The Chinese
Cultural Center is a leading Chinese arts organization in the UK. It organizes and produces numerous events in the realm of
performing arts, including two major
annual festivals: The Chinese Moon Festival (Sept.) and the Chinese New
Year Festival (Jan.-Feb.). In addition, it administers the London
Chinese Orchestra (LCO) and
the Chinese Dance & Mime Theater Company.
My first
commission with LCO was
to compose, arrange, and record an original dance-piece to open the 1993
Chinese New Year Festival, based
on my compositions for the English
National Ballet. The dance was broadcast on BBC TV, channel 2 (1/94), during a program dedicated to the
London Chinese New Year celebrations.
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This Project was followed by a commission to compose, arrange, and conduct the music for LCO's 1994
London concert tour. London
Arts Board recognized the work with its award for Innovative
Approaches to Non-Western
Musical Traditions. |
The
tour premiered at the
South Bank Center,
under the title New Approaches to Musical Tradition. It
introduced an ensemble that included five members of the LCO
(performing on pipa, erhu, dizi, guzheng and yangqing),
a string trio, a mixture of Chinese and
Latin-American percussion, and a series of synthesizer
modules and pre-recorded tapes. I conducted the
orchestra, touring London for two months in a variety of venues,
including concert halls (e.g. the Purcell Room, Royal Festival
Hall), as well as popular night clubs (e.g. HQ, Camden Lock). The material was recorded at Gateway
Studios
and was distributed under the title "Rites of Passage."
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