f urtherEASTf urtherWEST

Roundhouse
28 May-1 June 2002

Tuesday, 28 May 2002

furtherEASTfurtherWEST

Toru Takemitsu

produced by
Pro Musica Society of Vancouver
PO Box 78077 RPOGrandview
Vancouver V5N 5W1

in partnership with
Roundhouse Community
Arts & Recreation Society
181 Roundhouse Mews
Vancouver V6Z 2W3

Va n c o u v e r

ProMusica

~

ROUNDHOUSE
Directors:
Mark Armanini, president
Rita Ueda, past president
John Crawford, vice president
John Baker, secretary/treasurer
Grace J.E. Lee
Mark McGregor
for furtherEASTfurtherWEST:
artistic director: Mark Armanini
lighting, live sound, and recording:
RoundhouseCommunity CentreTerry Podealuk, house technician
production: Vancouver Pro Musica
box office and concession services:
Makiko Suzuki
(thanks also to many other volunteers)

~

IThe
Canada Council
for the Arcs

Elliot Weisgarber

Ogami 2. Komuri uta 3. Suijin {Water god)
4- Sansui (A Landscape of mountains and water)
>·Homage to Yatsuhashi Kengyo
6. Yamanoha (Mountain's edge)
7. Kangetsu {Winter moon) 8. By the Gulf of lse
9 . .Toshi no kure {Year's end)
I.

Three traditional pieces

furtherEASTfurtherWEST
is supported in part by
commissioning grants from
the Canada Council for the Arts and
the British Columbia Arts Council,
loan of a piano from Tom Lee Music,
and the sponsorship of
The Georgia Straight.

Spring is coming (tre lac) On the mountain top (koni)
Oh Susanna (sao bop)

Khac Chi Ensemble
~ INTERMISSION J;6

Tumbling worlds (2002:premiere)

A ~Jk~~9.~tsL~

Coat Cooke

Hoang Bic, clan bau; Khac Chi, clan bau; Coat Cooke, flute;
Pepe Danza, percussion

Toru Takemitsu
Mark Takeshi McGregor, flute

from Dance of many colours (1997)

Mark Armanini

2.Poco allegro;Meno mosso 3.Moderato; Piu mosso

programme design: John Baker
publicity: Sisu ProductionsGwen Kallio

Le Comcil des Arts
du Canada

Japanese miscellany (1969)

Christopher Foley, Piano

Taiwan-Canada Composer Exchange Concert
curators: Janet Danielson, Owen Underhill

Vancouver Pro Musica
gratefully acknowledges
the support of an operating grant
from the Canada Council for the Arts,
which last year invested
$20.8 million in music throughout Canada.

Mark Takeshi McGregor, flute

Hoang Bic, clan bau, koni; Khac Chi, clan bau, bamboo flute;
Christopher Foley, piano; Chris O'Neil, percussion
Vancouver Pro Musica
gratefully acknowledges
the support of a project grant
for furtherEASTfurtherWEST
from the du Maurier Arts Council

mdu Maurier

ARTS

PLEASE JOIN US FOR AN AFTER-CONCERT RECEPTION
Biographical notes begin on page 9.

Itinerant commemorates the death of the Japanese sculptor lsamu Noguchi.
(1904-1988), who was, according to Takemitsu, somewhat of a nomad. This
piece is meant to reflect not only Noguchi's terrestrial wanderings, but also
the eternal journey that Noguchi is making in the afterlife. Like most of
(continued on page 20)

3

Wednesday, 29 May 2002
Lantern riddles (2000)

Jin Zhang

No rush (2000)

Jin Zhang

Maqam: prelude and dance
Zhou Ji, Shao Guangchen, and Li Mei, arr.: Mei Han
Three pictures of the Silk Road (2001)

Moshe Den burg

The Road to Kashgar 2. The Endless sands of the Taklimakan
3. The Winged horsesof heaven
I.

Proliferasian (2001)

Paul Plimley

The Orchid Ensemble: Lan Tung, erhu; Mei Han, zheng;
Jonathan Bernard, percussion

~ INTERMISSION ~

New Vistas in Chinese Music
Mei Han and Randy Raine-Reusch
Clouds in the Empty Sky (zheng and sho)
Tokyo Crows (zheng and ichigenkin)
Dragon Dogs (two zhengs)
Black Zheng (zheng and bun)

Mei Han, zheng; Randy Raine- Reusch
Biographical notes begin on page 9.
Lantern riddles: Beautiful paper lanterns of every size and design are hung
every evening during the Chinese Autumn Moon Festival. From these lanterns
often dangle small strips of paper containing riddles, and participants greatly
enjoy trying to solve the riddles during the festival. This piece was commissioned by the Orchid Ensemble through the assistance of the Canada Council
for the Arts.
No rush has three sections. It is an exploration of contrasts, moving between
tenderness and strength, forcefulness and tranquility. This piece was commissioned by the Orchid Ensemble through the assistance of the Canada Council
for the Arts.
Maqam is a musical genre popular in the Middle East and Xinjiang province
in western China. It usually includes sections of instrumental music, singing
and dance. The music is famous for its dramatic tempo changes and complex
rhythmic patterns.

