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UD violinist to perform with Detroit Symphony
2:42 p.m., Feb. 2, 2007--Shouts of “Gong Xi, Gong Xi”--pronounced gong-szhee and meaning “congratulations”--the traditional Chinese welcome to the New Year, will be heard throughout the Max M. Fisher Music Center in downtown Detroit at 3 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 17, when the Detroit Symphony Orchestra hosts a musical Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration. Part of the Detroit Symphony's inaugural World Music Series, the celebration will feature The Butterfly Lovers multimedia concerto, featuring University of Delaware faculty violinist Xiang Gao as soloist in the first major orchestral performance of a new multimedia production, which he also created. The Detroit Symphony also will perform Johannes Brahms' Black Swan, featuring a new arrangement by leading contemporary composer and University of Michigan professor Bright Sheng, and other works by a variety of Chinese composers. Leading the concert in Orchestra Hall is the renowned Chinese-American conductor Carolyn Kuan. The musical highlight of the event is The Butterfly Lover's violin concerto, written by Chen Gang and He Zhan Hao in 1959. An orchestral adaptation of a Chinese legend, The Butterfly Lover's is one of China's most famous musical works, though it was written for western style orchestra. Traditional Chinese music is composed in a different tonal system than western classical music, which, to most western ears, renders it “out of tune.” The Butterfly Lover's violin concerto, however, is written in the familiar western tonal system, making it far more accessible to the western ear, though it still utilizes many Chinese melodies, chord structures and patterns. The solo violin is symbolic of Zhu Yingtai, the story's protagonist, and the cello part is symbolic of Liang Shanbo, her lover. Their story is considered the “Chinese Romeo and Juliet,” though in the Chinese legend the lovers are transformed into butterflies after their deaths. Violin soloist Gao, artistic director of UD's popular Master Players Chamber Series, has created a unique multimedia presentation to accompany this distinguished work, featuring synchronized visual images of ancient Chinese brush paintings projected onto large screens hung above the orchestra, and a dramatic reading written by playwright Danny Peak and presented by Peak and Stephanie Shade. “I feel very honored and proud for this major engagement, which is a breakthrough for this production, not only for my own performing career but, more importantly, the inspiration our UD music students will get out of it,” Gao said, adding he hopes the lesson they take away is to “learn to be creative in their musical career development.” Gao said the engagement of The Butterfly Lover's multimedia presentation also will promote UD “to a new high, as the production is a University of Delaware project partially supported by a UD general University research grant I received two years ago.” He added he believes “the mainstream audience in Michigan will see the commitment to the arts at the University of Delaware.” Gao, who is one of the most acclaimed classical artists of his generation, has performed with many of the world's greatest orchestras, conductors, chamber ensembles and soloists. He is also a founding member of the China Magpie ensemble, under Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project, that performs crossover music worldwide. The youngest associate professor of music in UD's Department of Music, Gao recently was selected by the Stradivari Society in Chicago to perform on fine Italian violins made by master makers, including Antonio Stradivarius of Cremona, Italy. In late May, Gao and his wife Renee Dong, a Chinese language instructor at UD, will lead a UD Alumni and Friends special China trip to visit China's most popular historical and cultural cites. The program is open to all, and the application deadline is Feb. 28. Kuan, who will conduct the Detroit Symphony presentation, holds the distinction of being the first female to be awarded the Herbert von Karajan Conducting Fellowship by the Herbert von Karajan Centrum and American Austrian Foundation in 2003, which resulted in her residency at the 2004 Salzburg Festival. Newly appointed as the assistant conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Kuan also served as assistant conductor of North Carolina Symphony Orchestra in 2005-06, conducting more than 45 concerts. An artist-in-residence in 2004 and 2005 at the New York City Ballet, Kuan has also served as assistant conductor for the Baltimore Opera Company. Links of interest For information on the China trip, see this brochure in PDF format [www.udel.edu/alumni/traveltrip/AlumRXiangGaoTour.pdf] For information on the Master Players Chamber Series in PDF format, see the music department site [www.music.udel.edu] and click on Public Programs and then on Master Players Chamber Series. For information on Xiang Gao, see the web site [www.music.udel.edu/deptinfo/faculty/gao.html]. For information on the Detroit Symphony, see the web site [www.detroitsymphony.com]. Article by Neil Thomas |
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