SAT MAY 09 2015
Wu Man and the
Shanghai Quartet 吴蛮与上海四重奏
CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORM ING A RT S AT U B C
PHOTO: Ben Doyle
Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet 吴蛮与上海四重奏 Presented by the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts Concert 8:00pm, Chan Shun Concert Hall Wu Man, pipa The Shanghai Quartet: Weigang Li, violin Yi-Wen Jiang, violin Honggang Li, viola Nicholas Tzavaras, cello String Quartet in F minor No. 11, Op. 95 Ludwig van Beethoven Allegro con brio (1770-1827) Allegretto ma non troppo Allegro assai vivace ma serioso – Più Allegro Larghetto espressivo – Allegretto agitato – Allegro Xi Yang Xiao Gu (Flute and Drum Music at Sunset) Traditional (arr. Wu Man) Kui: Song of Kazakhstan Traditional (arr. Wu Man) Intermission, 20 minutes Selections from Chinasong Traditional (arr. Yi-Wen Jiang) Shepherd Song Harvest Celebration Yao Dance Ghost Opera (chamber version)
Tan Dun (b. 1957)
Please remember to turn off your cell phones, and note that photography and recording are not permitted. Thank you!
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PHOTO: Ben Doyle
Wu Man Recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, GRAMMY Award nominated musician Wu Man has carved out a career as a soloist, educator and composer giving her lute-like instrument – which has a history of over 2,000 years in China – a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. Through numerous concert tours, Wu Man has premiered hundreds of new works for the pipa, while spearheading multimedia projects to both preserve and create awareness of China’s ancient musical traditions. Her adventurous spirit and virtuosity have led to collaborations across artistic disciplines, allowing Wu Man to reach wider audiences as she works to break through cultural and musical borders. Wu Man’s efforts were recognized when she was named Musical America’s 2013 Instrumentalist of the Year, the first time this prestigious award has been bestowed on a player of a non-Western instrument.
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Having been brought up in the Pudong School of pipa playing, one of the most prestigious classical styles of Imperial China, Wu Man is now recognized as an outstanding exponent of the traditional repertoire as well as a leading interpreter of contemporary pipa music by today’s most prominent composers. She was awarded The Bunting Fellowship at Harvard University in 1998, and was the first Chinese traditional musician to receive The United States Artist Fellowship in 2008. She is also the first artist from China to perform at the White House. Wu Man’s discography includes over 40 albums including the GRAMMY nominated recordings Our World in Song, Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of the Silk Road Chicago, her recording of Tan Dun’s Pipa Concerto with Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists, and You’ve Stolen My Heart featuring Wu Man and the Kronos Quartet.
Named the first ever musician-in-residence at The Huntington Library in San Marino, CA, Wu Man concludes her residency this summer with the premiere of an original composition, commissioned by The Huntington. Other summer performance highlights include the Smithsonian Folklife Fest, where she will give an outdoor concert on the National Mall, and a performance with Japanese percussionist Haruka Fujii at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. A recipient of The San Diego Foundation’s Creative Catalyst Fund grant, she has been working alongside Mexican ensemble Son de San Diego to create programs at Carlsbad Music Festival that blend Chinese and Latin American folk traditions. Her next CD, with GRAMMY winning collaborators Daniel Ho (guitar/ukulele) and Luis Conte (percussion), contains the music of folk traditions from around the world and is scheduled for a late summer release. Orchestral highlights of the 2014-15 season include a performance of Lou Harrison’s Pipa Concerto with The Knights, as well as Zhao Jiping’s Concerto for Pipa and Orchestra with the Canton Symphony Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, and Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. In recital, Wu Man takes a new program, “Journey of Chinese Pipa,” to London, Sydney, and Dortmund. The solo recital explores the history of pipa repertoire, ranging from traditional folksongs to original compositions by Wu Man herself. A frequent collaborator with Kronos Quartet for over 20 years, she rejoins the ensemble at Cal Performances to perform Terry Riley’s The Cusp of Magic, which was composed on the occasion of the composer’s 70th birthday. This performance marks the work’s 10th anniversary as well as the composer’s 80th birthday. A principal member of the Silk Road Ensemble, she performs with the eclectic group in a concert with the New York Philharmonic. Born in Hangzhou, China, Wu Man studied with Lin Shicheng, Kuang Yuzhong, Chen Zemin, and Liu Dehai at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she became the first recipient of a master’s degree in pipa. Accepted into the conservatory at age 13, Wu Man’s audition was covered by national newspapers and she was hailed as a child prodigy, becoming a nationally recognized role model for young pipa players. She subsequently received first prize in the First National Music Performance Competition among many other awards, and she participated in many premieres of works by a new generation of Chinese composers. Wu Man’s first exposure to western classical music came in 1979 when she saw Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing in Beijing. In 1980 she participated in an open master class with violinist Isaac Stern and in 1985 she made her first visit to the United States as a member of the China Youth Arts Troupe. Wu Man moved to the U.S. in 1990 and currently resides with her husband and son in California.