4

Three pictures of the Silk Road is part of a planned series of musical images
of the Silk Road, an ancient historically fascinating group of East-West
highways which is physically stunning as well. These routes cross vast deserts
beside great mountain ranges and are traversable only because of the sparkling
valleys and oases along the way.
The Road to Kashgar depicts one of the many possible cultural configurations you might have met with in or near Kashgar, a market place in the
westernmost part of China and the approximate midpoint of the Silk Road. As
the rhythmic scheme of 7/8 is reminiscent of the music of Persia or India, the
particular caravan in this picture is likely approaching Kashgar from the west.
In order to proceed west to Kashgar and beyond, or east into the heart of
China and the ancient capital of Changan, caravans had to skirt the Endless
sands of the Taklimakan. This infamous desert-in Turki its name is "go in
and you won't come out" - has been feared and cursed by travelers for more
than 2,000 years. This piece moves through several stages and moods: at first
as quiet and foreboding as the looming desert and as gradual and plodding as a
caravan. After the turbulence of a sandstorm, all falls silent and remote again.
Our footprints are erased; only our thoughts can attempt an impress upon eternity.
The Winged horses of heaven are a strong and fast breed developed for
war in the second century BCE, now extinct but immortalized in Chinese art.
The most famous work is "The Flying Horse of Gansu", a small 2000-year-old
bronze sculpture found in Gansu province in 1969; it depicts a galloping horse
with one hoof resting upon a swallow to represent its flight through the
heavens.
So the image of the winged horse, and the dreams and hopes that such an
image inspires, would seem to summarize what the Silk Road was and still is
meant to be. A great reaching out, beyond limitations, to behold and conquer
new vistas and to take flight both in creative imagination and over the vast
physical expanses of the earth.
These pieces were commissioned with the assistance of the Canada
Council for the Arts.
Pr~liferasian consists of 37 measures of written music. After playing this
once, the ensemble uses sections of this composed material to expand the
rhythmic and textural fabrics of the three instruments in four sections of
improvisation. The improvisational requirements are quite demanding, as they
include numerous sound cues as well as several strategies both for ensemble
playing and for solos with group accompaniment. After the improvisations are
completed, the group plays the composed material da capo.
The greatest inprovisational challenge is for the individual players to play
with conviction in tempi independent of each other and be able to move their
pulse where they feel best at any given moment, shifting freely within
spontaneously improvised pitch repetitions. Yet the players must establish a
rhythmic groove amidst all the available freedom (albeit a groove with an
angular nature). Within the temple of invention there must be an integration of
(continued on page 20)

5

Thursday, 30 May 2002
Taiwan-Canada Composer Exchange Concert
dedicatedto the memory of two extraordinarycomposers:
Hsu Tsang-houeiand Nikolai Korndoif

String quartet no.3: "the Alynne" (1998) Owen Underhill
The Hyperion Quartet: Rebecca Whitling, violin;
Ann Chow, violin; Reginald Quiring, viola; Joseph Elworthy, cello

Florescere (1999)

Janet Danielson
Michael Strutt, guitar

Zhuo Rui-shi

Qi, shen, xing (1994, 1998)

Huang Ji-rong, erhu; Rebecca Whitling, violin;
Ann Chow, violin; Reginald Quiring, viola; Joseph Elworthy, cello

~ INTERMISSION

~

Hsu Tsang-houei

Blind, op.17 (1966)
Kathryn Cernauskas, flute

String trio (1996)

Yang Tsung-hsien

Rebecca Whitling, violin; Reginald Quiring, viola;
Joseph Elworthy, cello; Owen Underhill, conductor

Disintegration (2000)

Lin Mei-fang
Lin Mei-fang, piano

Pipa and string quartet (2000)

Ma Shui-long

Jih Yeong-bin, pipa; Rebecca Whitling, violin;
Ann Chow, violin; Reginald Quiring, viola; Joseph Elworthy, cello
PLEASE JOIN US FOR AN AFTER-CONCERT
RECEPTION
PROVIDED COURTESY OF
THE CANADIAN MUSIC CENTRE
Biographical notes begin on page 9.
The Alynne was commissioned by The Maggini Quartet from England with the
assistance of The Canada Council for the Arts. It was first performed in the 1998
Vancouver New Music Festival. The piece is named after the composer's
daughter, Alynne, born 1997. In the score is placed the following passage by

6

William Butler Yeats:
We can make our minds so like still water,
that beings gather about us that they may see,
it may be their own images.
And so live for a moment with a clearer,
perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our quiet.
Florescere: Like classical physics, which is based on a mechanistic notion of
elementary particles existing at points in space and changing location in time,
so classical music assumes existence of discrete tones, progressing past metric
fence posts along a one-way track of time.
A recent alternative to the model of separate atoms in empty space and
time is proposed by physicist David Bohm, who envisions instead a totality of
ensembles intermingling and interpenetrating each other in a series of stages
of unfolding and enfolding. Like a bud blooming or drops of ink swirling in a
(continued on paj!;e21)

This Taiwan-Canada Composer Exchange Concert is the outgrowth of years of effort and initiative in which a leading role has
been taken by Cecilia Hui-chung Chueh, now artistic director of
the Egret Music Centre.
With the support of the Vancouver Formosa Academy and the
Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Society, many Taiwanese composers
and performers have visited Vancouver in recent years for concerts
and seminars and to participate in what is now the annual
Taiwanese Cultural Festival. When the Egret Music Centre was
established in 2000, the occasion was marked by a visit of the
Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Taipei for a warmly acclaimed
presentation of recent works by both Taiwanese and Canadian
composers.
Further valuable exchanges have emerged from this background
with the enthusiastic support of the Canadian Music Centre, the
Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Taipei, the Taipei Economic
and Cultural Office in Vancouver, and many composers in both
countries. In particular, Vancouver composers Mark Armanini,
Owen Underhill, and the late Nikolai S. Komdorf were afforded a
highly successful visit to Taipei in 2000.
Vancouver Pro Musica is very pleased to welcome the
Taiwanese participants in this, the latest event in this series
of exchanges. We gratefully acknowledge the strong support of
Cecilia Chueh and the Egret Music Centre.

