June 15^th (Monday) 8pm

 

New Music, Minyue and Live Calligraphic Art        

 -BNME NAXOS CD debut concert at Peng Hao Theater

 

With Special Guests Wu Na (guqin), Bruce Gremo (shakuhachi, flute, electronics),

and Pu Lieping (live calligraphic art improvisation)

 

Selections from Debut NAXOS CD Presented Alongside Traditional and Electro-acoustic Music, Live Improvisations, and Readings from Lu Xun's Writings

 

Peng Hao Theater continues to host performances of China's only independent new music group, the Beijing New Music Ensemble (BNME). The next program will be presented on June 15, 2009, in Peng Hao's intimate black-box courtyard theater.

 

Covering a wide variety of genres, the performances will be dedicated to a singular vision: sharing intimate chamber music in a small, informal setting unlike anywhere else in Beijing. Sometimes the audience will be introduced to older musical classics in a new way.

 

The program is the second in BNME's June series celebrating its debut CD release on NAXOS records. In two halves, it expresses the musical breadth of the ensemble and guest musicians, covering traditional Chinese music, contemporary compositions, and live improvisations. The first half contains recital pieces from the CD, including special guests Wu Na and Bruce Gremo featured on Zhou Long's piece Su (Tracing Back).

  

In the second half, Wu Na performs selections from her extensive solo output. Gremo will present a solo work for shakuhachi, with live interactive electronics. Together with members of the ensemble, they will also perform a live improvisation.

 

Throughout the concert guest hanzi artist Mr. Pu Lieping will explore the correlation between contemporary music and live calligraphic art. The audience will witness the strength with which Mr. Pu’s brush traces out his visual response to the ensemble’s performance. Watching the process of creating a piece of calligraphic art through the flow of music, and viewing of the finished artwork after the performance is over will enable the audience to appreciate these two art forms from a fresh perspective. 

 

 

Program

 

Su (Tracing Back) for Flute and Guqin                                                             Zhou Long

            

Monologue (Reflections on the True Story of Ah Q) for solo clarinet              Chen Yi

with recitation of selections from the True Story of Ah Q   

                   

Chinese Ancient Dances (for clarinet and piano)                                              Chen Yi

 

Wild Grass for solo cello and narrator                                                               Zhou Long

with recitation of the foreword to Lu Xun's Wild Grass)

 

Solo for Guqin              

 

Improvisation for Xun and Guqin                                    

    

Choshi Variations for Shakuhachi and Interactive Computer

 

A Group Improvisation with BNME

 

Address: No. 35 Dongmianhua Hutong, Jiaodaokou Nandajie, Dongcheng District, Beijing China

Map: http://www.penghaoren.com/cn/contact.asp

Direction of the route: At the cross road of Ping-An Dadao and Kuan Jie, you should turn north to Kuan Jie.  When you meet the first traffic light, cross the street to the west side, you will see Dongmianhua Hutong. Go straight about 200 meters, when you see the round sign “PengHao”. you have arrived the theatre.  You can always call the theater for direction at 64006472.

 

Tickets are at 80RMB. Seats are limited.

For reservation please contact-- BNME Executive Director: Shu-Chun LAI (Ms.)

Mobile: 13910954049

For ticket purchase please contact --Ms. Liang at Peng Hao Theater 64006472 or 13601004120.

--www.piao.com.cn or English Hotline 64177845

 

 

Special Guest Artists

 

Wu Na (Guqin):

Wu Na is an award-winning guqin player who began her training at the age of nine.  In 1997, she entered the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing where she majored in guqin, and in 2004, she became the first musician in China to receive a Masters degree in guqin performance. Ms. Wu’s dual education in both Chinese and Western music has inspired her to seek a new voice for the guqin in contemporary music, and she has performed and recorded with jazz, rock, experimental avant-garde and music, classical musicians. Ms. Wu has made several brief performance tours in Asia and Europe. In 2008 Wu Na received a scholarship from the Asian Cultural Council to live in New York for five months to research contemporary art and music in America.

 

Bruce Gremo (Flute, Xun, Shakuhachi):

Composer-performer Bruce Gremo writes interactive computer music that has been performed around the world. A classical flautist, he also specializes in extended technique and improvisation formats using the modified flutes, the Japanese Shakuhachi, the Chinese Xun and others. He has performed as soloist in venues ranging from Lincoln Center and the Royal Albert Hall to Steim (Amsterdam) and Roulette (NYC). Recipient of several major awards, he has worked with luminaries such as Ornette Coleman. He has Masters degrees in Composition (a student of Martin Bartlett) and in Philosophy

(a student of Reiner Schurmann), and has taught at the New School, NYC. He now resides in Beijing where he works as a composer, principle flautist with the new Beijing orchestra XinYaKongQi, freelance recitalist, and studio musician. 

 

Pu Lieping (Calligraphic Art, Hanzi Artist)

Pu Lieping was born in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan province in 1959. He started his work on modern Chinese calligraphy in 1987. He edited “The Appreciation of Modernist Calligraphy in China,” a book introducing modern calligraphy. In 1994, he established “Song Feng Xuan Gallery” which was the first gallery in Beijing to show the modern calligraphy. He participated in the establishment of the "Chinese Modern Calligraphy Association" and served as its vice chairman. In 1999 he organized a major exhibition called the “Mustering the Troops in Sichuan · 1999 Chengdu Retrospective of Chinese Modern Calligraphy at the End of the Twentieth Century”, which was an important event in the development of modern calligraphy. In 2002 his work was collected by The British Museum. In the same year, he and the contemporary artist Gu Gan put forward the concept of "Chinese character Art," their shared conception of an art centered around Chinese characters.