The Shanghai Quartet Renowned for its passionate musicality, impressive technique and multicultural innovations, the Shanghai Quartet has become one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles. Its elegant style melds the delicacy of Eastern music with the emotional breadth of Western repertoire, allowing it to traverse musical genres including traditional Chinese folk music, masterpieces of Western music and cutting-edge contemporary works. Formed at the Shanghai Conservatory in 1983, the Quartet has worked with the world’s most distinguished artists and regularly tours the major music centers of Europe, North America and Asia. Recent festival performances range from the International Music Festivals of Seoul and Beijing to the Festival Pablo Casals in France, Beethoven Festival in Poland, Yerevan Festival in Armenia and Cartagena International Music Festival in
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Colombia, as well as numerous concerts in all regions of North America. The Quartet has appeared at Carnegie Hall in chamber performances and with an orchestra; in 2006 they gave the premiere of Takuma Itoh’s Concerto for Quartet and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Among innumerable collaborations with noted artists, they have performed with the Tokyo, Juilliard and Guarneri Quartets, cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Harrell, pianists Menahem Pressler, Yuja Wang, Peter Serkin and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, pipa virtuoso Wu Man and the male vocal ensemble Chanticleer. The Shanghai Quartet has been regular performers at many of North America’s leading chamber music festivals, including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamberfest Ottawa and Maverick Concerts where they recently made their 24th consecutive annual appearance. The Quartet has a long history of championing new music and juxtaposing traditions of Eastern and Western music. The Quartet’s 30th Anniversary season brought five new commissions; Bullycide, for piano, string quartet and bass by David Del Tredici; Fantasie, a piano quintet by Australian composer Carl Vine; a concerto for string quartet and symphony orchestra by Jeajoon Ryu; Verge Quartet by Lei Liang and Scherzo by Robert Aldridge, commissioned by Yu Long and the Beijing Music Festival. Their 25th anniversary season featured Penderecki’s String Quartet No. 3: Leaves From an Unwritten Diary, Chen Yi’s From the Path of Beauty, String Quartet No. 2 by Vivian Fung and jazz pianist Dick Hyman’s String Quartet. The Penderecki premiered at a special 75th birthday concert in Poland honoring the composer, followed by U.S. premieres at Peak Performances, Montclair State University and the Modlin Center, University of Richmond and numerous performances worldwide. It was featured at the the composer’s 80th Birthday celebration in November 2013. Chen Yi’s From the Path of Beauty, co-commissioned with Chanticleer, premiered in San Francisco, followed by performances at Tanglewood and Ravinia, Beijing and Shanghai. Other important commissions and premieres include works by Bright Sheng, Lowell Lieberman, Sebastian Currier, Marc Neikrug and Zhou Long. Bright Sheng’s Dance Capriccio had its premiere in spring 2012 with pianist Peter Serkin. Dan Welcher’s Museon Polemos for double quartet premiered in September 2012 with the Miro Quartet at the University of Texas at Austin. The tradition will continue in 2014-15 with Du Yun’s Tattooed in Snow and in 2015-16 with the premiere of a quintet for string quartet and pipa by Zhao Ji-Ping, China’s most renowned film composer (Raise the Red Lantern, Farewell, My Concubine…) with Wu Man. The Shanghai Quartet has an extensive discography of more than 30 recordings, ranging from the Schumann and Dvorak piano quintets with Rudolf Buchbinder to Zhou Long’s Poems from Tang for string quartet and orchestra with the Singapore Symphony (BIS). Delos released the Quartet’s most popular disc, Chinasong: a collection of Chinese folk songs arranged by Yi-Wen Jiang reflecting on his childhood memories of the Cultural Revolution in China. In 2009, Camerata released the Quartet’s recordings of the complete Beethoven String Quartets, a seven-disc project. A diverse and interesting array of media projects include a cameo appearance playing Bartok’s String Quartet No. 4 in Woody Allen’s film Melinda and Melinda to PBS television’s Great Performances series. Violinist Weigang Li appeared in the documentary From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China, and the family of cellist Nicholas Tzavaras was the subject of the film Music of the Heart, starring Meryl Streep. The Shanghai Quartet currently serves as Quartet-in-Residence at the John J. Cali School of Music, Montclair State University, New Jersey, Ensemble-in-Residence with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and visiting guest professors of the Shanghai Conservatory and the Central Conservatory in Beijing. They are proudly sponsored by Thomastik-Infeld Strings. 6
Program Notes String Quartet in F minor No. 11, Op. 95 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Beethoven’s Op. 95 string quartet is also known as the “Serioso” quartet, which stems from a subtitle the composer himself gave the work, “Quartett Serioso,” and the tempo marking of the third movement. It was written in 1810, received its premiere in 1814, and is the last quartet that was composed during Beethoven’s middle period. The next work he would compose for string quartet would not be for another 15 years, though many of the newer experimental techniques that arise in this piece also appear in his later quartets. This is the shortest of Beethoven’s quartets, and is characterized by its intensity and bold, abrupt character changes.
