Ching-chu Hu, composer

Ching-chu Hu (born Iowa City, Iowa, 1969)

A Wondrous Hope: a fanfare to celebrate the 75th season of Chamber Music Columbus (composed 2022)

Born in 1969 in Iowa City, Iowa, Ching-chu Hu brings his first-generation Chinese American identity to conducting, playing piano, and composing. As he told interviewer Sam Jacobson, “I grew up in the United States, but in a Chinese household where I was speaking Chinese. And the music that was around me that my parents would play was a combination of Chinese folk song, Chinese opera, and Western symphonies. Some of those influences come through, depending on the piece and depending on what the piece is for.”

Hu is the Richard Lucier Endowed Professor of Music at Denison University, director of its music theatre, and director of its famed Vail Series. He has studied at Yale University, Freiburg Musikhochschule in Germany, and University of Iowa, receiving his Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition at University of Michigan. Among his numerous honors, Hu was an Aaron Copland Fellow at the MacDowell Colony for the Arts, composer-inresidence at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, guest composer at the American Music Week Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria, and winner of the 2018 American Prize for Chamber Music.

Commissioned by Chamber Music Columbus to compose the unifying musical theme for its 75th anniversary season, Hu composed “A Distant Hope.” As Hu described in his notes, the work “honors the role of music and hope in our lives. While celebratory as a fanfare, it also deconstructs the various aspects of a fanfare in today’s uncertain world –its excitement, its anticipation, balanced with its repose.”

Hu writes the following about “A Wondrous Hope,” the fourth piece of the puzzle that is the full two-movement “A Distant Hope:”

“A Wondrous Hope,” composed for the Calidore String Quartet in celebration of Chamber Music Columbus’ 75th season, honors their amazing artistry. Each spring season brings joy, wonder, and hope for new energy and vitality. The lines of this fanfare build upon and support one another, culminating to a “blossoming” of energy.

”A Wondrous Hope” is inspired by the fanfare, “A Distant Hope,” that opened this concert season.

“A Distant Hope” received its world premiere by the American Brass Quintet on October 8, 2022. This is the world premiere performance of “A Wondrous Hope.”