7

Friday, 31 May 2002

Saturday, 1 June 2002

Tian shan zhi chun (Spring on Tian mountain) Fang Di Wang
Han ya xia shui (Lonely ducks playing in a winter pond)
trad.
Snowflakes on an early spring day
traditional
Little Sisters
Guang Zu Li
Caterete
Celso Machado
A Braziliandance form with African influence

Pa~oca

Celso Machado

A sweet or savomypaste: staple of the Braziliandiet

F revo ate na China

Celso Machado

A Braziliandance imaginedin the streets of China-dedicated to Qiu Xia He

Baiao fulejo

Celso Machado

A Popular dance rhythm of northeast Brazil

Chickadee
Endless

Qiu Xia He
~ INTERMISSION

.Q5

F olhas e vento (Leaves and wind) Celso Machado, Qiu Xia He
Commissionedby VancouverPro Musica with Canada Council assistance

Ernesto Nazareth

A theatre in Rio de Janeiro where Ernesto Nazareth used to accompanyfilms

Ilza nova (New Ilza)
Hermeto Pascoal
0 ovo (The eggs)
Hermeto Pascoal
Primavera em fl.or(Spring in flower)
Jovino Santos Neto
Jujuba (Jujube [candy])
Jovino Santos Neto
As cores da menina (The girl's colours) Jovino Santos Neto
Quando amanhece (Morning twilight)
Celso Machado
Asa branca (White-winged bird)
Luiz Gonzaga, Humberto Teixeira
Qiu Xia He : pipa
Celso Machado : guitar, percussion, and voice
Jovino Santos Neto : piano, percussion, and flute

8

led by Coat Cooke and Ron Samworth

This concertpresentationbuildsupon the experiencegained
through researchand rehearsalduring a residencyat the
Western Front and in performanceat the du Maurier
InternationalJazz Festivalsof 1999 and 2000. Musicians
and the public will learn and listen to improvisational
techniquesperformedby a brilliantgroup of musiciansfrom
widelyvaryingculturalbackgroundsand musicaltraditions.
Crossing Borders: Mei Han, zheng; Lan Tung, erhu;
Hoang Bic, Vietnamese instruments; D B Boyko, voice;
Pepe Danza, percussion; Travis Baker, acoustic bass;
Coat Cooke, reeds/flute/voice; Ron Samworth, electric guitar

Celso Machado

Composed for the Songbird Project in 1998

Odeon

Improvisation

Biographical Notes
Mark Armanini is a native Vancouverite. He studied composition with Elliot
Weisgarber and piano with Robert Rogers at UBC, graduating in 1984. In
2000 Mark's improvised piano concerto Fingertips to Freedom, co-composed
with pianist Paul Plimley, was performed at the Vancouver International Jazz
Festival with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra. In 2001, yangqin virtuoso Vivian
Xia, performing his Concerto for Yangqin, was a finalist in the Edmonton
Symphony's Canadian Concerto Competition. With over 50 works in diverse
musical genres, Mark continues to build on his Vancouver roots. He is
currently president of Vancouver Pro Musica.
Travis Baker was caught by surprise by the double bass in 1995. He is very
excited to be a member of Crossing Borders. He has also played with Wayne
Horvitz, Peggy Lee, Gino Robair, Raymond Strid, and Paul Plimley.
Jonathan Bernard performs in a wide range of genres from orchestral to new
music and world music. He is principal percussionist with the Vancouver
Island Symphony, and has performed with a number of other organizations
including the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Ottawa Symphony
Orchestra, the National Ballet Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of
Canada, and Vancouver New Music. In 2001 Jonathan was a featured soloist
with the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra. Jonathan has performed with
Gamelan Madu Sari, the Vancouver Balinese Gamelan and the UBC Chinese
Music Ensemble. He has toured Europe, Canada, the United States, and Japan.
Hoang Bic is an exceptional vocalist, arranger and multi-instrumentalist. She
specializes in the dan bau and a number of very rare instruments from
Vietnam's rural and mountainous regions, including the t'rung (bamboo

