree in Senior Composer at Ecole Normale de la Musique de Paris, learning from Yoshihisa Taira and Edith Lejet. Zolan has held a number of solo concerts in Robert-Schumann Hochschule Duesseldorf in Germany, Beijing National Library Concert Hall, Beijing 798 Space and many other places in China. She has produced 3 personal albums of contemporary Chamber Music since 2004. She also composes for films and plays. As an improvising musician, she has worked with Chinese and international musicians in experimental live performances.

Music 2012

New Music-Media Theatre - Mirror Mind

A cross-over experiment combining dramatic performance, live percussion, interactive multi-channel electronic music and new-media visual arts, Minds Mirror expects to explore the multi-layered nature of human being by rendering the reciprocal reflection of ones inside and outside world with a "pan-acoustic" narrative approach. The Kunqu performer tries to talk with the digital illumination and his reflection in mirror initiating a dialogue between sound and image, and then break up with them, which causes a series of wobble, distortion, metamorphosis and sublimation… The production and rehearsal process of the work is inside the Shanghai Key Laboratory for Art of Musical Acoustics and supported by Construction Program for In-novative Research Team, Shanghai Institutions of Higher Education (2ndPhase). (Co-commissioned by CSIAF & Shanghai Conservatory of Music)Lyrics (partly from Chuang-tzu)Youre not a fish how do you know what fish enjoy?Youre not me, so how do you know I dont know what fish enjoy?A little while ago you were still and now youre walking;A little while ago you were walking and now youre still,You are not me, either not him; perhaps me, perhaps him; to be or not to be… Qin YiComposer Qin Yi is a lecturer in the Music Engineering Department of Shanghai Conservatory of Music. As a member of Touch Sound - New Music-Media Group, she has been awarded the First Prize in 2006 Tsang-Houei Hsu International Music Composition Competition, the Second and Third Prize of the 4th and 8th "Chinese Music Jin Zhong Award" Awards respectively, and the Honorary Mentions in 2008 Prix Ars Electronica Digital Music Category. Her works have been featured in numerous international arts festivals in USA, Germany, France, Holland, Austria, Luxembourg, Australia, Singapore and China, etc. Her music, Shadow of Sound, was described as "hard not to be entranced" by the New York Times. Mirror Mind is created by "Touch Sound" - an open team of originality and production in new music-media consisted of composers, engineers, new-media artists, and performing artists. The group devotes itself to the technological exploration and research in electronic music, new-media arts, visualized music, contemporary sonic arts and installation, as well as experimental music composition and staging practice. It promotes the cross-media field cooperation concerning art and technology which based on innovative ideals from Chinese traditional culture. Touch Sound - New Music-Media Group, established by Professor Chen Qiangbin of Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2006, has the professor himself as its Art Director, and several composers and electronic artists of the new generation like Qin Yi, Xu Zhibo, Fang Dalei as its core members. For recent years, the team members have not only won plentiful awards home and abroad, but also created more than ten concerts and sound installation exhibitions with brand new concepts. With those events, it has accumulated abundant works of electronic music, new music-media and sound installation. The Group represents the pioneer of Chinese contemporary electronic music and new music-media. Mirror Mind manages to invite Da Yan, the creative director in Novatrio new media emsemble, as the Visual Interactive Art Designer and Director, Wu Shuang, national first-level actor in Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, winner of the 12th Wenhua Performance Award, as its main performer, and Zhang Zujing as the percussion performer.

Music 2012

Mini Violin Concerto - Three and a Half Phrases

San Ju Ban (Three and a Half Phrases) is a kind of Chinese traditional folk operatic performing form, which consists of three long phrases and a half length phrase. The composer integrates the folk-song-styled melody of "San Ju Ban" with the contemporary composition technique in a natural and ravishing way. It not only well communicates the wits of the Chinese traditional drama, but also grants the musician with the freedom to highlight the keen emotion and consummate skills. The eponymous solo piece was ever selected the mandatory repertoire of the Menuhin Competition Beijing 2012, and now developed to the concerto starring Li Zeyu, the extraordinarily gifted violinist, with the accompaniment of Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra. Tian JinglunBorn in Qingdao, Shandong province, Tian Jinglun began her studies in the Middle School of the Chinese Conservatory of Music with Li Lifu at the age of 16, and has continued her studies at the Central Conservatory of Music with Liu Yuan since 2008. Given the title ‘Excellent Student, she also received the China National Scholarship and the Excellent Student Scholarship. Tian has won prizes in many composition competitions. Her work Three and a Half Phrases have been selected for the Menuhin Competition Beijing 2012, and this work was performed by every entry of the Senior Semi-finals of the competition; her major compositions cover different styles and orchestrations of chamber music. Zeyu Victor Li Zeyu Victor Li is honored as a musical prodigy. Entering Curtis Institute of Music when he was 14 years old (2010), he was the youngest violin student there from Asia. Aaron Rosand, the world renowned violinist and educator speaks highly of his youngest student. Early in China, Victor excelled with his consummate violin skills and innate musical talent. He won the Gold Award of Junior Division, and the only award for Chinese work performance in the Ninth National Youth Violin Competition in Qingdao, 2009; he won the New Creations Performance Award (Composer Prize) in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in 2012; and he was awarded First Place of Senior Division in the concerto competition in Summit Music Festival in New York, 2012. In 2009, Victor was invited to participate in the 5th anniversary of the restoration of Weekly Radio Concert held at Shanghai Concert Hall, as well as the 50th anniversary of the naming of the hall. In 2010, he was invited to perform solo the Sibelius D minor Violin Concerto in Shanghai Spring International Music Festival. In April 2009, while communicating with internationally eminent violin virtuoso Pinchas Zukerman in Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Victor Li was praised as "a genius with a bright future". Since Victor entered Curtis, he has performed in Carnegie Hall in New York, and several times in Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. He participated in the American Summer Music Festival at MANN CENTER on May 11th, 2012.