Xi Yang Xiao Gu (Flute and Drum Music at Sunset) Traditional (arr. Wu Man)
The Sound of Bells and Drums from a Distant Temple along the River Moon on the Eastern Mountain Breeze over the Quiet Water Shadows of Flowers Clouds and Water Far Away Become as One A Fisherman’s Song in the Evening Waves Lapping at the Shore The Returning Boat
A handwritten score for this pipa piece first appeared in 1875 as a piece with seven untitled sections. It was later discovered with subtitles among Chen Zijing’s handwritten collection of pipa music in 1898. The present score, having ten sections with subtitles, is taken from Li Fangyuan’s New Collections, 1895. This composition is of the “civil” style of pipa music.
Küi: Song of Kazakhstan Traditional (arr. Wu Man)
Wu Man made this arrangement for pipa of a Kazakh folk tune that she heard performed on the dombÿra, the two-stringed plucked lute that is widely regarded as a cultural symbol of Kazakhs. Kazakhstan shares a long border with western China, and nomadic Kazakhs have long represented an ethnic minority in China’s Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region. In Xinjiang, Kazakhs speak their own language and maintain their own musical traditions. The pipa is believed to have entered China long ago through contact between Chinese civilization and these surrounding nomadic groups. By performing this virtuosic folk melody on the pipa, Wu Man brings her instrument full circle, back to its Central Asian origins.
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Selections from Chinasong Shepherd’s Song, Harvest Celebration, Yao Dance Traditional (arr. Yi-Wen Jiang) Shepherd’s Song is a popular folk song stemming from the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. It was often played on a traditional two-stringed Mongolian instrument called a “Horse-Head Qin,” because there is a hand carved horse’s head on the top of the Qin instead of a scroll. There are several versions of this piece, including one by the famous Chinese composer Han-Kun Sha, who arranged “Shepherd’s Song” for violin solo with piano accompaniment. As the shepherd puts his cattle out to graze, the surroundings inspire him to express his love of nature and his feelings of nostalgia for his homeland. He sings, “White clouds are floating in the blue sky. Under the clouds there is a flock of snow white sheep.” The lyrical melody brims with deep emotion. The free rhythm and Dvorakian harmony in the lower strings’ arpeggio figures create a quiet, misty atmosphere, suggesting patches of soft clouds floating over meadows. The music reaches a passionate climax before subsiding again into an atmosphere of tranquility and peace. The Shanghai Quartet was honored that Mr. Han-Kun Sha was in the audience for a performance of this piece in Shanghai in November 2001. He was deeply moved to hear his piece in this brand new form. Harvest Celebration is an original piece by violinist and composer Jing-Ping Zhang. He composed this piece for violin with piano accompaniment while he was a professor at the Nanjing Arts Institute. For centuries the majority of the Chinese population has lived off the land, so the harvest celebration, coming after a year of hard plowing and weeding, has always been a highly celebrated event. Based on four short phrases, the violin tries to imitate the sound of the Suona — a double reed wind instrument with a very loud and high pitch, similar to an oboe — while drums, cymbals and gongs (suggested by the lower strings) are beaten boisterously. The rapid switches of meter and rhythm suggest the competitive improvisations typical of traditional Chinese celebrations. The music evokes images of the peasants singing and dancing with boundless joy. Yao Dance was originally written by Mao Yuan and Tie-Shan Liu, based on a folk song of Yao, a mountain village in Guizhou in the southwest region of China. The work has three large sections, and within each section there are two themes. In the opening, the viola and cello, playing a soft pizzicato, hint at the arrival of nightfall. Some Yao dancers, dressed in floating, colorful garments, gather in the moonlight. The 2nd violin then plays a simple but expressive melody as a beautiful young girl starts to dance. The rest of the dancers join her soon thereafter. The theme suddenly takes on an ardent and rough character, suggesting a group of young men that cannot refrain from dashing into the group of dancing young girls. The strong contrast in the music depicts the striking personalities of the Yao people. The middle section is in 3/4 time, and its melody moves back and forth between a singing quality and a rhythmic dancing figure, as if two young lovers are expressing their adoration for each other. In the recapitulation the viola starts the first theme before being joined by the other strings. The second theme is more vivid and passionate, with each voice alternating its entrance until the whole quartet comes together in a loud and fast coda, suggesting the climax of the evening celebration.
