This workshop series provides hands-on information for composers interested in composing for the Chinese instruments and prepare them to submit new works in response to a Call-For-Scores for the 2016 Sound of Dragon Music Festival. These workshops are free to the public and sponsored by the SOCAN Foundation.
Location – Canadian Music Centre-BC Region, 837 Davie St, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Additional resources will be available under About > Chinese Instruments at soundofdragon.com.
winds: dizi/xiao and flutes, presented by Charlie Lui and Mark McGregor
Charlie Lui will share his collection of Chinese flutes, demonstrating different techniques used in traditional repertoire. Mark McGregor will focus on the contemporary techniques on different sizes of western flutes. The two of them will experiment on adapting each other’s techniques and pairing different flutes from the east and west to create various tone colours.
Charlie Lui – dizi/Chinese bamboo flute 呂畇初 -笛子
A multiple award winner, Charlie masters a wide range of Chinese wind instruments. Charlie is the principal dizi player of the BC Chinese Music Orchestra, a member of the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, and the co-founder of Pentatonics. As a soloist, Charlie has performed numerous dizi concerti and has performed on a number of CDs. In 2011, he premiered concerto grosso“Tsu-ur Song” (潮歌) by Dr. Ning Wang (王寧) with the Nu: BC and the BC Chinese Music Ensemble in a Canada-China collaboration. In the same year Charlie also performed Steve Chatman’s “Earth Songs” with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Charlie studied the dizi with Jian Min Pan (潘建明) in Vancouver and Wei-Yu Tan (譚謂裕) in China.
Mark McGregor, DMA, is presently the principal flutist of Victoria’s Aventa Ensemble, the Ottawa-based Ensemble 1534, and a founding member of Vancouver’s Tiresias Duo with pianist Rachel Iwaasa. Dr. McGregor has also performed as a member of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and as guest principal flute of the Victoria Symphony and Vancouver Island Symphony Orchestra. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician across North America, Europe, Australia, and Israel, with notable appearances at Festival Montréal-Nouvelles Musique, Music Gallery (Toronto), Vancouver New Music Festival, New Works Calgary, Athelas New Music Festival (Copenhagen), and the Internationale A•DEvantgarde-Festival (Munich).
Bowed strings: erhu/gaohu/zhonghu
Lan Tung and Nicole Li will demonstrate on the family of “Chinese violins”, explaining their basic and extended techniques and demonstrating in traditional, contemporary and avant-garde styles.
Nicole Li – erhu/gaohu/zhonghu (Chinese violins) 李歌 – 二胡／高胡／中胡
Nicole began studying the erhu at the age of six. She started to train vigorously when she entered the Wuhan Conservatory Affiliated Secondary School at 11 and won the second place in the Daily Art Competition in China in 2002. In 2008, she graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, under the guidance of erhu master Mr. Wang Yongde. In 2011, she gave her first Vancouver erhu recital. Nicole performs a duo project with pianist Corey Hamm. Since 2012, the duo has premiered numerous Canadian compositions and released 2 CDs. Nicole Ge Li is currently Concert Master of the B.C. Chinese Orchestra and soloist with the BC Chinese Music Ensemble. Nicole teaches the erhu in her Richmond Studio, JW Music Studio.
Crossing between Vancouver’s new music, improvised music and world music scenes, Lan Tung is the artistic director of Orchid Ensemble, Sound of Dragon Society, and Proliferasian. Lan has appeared as a soloist with Orchestre Metropolitain (Montreal) and Symphony Nova Scotia, and as a soloist/composer with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Turning Point Ensemble, Upstream Ensemble (Halifax), Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (Vancouver & Toronto), Atlas Ensemble (Amsterdam & Helsinki), and Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra (Taipei). Tung’s music often experiments with contradictions by taking culturally specific materials outside their context. Her works embody the rhythmic intricacy from Indian influence, the sense of breath/space from Chinese tradition, and many years of experiences in interpreting contemporary Canadian compositions. Incorporating improvisation and graphic notations, Lan’s compositions and performances are released on numerous CDs, winning an International Independent Music Awards and multiple nominations by JUNO, Canadian Independent Music Awards, Canadian Folk Music Awards, and Western Canadian Music Awards. Originally from Taiwan, Lan has studied graphic score with Barry Guy, improvisation with Mary Oliver, Hindustani music with Kala Ramnath, and Uyghur music with Abdukerim Osman, in addition to her studies of Chinese music since a young age. At the Vancouver Creative Music Institute (2007-2009), she has studied and performed with Han Bennink (Holland), Barry Guy, Evan Parker, John Butcher (UK), Francois Houle, Paul Plimley…etc.
Plucked strings: zhong ruan/daruan and classical guitar, presented by Zhimin Yu and Itamar Erez
Zhimin Yu was born in Beijing, China. She started learning the pipa at an early age. While studying as a student, she was chosen to perform for foreign states’ guests and leaders. Yu joined the China Broadcast Performing Arts Troupe and became very active in Beijing. Yu also performed in the Asian Arts Festival in Hong Kong and Japan. Later, she went to Japan again to organize a Chinese Folkloric Troupe. Yu was recognized as an ambassador of Chinese folk arts in Japan and often appeared on NHK television. Later, she immigrated to Canada where she continues her musical career. She plays in many groups and has performed in major cities in Canada and the United States and had concert tours in Britain, France, Holland, Hawaii, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. She has performed in festivals worldwide and appeared on many CDs and broadcast recordings for CBC radio and television, BBC, Songlines, and others.