9

xylophone), k'longput (percussion tubes), as well as the koni, on which she is
considered to be the first female petformer. Bic has toured internationally both
as a solo artist and with the Khac Chi Ensemble.
Bic began studying music at a very early age, attending the Hanoi School
of Arts. In 1979 she entered the Hanoi National Conservatory, where she
studied under a number of Vietnam's top performers and received numerous
, invitations to perform with many of Vietnam's most prestigious ensembles. It
was during this period that she began her career as a regular performer and
arranger for national and international radio and television. In 1987 she
graduated with honors from the Hanoi Conservatory and returned to the Hanoi
School of Arts as an instructor.
Since moving to Canada in 1992, Bic has been expanding her musical
repertoire by performing with a number of world music and new music artists,
and performing works by Canadian contemporary composers. She teaches
Vietnamese music at UBC.
DB Boyko is a versatile vocalist, performing in variety of genres including
acoustic and electroacoustic new music, country and western music, Javanese
court gamelan, and improvisation with the V.I.E.W. Ensemble and Crossing
Borders. As a performer and composer she has contributed her skills to many
performance projects including Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing for the
Arts Club Theatre, The Blue God and the Songbird Oratorio. Next on her
agenda is a project with singer Christine Duncan. She is curator of music at
the Western Front.
Kathryn Cernauskas has performed as a soloist in Europe, Asia, and North
America and has released a solo CD Canadian Music for Solo Flute. As a
member of the Vancouver New Music Ensemble and a founding member of
Array, Days Months & Years To Come, and Magnetic Band, she has
premiered more than 100 Canadian compositions, including pieces written
especially for her. Most recently, she has compiled an anthology of Canadian
flute music to be published in three volumes, each with a CD.
While maintaining an active career as a performer, teacher and
adjudicator, she is also coordinator of music at Douglas College and chair of
the Canadian Music Centre (BC Region).
Khac Chi is the world's premiere virtuoso on the dan bau as well as a
composer and a music researcher. Chi's innovative developments on the dan
bau have been heard in concerts throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
At present he is also teaching Vietnamese instruments at UBC.
Chi attended the National School of Music, studying dan bau and
traditional music theory with many of Vietnam's top performers and
instructors. His education included the music of China, Korea, India, and
Europe, as well as a number of years of field studies in rural Vietnam. In
1977, the Department of Culture chose him as one of four people to train for
five years as advanced instructors in theory, composition, conducting, and
performance. As part of this programme, he traveled to Tashkent in
Uzbekistan to study conducting and traditional music instruction. He went on
to become one of the first masters' instructors in the new department of
IO

Traditional Music at Hanoi National Conservatory (formerly the National
Music School). He became assistant head of the Department in 1987 and also
served as conductor of the Conservatory's acclaimed Traditional Music
Orchestra.
Coat Cooke is an internationally known improviser, bandleader and
composer. He has worked with dance, video, spoken word, and film for over
twenty years. He is founder and co-leader of the NOW Orchestra and will be
touring to the Chicago and Berlin Jazz Festivals later this year with this
ensemble. He is co-leader and co-founder of the Crossing Borders ensemble.
Janet Danielson is a composer and music educator whose works have been
performed and broadcast nationally over CBC and internationally: Still Waters,
for chamber ensemble, was featured at the Festival of the Pacific Rim in New
York, and Florescere for guitar was recently premiered at Donne in Musica,
in Fiuggi, Italy. Danielson is presently chair of the Association of Canadian
Women Composers and director of their first national festival which took
place last January in Ottawa. She is on the board of directors of the Canadian
League of Composers, and is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music
Centre. She is Opera Composer-in-Residence for Music in the Morning,
where her forthcoming opera, Mary of Nimmegen, will be presented over the
next two seasons. She has also written a CD-ROMtext, Basic Organization oj
Music, and is writing a book on harmony and technology.
Joseph "Pepe" Danza is an electrifying percussionist and multiinstrumentalist. A native of Montevideo, Uruguay, he studied at the National
Conservatory, and then developed an interest in world music and spent three
years studying shakuhachi in Japan and two ears studying Indian music in
India and Sri Lanka. After moving to Canada in 1989, he quickly established
himself as one of the foremost drummers and band leaders on the West coast.
Moshe Denburg grew up in Montreal in a religious Jewish family. His first
musical influences were the singing and chanting of the synagogue and his
mother's singing of Jewish and Israeli folksongs. His musical career has
spanned more than three decades and his accomplishments encompass a wide
range of musical activities, including composition, performance, Jewish music
education, and piano tuning. His compositions have been performed in many
parts of the world, and as a performer/composer he records and tours with his
ensemble Tzimmes all over North America. Moshe has also traveled
worldwide, living and studying music in New York, Israel, Montreal, Toronto,
India, and Japan. Since 1987 his compositions have reflected an ongoing
commitment to the principle of intercultural music-making.
Christopher Foley has emerged as one of western Canada's most active
collaborative pianists, and is dedicated to performing and teaching in the
fields of chamber music, art song, opera, and contemporary music. At the
Eastman School of Music, he received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in
1994, majoring in piano accompanying and chamber music as a student of
Jean Barr and David Burge. He is currently on the faculties of the Vancouver

II

Academy of Music, the University of British Columbia, and the Bowdoin
Summer Music Festival.
Extremely active in the field of new music, he has recently premiered
works at the April in Santa Cruz Festival, Cleveland State Composers Forum,
Vancouver International New Music Festival, Sonic Boom, and the Gamper
Festival of Contemporary Music. This spring, he coached and performed in
the world premiere production of Peter Hannan's controversial new opera 120
Songs for the Marquis de Sade, produced by Vancouver New Music and
Modem Baroque Opera. This May at the Banff Centre, he coached at a
developmental workshop for John Estacio's new opera Filumena, to be
premiered at the Calgary Opera in spring 2003.
Mei Han is a rare blend of virtuoso performer and scholar, defining the zheng
as a serious instrument of expression for the international concert stage. Her
career spans four continents, with lectures and tours throughout Asia, Africa,
Europe, and North America. Her performances have been broadcast nationally
in China and Canada, and are included in numerous records and CDs sold
throughout the world. Her written works on Chinese music are published in
international music journals and in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians.
Her recent performances with Randy Raine-Reusch include: the
Vancouver International Jazz Festival; the Rainforest World Music Festival in
Sarawak, Malaysia; WOMAD in Singapore; the CHIME Conference on Asian
Music in Prague; and the Awesome Africa Festival in Durban, South Africa.
Huang Ji-rong graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China
with a BA Degree in performance. He won an award in national competition
in China for traditional music instrumental performance, has performed
throughout China, and was selected by the Chinese government to tour Japan
and France. Since arriving in Vancouver in 1988, he has given hundreds of
performances across Canada and in the United States. He is highly skilled in
playing varfous Chinese bowed string instruments. He has also merged
western classical and contemporary music culture into Chinese music and
received praise and applause from many North American audiences. He is
artistic director of the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble and a guest
lecturer at the UBC School of Music.
Qiu Xia He, born in Baoji, China, has had two notable careers in music: as a
performer and teacher in China, and now as performer, composer, producer
and teacher in Canada. Neither career was entirely predictable. As a little girl
hoping to learn the violin, she was told she would instead study the pipa.
Showing an early talent, she toured the country with the popular Shaaxi Music
and Dance Troupe. She both studied and taught pipa at Xian Music Academy.
Qiu Xia has been a featured soloist with the Vancouver Symphony and
the Glacier Orchestra of Montana. She has performed with such top musicians
as Brazilian virtuoso Celso and Indian legend Trinchy Sankaran. She has
toured internationally with her own group, Silk Road Music, as well as with
the renowned world music groups ASZA and Jou Tou.
12