Music 2012

Contemporary Dance - Sprawling Darkness

The choreography took inspiration from the novel The Everlasting Regret by the prominent Shanghai female writer Wang Anyi, the most prestigious female writer known for vivid and insightful description of Shanghai. It focuses not on the glorious skylines of the metropolis, but on the sheets of shadow sprawling under the skyscrapers, where all kinds of people can be found, struggling or being lost in life. It is the darkness that visualizes the images of Shanghai on the negative film in ones mind. The stage starts from a whole sheet of white paper with the rising of arches and doors shaping the typical lanes and dwellings of Shanghai. Performers dancing through the lanes and darkness give an insightful portrait of real life. Yin FangBorn in 1986, Yin Fang was originally a ballet dancer. He joined Beijing Dance Theater in 2008 and worked with Chinas leading modern dance choreographer Wang Yuanyuan. He also worked as a choreographer in productions like Martlet, Start off on the Road, Movement Copy and Puppet, and has toured in the UK, the USA, Iceland, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and Belgium. In 2012, Yin Fang became an independent dancer and choreographer and has been engaging himself in more contemporary or inter-disciplinary works. He co-choreographed and starred in the dance drama Haizi, which premiered at China National Center for the Performing Arts.

Dance 2012

Erhu Physical Theatre - Cooing and Wooing

Inspired by the household poem in The Classic of Poetry, the best known verse collections in Chinese literary canon, Dong Jie joins forces with Zhao Lei to create Cooing and Wooing, a visceral expression of a young man to the fair maiden he loves via the interaction of live performance of Chinese traditional music and contemporary dance. The virtuosic Erhu player Zhao Lei, taking the role of the youth, with the accompaniment of three other ancient Chinese instruments (Xiao, Guzheng and Zhonghu) and the cross-over dialogue with the dancers, indulges himself in the longing for the maiden recurrent in his dreams; after his wooing is frustrated, the musician cannot fall asleep but tosses all night long, with only the sorrowful music lingering on to comfort his lonely heart. Dong JieAward-winning choreographer Dong Jie graduated from Beijing Dance Academy majoring in Contemporary Dance Choreography. Many of his works have received both national and international recognition and awards in various competitions, including the Helsinki International Ballet Competition, the Ludwigshafen dance competition and Lotus Cup, the most important dance competition in China. His choreography features the elements of Chinese traditional folk dance and the powerful expression of contemporary dance. Dong Jie was commissioned by Oper Graz in 2012 to co-create modern dance I Can Think and Dream about It as part of the theatres international collaboration program. Zhao LeiAs the new icon of Erhu player, Zhao garners the reputation not only for his quintessential techniques but also for his soul-stirring story-telling skills. While mastering the traditional Erhu repertories, he innovatively plays jazz, tango and other Western genres with this two-stringed bow instrument. He learned to play Erhu from a number of mostly respected masters and graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Since 2007, he has held many recitals at key venues like Shanghai Oriental Arts Center and appeared in a number of music festivals in Asia. He has also been actively collaborating with musicians all over the world, such as Bobby McFerrin, electronic organ player Yuki Kanda and British band "Temple".

Dance 2012

Physical Theatre - Somnolencia

Somnolencia (somnolence in Spanish) is about two attitudes towards changes, especially amongst urban residents. It develops along three dialogues between a well and a river, which are boldly vitalized as a woman in pregnancy and the other delivering. The focus is put on the different "water" they have: different source, quality, motion and shape; reacting differently to temperature, time, surroundings and landscapes. In a loose "dialogue form", the well and the river encounters jumping topics in unconstrained set-ups of scenes. The audience could associate various metaphors of "the water" to their own observation or experience of life. Luo YuebingLuo Yuebing is an independent performing artist in Guangzhou. She utilizes dance, video, installation and physical theatre to investigate issues of identity, gender relations, cross-influence between individual & community, and humanity embodiment in architecture. Her major theatre works are best known for the sharp focus of woman. From 2008, Luo extended her interest to choreography in public space. As one of the pioneering choreographers, she has completed 6 full-length theatre works, many short pieces and 4 site-specific projects. Luo has been invited to various festivals, residency programs in South Korea, France, Spain, Germany and Italy.

Dance 2012

Multimedia Theatre - The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai 2.0

The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai by Han Bangqing is without question the founding masterpiece of Shanghainese literature, while the eponymous theatrical work graded as the 2.0 version is an experimental multimedia performance aiming to reconstruct the masterpiece with a completely new approach. The actors and staff, with four cameras and a big silver screen, shoot a womens cinema on the stage and present the final version on the screen at the same time. Through a real-time editing system, the audience sees not only the cinema, but also the process of making everything in front of their eyes. The experience is neither theatre nor movie but somewhere in-between. With the nosy lens and the seamless transition of the scenes, the woman in todays Shanghai establishes soul link with the one in Qing Dynasty in similar situation, implying the theme of self-inquiry among women in different times. Wang ChongWang Chong is an avant-garde theatre director and the founder of Beijing-based performance group Théatre du Rêve Expérimental. He holds two Bachelors Degrees in Law and Economics of Peking University, and a Masters Degree in Drama of the University of Hawaii. His works, including the China mainland premieres of Hamletmachine and Crave, have toured in China, U.S., Canada, U.K., France and Japan. His e-Station is nominated for the best production at Mont-Laurier International Theatre Festival. He and his team are dedicated to theatrical expression of both classical and modern texts through experimental ways, such as physical theatre, multimedia and image theatre.

Drama 2012

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