US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Central Conservatory of Music, China
China Now Music Festival: Music in Motion
Three Generations of Composers from China
September 27
US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Central Conservatory of Music, China
September 27
The China Now Music Festival returns to the Sosnoff Theater with a program of symphonic works by three generations of living composers from China. Conductor Jindong Cai connects this year’s festival theme of ‘music in motion’ to the extraordinary momentum shaping the development of contemporary classical music in China from the 1980s to today.
The three composers in the first half of the program represent the newer generations. Dai Bo, afflicted with blindness at a young age, conjures landscapes of China by way of his exquisite sensitivity to sound. Mongolian Yu Mengshi tells a story of longing, using a solo cello to evoke the sounds and folk traditions of his homeland. Zou Hang depicts the urban scenery of Ningbo and Beijing as vivid colorscapes through sound.
The second half of the program features Ye Xiaogang’s epic masterpiece, The Song of the Earth for orchestra, soprano and baritone. Ye Xiaogang rose out of the legendary first class of composition students at the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) after its reopening in 1978. Ye and his fellow classmates, such as Tan Dun, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, and Bright Sheng, went on to revolutionize contemporary Chinese orchestral music. As a professor at CCOM for many decades, Ye mentored generations of young composers in China, including Dai Bo and Zou Hang from this program.
Learn more about this program and the China Now Music Festival.
Dai Bo (b. 1988)
Invisible Mountain prelude and passacaglia
Yu Mengshi (b. 1987)
The Lonely Camel Calf for cello and orchestra
Hai-Ye Ni, cello
Zou Hang (b. 1975)
Color of Qingdao
Color of Beijing
Intermission
Ye Xiaogang (b. 1955)
The Song of the Earth for soprano, baritone, and orchestra, Op. 47
I. Tale of Sorrowful Song (Li Bai)
II. Banquet at Tao Family’s Pavilion (Li Bai)
III. Imitation of Old Poem: Long Autumn Night (Qian Qi)
IV. Song of Pick Lotus (Li Bai)
V. Feelings upon Awakening from Drunkenness on a Spring Day (Li Bai)
VI. Staying at Teacher’s Mountain Retreat, Awaiting a Friend in Vain (Meng Hao Ran), Farewell (Wang Wei)
Manli Deng, soprano
Yue Wu, baritone
The China Now Music Festival is an annual series of concerts and related events presented each fall in New York City and at Bard College to highlight the music of contemporary China.
China Now is presented by the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, in collaboration with the Central Conservatory of Music, China.
Conductor
Baritone
Soprano
Cello
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