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Ghost Opera (chamber version) Tan Dun (b. 1957) Ghost Opera is a five-movement work for string quartet and pipa. The composer describes this work as a reflection on human spirituality, which is too often buried in the bombardment of urban culture and the rapid advances of technology. It is a cross-temporal, cross-cultural, and cross-media dialogue that touches on the past, present, future, and the eternal; employs elements from Chinese, Tibetan, English, and American cultures; and combines performance traditions of the European classical concert, Chinese shadow puppet theater, visual art installations, folk music, dramatic theatre, and shamanistic ritual.
PHOTO: Ben Doyle
In composing Ghost Opera, Tan was inspired by childhood memories of the shamanistic “ghost operas” of Chinese peasant culture. In this tradition, which is over 4,000 years old, humans and spirits of the future, the past, and nature communicate with each other. Tan’s Ghost Opera embraces this tradition, calling on the spirits of Bach (in the form of a quotation from the Prelude in C-sharp minor from Book II of The Well-Tempered Clavier), Shakespeare (a brief excerpt from The Tempest), ancient folk traditions, and earth/nature (represented by the Chinese folk song “Little Cabbage”). The Bach excerpt acts, the composer says, as “a seed from which grows a new counterpoint of different ages, different sound worlds, and different cultures.” In the final movement, the gradual transformation of the counterpoint brings the spirits of Bach and Shakespeare, the civilized world, and the rational mind, “this insubstantial pageant,” into the eternal earth.
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Thank you to our team! As the 2014/15 Chan Centre Presents series comes to an end, I want to say a few words about the amazing group of individuals my colleague and fellow Co-Managing Director Cameron McGill and I have the pleasure of working with. It takes an immensely dedicated, skilled and hard-working group of people to implement a presentation series along with all of the other activities and events that take place at the Chan Centre. We are incredibly fortunate to work with such wonderful staff who all strongly contribute in a variety of ways. Our series begins in the Chan Centre’s programming department where Christine, Wendy and I start with envisioning and imagining, conversation and research. Artistic possibilities begin to emerge and choices are made. The artists’ requirements are taken care of and tremendous organizational skills are put to work. Cam along with Dave, Andrew and Brad determine the technical feasibility and manage all production elements, supported by a talented group of technicians and the administrative skills of George in our production office. Trevor and Lyndsey put all the ticketing and subscription elements together and oversee their friendly and efficient team. Carl, Nadia and Beng manage, organize and support their terrific group of front of house staff and bartenders to ensure that you as audience members are well taken care of during your visit. Flora, Glenda and Jazel handle the financial elements and numerous administrative tasks. Kara and Claire work their marketing magic and creatively articulate and capture the beauty and talent of the incredible artists to entice you to partake in a transformational concert experience. I would be remiss to not acknowledge the others who support our series through graphic design, writing, publicity and artist transportation and hospitality; our wonderful UBC Work Learn students Valentina, Tessa and Megan; as well as Bernie for all the pride she demonstrates in her custodial efforts here at the Chan Centre. We are so fortunate to work with the visionary Dean of Arts, Gage Averill, and his team in the UBC Faculty of Arts Dean’s Office. We also benefit from the support of UBC’s senior administration and countless students, faculty and staff. The Chan Endowment committee members continue to inspire us with their passion for this remarkable performing arts centre located in the Arts and Culture District at the University of British Columbia. I was recently told by a manager of one of the renowned artists who performed here, that the Chan Centre is “the crown jewel of presenters - one of the very best in our field”. It is high praise indeed from someone who tours and manages concerts all over the world. As our Chan Centre Presents series comes to a close, Cam and I would like to give our staff a resounding wave of applause and thank them for all for their outstanding contributions. Bravo! Joyce Hinton Co-Managing Director Curator of the Chan Centre Presents series 10
The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC Joyce Hinton Cameron McGill Jazel Argente Carl Armstrong Wendy Atkinson Brad Danyluk Kara Gibbs David Humphrey Beng Khoo Flora Lew Glenda Makela Trevor Mangion Claire Mohun Christine Offer George Pereira Andrew Riter Nadia Roberts Lyndsey Roberts
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