'

)

"My music has a definite cross-cultural bent", she says. "It combines the
traditional styles of the east with new influences picked up in the west. I play
Chinese music on Chinese instruments, but with western performance techniques gained from jazz, folk, and Celtic music. And I also use the pipa to
play western music. I love to play with musicians from other cultural backgrounds, creating an entirely new sound."
Hsu Tsang-houei (1929-2001) was born in Zhanghua, Taiwan. He graduated
from the Department of Music at the National Taiwan Normal University in
1953. During his postgraduate studies in Paris from 1954 to 1959, he studied
the history of western music with Prof. J Chailley and composition with Prof.
A. Jolivet.
Hsu composed more than a hundred pieces during the past 30 years,
including solo songs, solo instrumental music for both Western and Chinese
instruments, chamber music, symphonies, opera and Chinese ballet music. He
founded the Chinese Composers' Forum (1961), Chinese Society for Contemporary Music (1969), and co-founded the Asian Composers League (1973)
and Composers Association of Taiwan (1989). Hsu has contributed greatly to
the creation of modern music derived from the tradition in Taiwan.
Hsu engaged continuously for more than 30 years in collecting materials
through ethnomusicology field work and research supervision all over
Taiwan. He delivered papers and published numerous articles and books as
well as establishing the Chinese Folk Music Research Center (1967), Chinese
Folk Arts Foundation (1975), Chinese Society for Ethnomusicology in Taiwan
(1991), and Asian Pacific Society for Ethnomusicology (1994).
Hsu taught composition, theory, and musicology in the National Taiwan
Normal University, National Taiwan University of the Arts, Taipei National
University of the Arts, Soochow University, and Chinese Culture University.
He was best known for his expertise in composition and ethnomusicology.
Many distinguished musicians of Taiwan are among those he taught.
His honours and awards include 'Chevalier dans L'Ordre des Arts et
Lettres', French Ministry of Culture (1985), 'National Award of Literature
and Arts', Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan (1992), 'Outstanding
Scientific Research Award', National Council for Science, Taiwan (1993),
'Officier de la Legion d'Honneur' of France (1996), and 'National Culture
Award' of the Ministry of Taiwan (1997).
Jib Yeong-bin was born in Pingtung, Taiwan. He was the chief of the
pizzicato section of Taipei City Chinese Music Group and premier lutenist.
Presently he serves as a director of the Tzyy-Feng Pipa Chamber Music
Group, and as program-commentary committeeman of National Concert Hall.
He also teaches in the Chinese Traditional Music section of the music
department of National Taipei University of the Arts, the Chinese Music
department of National Taiwan University of the Arts, and the National .
Drama Technological Academy.
'
Lin Mei-fang received her bachelor's degree in composition and theory from
the National Taiwan Normal University and her master's degree in composition from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is now

