CHAMBER (INSTRUMENTAL)
· Fantasy and Dance
Performed by the Arneis String Quartet, Boston University.
Fantasy and Dance is inspired by dance music of the Uyghur people, who are a Turkish minority group living in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. Music and dance is an important aspect to their culture and their traditional music is often lively and rhythmic. I particularly enjoy the sounds of their music and hope to explore them in this string quartet. Fantasy and Dance is not an exact imitation of their style; rather, I hope to transfer the same vibrant energy to the string quartet ensemble.
· Constellations
For dancers and musicians, in collaboration with the London Contemporary Dance School.
The dance and music explores the gravitational flow and rotation as found in matters in space. The music provides an atmosphere in which there are flows and disruptions.
Recording provided by LCDS Audio and Visuals Department
Constellations, for dancers and musicians
Choreography, Vincent Jonsson
Composer, Mo Zhao
Dancers; Madeleine Jonsson, Katy Ayling, Ricky Lee Huxstep, Charlotte Hilton, Amy Chihara
Yi-Ning Niao, Patrycja Mynarska, violins
Timothy Lin, cello
Agata Mierzwińska, piano
Rodrigo Viterbo, didgeridoo
Live Performance from Dec 5th, 2015, The Place
· October Rain
For flute and piano (or string quartet).
October Rain aims to use a mostly Western musical language to paint an autumnal scene that I consider to be Chinese at its core. It explores different moods of a solitary narrator after witnessing a storm.
This piece is partially inspired by the famous Chinese poem “Ding Feng Bo”(定风波.) After the narrator has weathered a storm while barely covered by thin cape, he writes,
“A thorny spring breeze sobers up the spirit,
I feel a slight chill,
The setting sun over the mountain offers greetings still.
Looking back over the bleak passage survived,
my return,
shall not be affected by windswept rain or shine.”
October Rain is commissioned by Emily Potter.
· Tone Poem on Epilogue of Shakespeare “Tempest”
For violin (or cello) and piano.
Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint. Now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardoned the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell,
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands.
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardoned be,
Let your indulgence set me free.
Shakespeare
The Tempest
· Ever
For violin and piano.
"Ever" intends to create a space without the sense of time. While one cannot stop time from flowing forward, the piece explores the refusal of recognizing time's constant tides.
· Screaming from the Other Side of the Wall
For chamber ensemble.
Premiered in Guildhall School of Music by the Plus and Minus Ensemble.
· Sonata for two Cellos and Piano
Premiered in May 2013, Boston University.