Tides in February

My new piece, Tidal Movements for double bass quartet, will present twice this February. On both two Sundays (Feb. 17 and 24) and both at 5pm, tides will go to two different places. First, tides will go to Louisiana State University as programming in the Louisiana Bass Fest Concert. It is my pleasure that Eastman School of Music bass faculty James VanDemark and  LSU School of Music bass faculty Yung-Chiao Wei will perform this piece. Second, tides again will go to the Hartt School. After attending one rehearsal of this piece at Hartt, I am glad to know that the Hartt School bass faculty Robert Black, who gave me an opportunity to make this piece born into the world, will involve performing this piece in the Hartt Bass Band concert as well. I am so excited and looking forward to both of two concerts. For more information, please visit the “Performances” page.

FINAL UPDATE!!! The Hartt Bass Band concert will be at 8pm on March 10. It is on Sunday at Room F163 of the Hartt School. (March 6)

UPDATE!!! The Hartt Bass Band concert has been postponed due to that the Prof. Black has a serious accident recently. More information about this concert will be announced later. Hope Prof. Black can have a good rest and recover soon. (February 17)

Tidal Movements

Tidal Movements (2012)
for Double Bass Quartet

World Premiere:
February 17, 2013
Louisiana Bass Fest Concert
SOM Recital Hall, School of Music, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
James VanDemark, Yung-Chiao Wei, Yi-Jung Su, Yun-Chieh Chou, basses

Duration: 11 minutes

November Phantasy

My Phantasy for oboe and English horn, commissioned by Oboe Duo Agosto, will have its eighth and ninth performances in November. I am excited to have short trips with Oboe Duo Agosto for attending these two concerts.

The eighth performance of Phantasy will be at the Danbury Public Library (170 Main Street, Danbury, CT 06810) on November 4 (tomorrow! at 2pm). Free admission, but registration required online at danburylibrary.org. The ninth performance of Phantasy will be at Old St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (59 Tariffville Road, Bloomfield, CT 06002) on November 16 (7pm). Ticket can be purchased for $10 each by emailing osatickets@gmail.com or by calling (860) 653-7441 (I think it can purchase tickets at the church on the concert day). For more information, please visit www.oldstandrews.net. For the program notes and recording, please click this link, “Phantasy“.

Percussive Arts Society International Convention

Percussionist Gene Koshinski will perform my arrangement piece, Miss Malan for solo marimba, at the Ballroom D of Austin Convention Center (Austin, TX) in the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) 2012 on November 2, 2012 (3:00pm). Also, the score of Miss Malan for solo marimba has been published by Bachovich Music Publications.

If you are planning to attend PASIC 2012, please go to the concert of keyboard new literature. Thank Gene and Andrew Beall, who is the President of Bachovich Music Publications, to make the publication of Miss Malan possible. To purchase the score of Miss Malan online, please click this link, “Bachovich Music Publications - Solo Marimba,” and scroll the page down. The score of Miss Malan is numbered in #0898.

YouTube Video of Unbearable Pain and Watery Eyes

I received an email from Dr. James Ogburn, project manager of Thailand International Composition Festival 2012 (TICF) and also Chair of composition and theory at the Mahidol University College of Music, last Friday. He did lots of effort putting videos of every premiere piece in TICF on YouTube, including my piece. Thank James! By watching these videos it made me recall those days staying in Bangkok and in TICF. It was a wonderful experience to me. Although some problems occurred in rehearsing my piece, I still figured out the Thai musicians did their good job learning such a difficult piece in a very short time.

The video is a live premiere performance of my piece, Unbearable Pain and Watery Eyes for violin, percussion and piano, at the music auditorium (MACM Hall) of the Mahidol University on July 14, 2012. This piece is in memory of my beloved father. During the performance, I cannot help that my eyes became watery. After the performance, the musicians forgot to invite me to be on stage for showing I am the composer of this piece. But I really do not care for this. Somehow it seems that I saw my father bowing on the stage for me. I love my father forever!

For more information of this piece, please click this link: Unbearable Pain and Watery Eyes.

Ballade Recording

Today I have received a DVD sent by Sayun and Yu-Hao’s mom. The DVD is the live performance of  Taiwanese Aboriginal Concert, which took place at Miaoli International Culture and Tourism Bureau Concert Hall (Taiwan) on July 8, 2012. Sayun asked me to compose a new piece for her and Yu-Hao to perform in this concert. Ballade (2012) for violin and percussion is the piece for this particular occasion. I regret that I was not available to attend the premiere performance because I traveled to Bangkok, Thailand for participating the Eighth Thailand International Composition Festival on that day. However, it is my pleasure to know that Sayun and Yu-Hao really did a great job for this piece by watching the DVD. I have posted the sound track of Ballade in this website, please click this link “Ballade” for listening the music and reading the performance notes.

今天我收到幼欣跟祐豪的媽媽寄來的DVD，這DVD是2012年7月8日在台灣苗栗縣國際文化觀光局演藝廳，台灣原住民族音樂饗宴音樂會的現場演出。幼欣問我能否幫她跟祐豪譜寫一個新的曲子在這場音樂會演出，因此我寫了這首為小提琴跟打擊的二重奏《敘事曲》。因為演出當天我在泰國曼谷參加第八屆泰國國際作曲音樂節，我很遺憾無法聽見這首曲子的世界首演，不過看了DVD之後，我很開心知道幼欣跟祐豪的演出相當成功。我已經把這首曲子首演的實況錄音放到這個網站，請點擊這個連結聆聽首演的錄音跟閱讀此曲的樂曲解說：《敘事曲》。

Thailand International Composition Festival

Tomorrow (July 8) I will fly to Bangkok, Thailand for participating the Eighth Thailand International Composition Festival (TICF). My piece, Unbearable Pain and Watery Eyes (2012) for violin, percussion and piano, was selected as one of twelve finalists in the TICF Composition Competition, and will be premiered at the music auditorium (MACM Hall) of Mahidol University on July 14 (10am). I was invited to participate the TICF from July 9 to 14 to attend all the concerts and lectures, and get the feedback of my piece in the Masterclass. I am looking forward to my trip to Bangkok.

By the way, I will travel to Bangkok from July 8 to 18. In these days I will have two pieces performing in Taiwan. Ballade (2012) for violin and percussion will be premiered tomorrow night (7pm, July 8) at the Miaoli International Culture and Tourism Bureau Concert Hall by violinist Yu-Hao Chang and percussionist Sayun Chang. Cave Railroad (2011) for solo alto saxophone will have Taiwan premiered performance at the YAMAHA Artists Service Center (Taipei) by saxophonist Po-Fang Chang on July 17. Although I am not able to attend these two concerts, I believe the performances will be fantastic. Please visit the “Performances” page to get more information of concerts.