13

pursuing her doctoral degree in composi~ion _at Berkeley. _She ha~ studied
composition with Pan Hwang-long, Wu Tmg-lten, Tseng Shmg-kue1, and Lu
yen in Taiwan and Guy Garnett, Sever Tipei, Zack Browning and Scott Wyatt
(electronic music) in the United States.
She was the winner of the Prix Scrime 2000 in France, 21st Century
Piano Commission Competition in 1999, the ASCAP Award in 1998 and
1999 finalist selection at the Concours International de Musique Electroacou~tiques, Bourges in 2000, as well as at the Concorso ~nternazion~le L~ig!
Russolo in 1999, Honorary Mention and Special Award m the Music Ta1pe1
Composition Competition in 1998 and 1997 respectively. Her compositions
have received performances and broadcast in the United States, Europe, and
Taiwan. She is also a very active performer of new music in the United States.
Ma Shui-long, a renowned composer in Taiwan, was born in Keelung, 1_939.
He studied theory and composition under Prof. Hsiao Erh-hua at the National
Taiwan Academy of the Arts and graduated in 1964. In 1972, he was awarded
a scholarship to study under Dr. Oscar Sigmund in Regensburg Kirchenmusik
Hochschule, Germany and graduated with distinction in 1975.
His more than 40 compositions are of wide range, including works for
orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano solo, voice solo and chorus. They have
been performed not only in Taiwan, but also in Europe, the United States,
South Africa, and Southeast Asia. His Bamboo Flute Concerto was performed
in Taipei by the National Symphony Orchestra of the United _S_tatesunder t~e
baton of Mstislav Rostropovich in 1983. In 1986, he v1s1ted Columbia
University and the University of Pennsylvania as a Fulbright sc~olar, and ga_ve
four composition concerts in Lincoln Center, New York, and m other maJor
cites. He is now professor of composition at the Taipei University of A~s,
president of the Music Copyright Association Taiwan, c~ai~man of t~e Asian
Composers' League Taiwan, and of the Composers Assoc1at10nof Taiwan.
Celso Machado, a virtuoso guitarist and percussionist, brings joy to his
audiences with his subtle mixture of musical inspiration and irresistible
rhythm. For over thirty years he has been perf~rming o~ co?cert stages
throughout Brazil, western Europe, and Canada. Gu~tar techmque is_but one of
his passions; his gift for making music out of anythmg and everythmg ~round
us is his mission in life. He is rightly considered one of the most versatile and
exciting musicians/composers of Brazilian music today.
.
Celso has recorded with many Canadian, Brazilian, and European artists,
but can be heard best on his numerous and exquisite solo recordings. Both his
1997 recording Vara[ and his 1999 Jongo Le have been nominated for Juno
Awards. In 2000 his score for the documentary In the Company of Fear won a
Leo Award. His score for A Place called Chiapas was also nominated for best
documentary musical score.
Brazilian music arises from various blends of African, Portuguese, and
indigenous influences. While Celso's music is rooted i~ these rhythmic a~d
melodic styles, it also reflects his incurable fascination with other world-music
traditions. He finds similarities between the music of southern Italy and
northeast Brazil, the Egyptian Maqsoum and the Brazilian Baiao rhythm, the
14

Moroccan Gnawa rhythm and Afoxe and Samba. He incorporates these
influences into his own sound, his own unique contribution to the ongoing
evolution of Brazilian music.
Mark Takeshi McGregor received his musical training from UBC and the
Sydney Conservatorium in Australia. He has participated in various
prestigious music festivals, including the Verbier Festival (Switzerland), the
Banff Festival, and the European Mozart Academy (Poland), and has
performed with ensembles such as the National Arts Centre Orchestra
(Ottawa) and the World Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales. He regularly
performs for Vancouver New Music and at Vancouver Pro Musica's Sonic
Boom Festival. He has served as a Pro Musica board member since December.
Chris O'Neil comes to Vancouver from Ontario, where he began his formal
percussion studies under Jack Broumpton at Cambrian College, Sudbury,
Ontario. While in Sudbury, Chris developed his orchestral skills, holding the
position of principal percussionist of the Sudbury Symphony for two years,
under the direction of Maestro Victor Sawa.
Chris is currently completing his undergraduate studies under Salvador
Ferreras at UBC for a degree in percussion performance. While in Vancouver,
Chris has performed with the Okanagan Symphony, Burnaby Symphony,
West Coast Symphony, Vancouver Academy Symphony, and played timpani
for the Vancouver Island Symphony. Last January Chris was one of the featured soloists at the Listen Up festival. He was also a part of the Vancouver
New Music Society festival this year, performing with the percussion ensemble Four Gallon Drum.
Hand Drumming has always been a big part of Chris' life, and he is
currently pursuing his passion for African drumming by working with master
musician and dancer, Fana Soro. Chris also works with Milton Randall,
performing African drumming workshops for children in the Greater
Vancouver school district.
Paul Plimley is a pianist/composer/improviser who has been active nationally
and internationally for the past 24 years. His music is the result of playing,
studying and receiving inspiration from both European classical music and the
entire scope of American music. He has toured many times throughout
Europe, Canada and the United States. His music has been _broadca~t
internationally on radio and TV, and he has over a dozen CD recordmgs to his
credit with musicians from around the globe. Paul was given the Freddie
Stone Award in 1995. The CD-ROMportion of Everything In Stages has won
several major multimedia awards, including the silver prize from Newmedia
Invision, first prize in the Adobe CD-ROMMultimedia competition, a Golden
Apple Award from National Educational Media, and an EMMA award from
the International CD-ROMshowcase in Frankfurt, Germany. Also, the Canada
Council has just awarded a grant to Paul and fellow composer Mark Armanini
to record their improvised piano concerto for symphony orchestra.
Randy Raine-Reusch is an improvisationally based composer and concert
artist, specializing in new and experimental music for world instruments. A

