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