interests and a deep love of the musical traditions imparted to him by his
teachers.
Yang Tsung-hsien was born in 1952 in Taiwan and attended Tunghai
University as an undergraduate. In 1977 he went to the United States for
graduate studies in composition, studying first with Peter Racine Fricker at the
University of California, Santa Barbara, then with Arthur Berger, Harold
Shapero, and Martin Boykan at Brandeis University. He completed his Ph.D.
in 1987; since then he has held positions at Bates College and Soochow
University. Presently he is Professor of Music at National Chiao Tung
University in Taiwan. Since 1994 he has been resident composer for the
Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Taipei.
In his early twenties, Yang participated as pianist in concert performances
with the Polyphonic Ensemble in Taipei and in recordings of Taiwanese new
music. During his years in the United States, he accumulated invaluable experience both in composing and performing new music. Since 1991, when he
returned to Taiwan, Yang has combined the considerable demands of his
teaching with a commission schedule which maintains his position as one of
the most frequently performed composers in Taiwan. For the last decade,
Yang's music has been featured in concerts held in various cities in Asia,
Europe and the Americas. Since the early nineties, Yang's compositions have
become more and more lyrical and contemplative as a reflection of his evolvi'ng attitude toward the relationship between creativity and life.
Jin Zhang was born in Beijing and received his first musical education there
at the Central Conservatory. He has studied conducting at the Toho Gauken
School in Tokyo and with Kazuyoshi Akiyama and Seiji Ozawa. During his
years in China and Japan he composed and arranged many works for the
concert stage, radio, television, and recordings, working with both western
symphonic and Chinese folk orchestras. Since coming to Canada in 1990, he
has directed and conducted many musical organizations in the Vancouver
area, including symphony, chamber, and Chinese folk orchestras as well as
choirs. His compositions combine eastern and western musical materials.
Zhuo Roi-Shi has been principal of the Canadian Conservatory of Music in
Vancouver for six years. He was music director and conductor of the Far East
Broadcasting Company of Canada (FEBC) for three years and conductor and
composer-in-residence of the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble in 1999
and 2000.
Before coming to Canada, he was a staff conductor with the Shanghai
National Orchestra. He has eight recordings to his credit in China, Taiwan,
Hong Kong, and Canada, and is a five-time winner of composing commission
grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council. He has
also been commissioned to compose for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra,
Vancouver New Music, Vancouver Pro Musica, and the National Film Board
of Canada. His works have been played on CBC across Canada. He was
recently commissioned by the Canadian Vocal and Performing Arts Society to
compose the score for their Pianos Galore concert. His first full-length
concert opera Go for Me to China successfully premiered in June 2001.

18

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specialising in CD recordings of
Classical, Jazz and World music
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Tel: 604 736 2727

RESOURCE CENTRE FOR CANADIAN MUSIC
Free circulating computer-catalogued library of 14,000 scores
Free listening library of thousands of commercial and archival
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A major resource of reference materials on Canadian composers
Fine selection of CDs, books, and high-quality music manuscript
paper for sale
Music photocopying and binding services
Open Monday to Friday 9:00 to 5:00
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Tel: 604 734 4622 / Fax: 604 734 4627
Email: bcregion@musiccentre.ca
Internet: www.musiccentre.ca
Colin Miles, Regional Director
Dianne Kennedy, Coordinator, Office & Library

19

Notes from Tuesday, 28 May (continued)
Takemitsu's compositions, "Itinerant" does not employ traditional western
concepts of harmony, rhythm and form, but rather explores issues of timbre
and silence, as well as a handful of techniques reminiscent of the Japanese
shakuhachi. These include extreme articulations and key vibrato.
Japanese miscellany is named for a book by Lafcadio Hearn published in
Japan in the early years of the 20th century. These nine intimate, seemingly
autobiographical miniatures were written during one of Weisgarber's long
periods of residence in Japan.
Three traditional pieces: "Spring is coming" is a folk song of northwest
Vietnam. "On the mountain top" is children's fairytale music, arranged by
Hoang Bic. The sao bop, or "squeezing bamboo flutes", is an invention of
Khac Chi's.
Tumbling worlds focuses on melodic and rhythmic ideas and their
improvisational interpretation. This work was commissioned by Hoang Bi~
with the assistance of the British Columbia Arts Council for the Kha~ Cht
Ensemble.
Takemitsu's Air was composed for the seventieth birthday celebration of the
great Swiss flutist Aurele Nicolet (1926- ). The last piece that Takemitsu
would write, it is ironically by far the most conservative of his prolific output
of flute music, embracing those impressionistic sentimentalities that Nicolet
nprmally finds offensive in modern music. The piece takes its title from
Takemitsu's fascination with elemental powers-in this case, the magic
through which the flute transforms air into sound.
Dance of many colours is a double concerto written for the Khac Chi
Ensemble. It features some of the many instruments played by Hoang Bic and
Khac Chi. The second movement, beginning rhythmically but ending lyrically, features dan bau, bass bau, bamboo flute and koni. The third is a
'rhythmic whirlwind with two dan bau.
1

Notes from Wednesday, 29 May (continued)
ensemble solidarity. The Orchid Ensemble continues to make inroads in the
mastering of this difficult musical undertaking.
This work was commissioned with the assistance of the British Columbia
Arts Council.
New Vistas in Chinese Music: Mei Han's deep roots in traditional music
combined with Raine-Reusch's modern innovations have resulted in a radical
new repertoire. Together they have invented new tunings, developed virtuosic
techniques, expanded old structures and created radical new forms of
expression on the zheng. Yet throughout these rich innovations that combine
five thousand years of Chinese musical traditions with those of new music,
world music, and jazz, the deep essence of this ancient instrument is
maintained and emphasized.
20

Clouds in the Empty Sky is a Taoist based work for zheng and sho, a
Japanese mouth organ that had its origins in the Tang courts of China.
Forest Rain is an alternating textural and rhythmic journey through
overlapping temporal motifs based on the sound of rain falling on forest
leaves.
Tokyo Crows is a haunting and powerful work for zheng and ichigenkin-a rare one-string Japanese zither-that explores the historic links
between Japanese and Chinese music.
Dragon Dogs incorporates a contemporary non-linear tuning; two zhengs
challenge each other in a fast powerful work with jazz overtones.
Black Zheng is a contemporary work for bowed zheng and bun, a Korean
ocarina, with echoes of ancient Chinese ghost stories.

Notes from Thursday, 30 May (continued)
vial of clear oil, all matter, according to Bohm's view, is an undivided wholeness in perpetual flowing movement.
Florescere, inspired by Bohm's view, treats tones as tightly compressed
seeds of harmony, and uses rotation, informal canon, and rhythmic modes
based on the proportions of the harmonic series to unfold a venerable melody
taken from the Genevan Psalter. It was written in summer 1999 and premiered
at the Donne in Musica Festival in Fiuggi, Italy.
Qi, shen, xing are the titles of this work's three movements; according to traditional Chinese religion, these words denote three basic elements. In this
work the composer explores ways in which eastern and western timbres and
musical forms can be blended to create unusual and colourful musical atmospheres.
Qi means both atmosphere and momentum. Sometimes it expresses a
tremendous momentum of spirit and boldness of vision; it also refers to a kind
of energy, strength, and temperament. At the beginning of the qi movement,
the cello plays a very strong unison A~ with full bow while the second violin
plays A~ with the same bowing. After several bars the viola adds G, and the
first violin enters. All four instruments play a powerful fluid cluster accompanying an erhu aria and recitative expressing energy and tremendous
momentum of spirit with a boldness of vision.
Shen denotes God or the divine; according to traditional Chinese religion,
the whole universe is controlled by God, and the Chinese Emperor is the son
of God. Every year, the Emperor held a ceremony to offer a sacrifice to
Heaven and Earth. To present a corresponding atmosphere of mystery and
magic, the shen movement is very slow in tempo with glissandi and wide
vibrato. A special technique for cello and viola also contributes to a sense of
court ceremony: both players imitate a unique zheng effect by using righthand pizzicato simultaneously with their left hand moving up or down.
Xing denotes an image, form, or figure or a sense of shapelessness and
formlessness. This word is often used to compare or contrast two different
things. It is also used as a way of describing something. Pointillistic technique
pervades this movement. A background of sixteen-note rhythms accompanies
staccato double stops while the erhu plays long notes in a strongly contrasting
21

Notes from Thursday, 30 May (continued)
slow rhythm. The composer has borrowed this from Chinese traditional drama
and developed innovative, non-traditional performance techniques with some
mixed metrical accents and numerous cross-rhythms to depict a sense of
shapelessness and formlessness.
The work originally dates from 1994, when the composer was studying in
the UBC School of Music. It was rewritten and re-arranged for Vancouver Pro
Musica's 1998 Sonic Boom.
Blind consists of seven continuous sections: "Blind", "Loss", "Blind",
"Scream", "Blind", "Struggle", "Blind". The melodies were adapted from
those of blind masseurs playing short flutes while walking at night in Taipei.
Each one of the blind masseurs had his own melody. People on earth, walking
through their lives, may sometimes be described as those blind men, wandering, crying, and struggling.
Yang's string trio: 'Post-modern' art now prevails irresistibly, and the string
trio has been in disfavour for a long time. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, it has been abandoned like a deserted baby and has survived
only in the limited room left by chamber music, even there discriminated
against by those who prefer its much favoured sibling-the string quartet. Yet
the sophistication and elegance of the trio are incomparable. Art as a reflection
of the mind means much more thah pursuit of the current mode.
About two hundred years ago an elegant composer was born in Vienna.
Though he lived under the overwhelming shadow of Beethoven and passed
away as early as the morning dew, he left us something of eternal beauty. This
string trio is composed in commemoration of that wanderer in the winter
night: of his insistence, loneliness, joy ... and, above all, of his sophistication
and elegance.
Disintegration consists of five movements. A simple Chinese folk song was
used as the source of material for the entire piece. The tune is introduced
without much distortion in the first movement. As the piece progresses, it
disintegrates as if it is being melted and disguises itself in a variety of
different shapes. The composer has also tried to combine some aspects of
Chinese music other than the tune itself with those of western music; an
example is the timbral imitation of the zheng in the first movement. This piece
was commissioned by Ms. Jana mason and her husband Richard Anderson
through the 1999 21st Century Piano Commission Competition.
Ma's Pipa and string quartet: Among traditional plucked-string instruments,
the pipa may be considered to have the most abundant expressiveness. Having
developed over a long period of improvisational practice, the variety of
performance techniques it affords is unique and fascinating. They leave it
altogether unrivalled.
In combining this traditional Chinese solo instrument- 'tough and gentle,
sharp personality' -with the western string quartet, the composer's intention
is to explore different musical styles and connotations through the interplay of
the eastern and western instruments.

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v a n c O u v e r This furtherEASTfurtherWEST festival is the third
pr O Mu 5 i Ca of that name, succeeding a 1995 concert directed
by Darren Copeland and a 1997 three-concert festival directed by Chris Miller. The unifying theme
for all these events continues to be interaction between Eastern
and Western musical practice.
The first three concerts of the present festival feature mainly
recent music composed for combinations of Eastern and Western
instruments. Some pieces here also have significant improvisational
content. A sampling of traditional Eastern music and a few solo
works of Eastern inspiration for Western instruments by twentiethcentury masters round out these programmes.
The third of these concerts continues a Taiwan-Canada musical
exchange of some years' standing, with Taiwanese new music well
represented.
The final two concerts in the festival offer unique cross-cultural
fusions: Brazilian/Chinese and the multicultural Crossing Borders,
with improvisation by performers from China, Vietnam, Uruguay,
and Canada.

/1z't 21 l\j's..t

Vancouver Pro Musica is a non-profit
organization of B.C. composers.
Our next event will be Sonic Boom 2003,
our centrepiece of new B.C. compositions.
Watch for it next year I