Writing music is how I express myself. After all, “where words fail, music speaks.” — Chelsea Loew, composer
|
Leading up to Helia & Liaison Ensemble's October 27th concert, Early Music Meets New, we'll be posting interviews with our collaborators to offer you a sneak-peak into their lives, their musical process, and their inspiration. Read on to learn more!  Meet Lily Chen! On October 27, 2018, Liaison will be giving the world-premiere of her new work Fragmented Lament for mezzo-soprano and Baroque ensemble. Learn about her background, her piece, and fun facts about her life. Tell us a little about yourself - where you’re currently based, your musical journey so far, where you think you’re going. Currently I’m based in the Bay Area. I was born and bred in a small city in Taiwan. After finishing my studies in Taiwan, I came to the US in 2011 to pursue my PhD at UC Berkeley and have lived in the Bay Area ever since. Recently, I just got my PhD and will move forward to the next journey soon. What inspires your music? Describe your voice. In recent years, I’ve been fascinated with the world of timbre [the character or quality of a musical sound or voice as distinct from its pitch and intensity]. I am interested in combining my imagination with music by transforming the ideas, images, or emotions I’ve perceived in my life into different sonic gestures and timbral materials, thus shaping a colorful and imaginative world in my music. My music can be inspired by my life or travel experiences, or some images/paintings/poems that touch me. Tell us about the piece Liaison will be performing. My piece Fragmented Lament for Liaison is a tiny piece reacting to Barbara Strozzi’s L’eraclito Amoroso (Udite amante). In this piece, I choose some fragments from the original piece, especially some phrases/patterns which include the texts “tears” or “kill me, and bury me” in Italian, to condense the grief and the pain in the piece. However, I try to find some unconventional ways for each instrument/voice to distort the original gestures quite a lot throughout almost the whole piece. I hope my experiment can bring this piece some fresh views while still connecting to the original one. What was it like writing for Baroque instruments? Have you done this before? Challenging? Easy? Tell us about your process. This was my first time writing for Baroque instruments. Honestly, it was kind of challenging to write for Baroque instruments since there are more limitations on the Baroque instruments themselves. However, it was really fun to get to know the instruments and then try to explore some instrumental potentials. I’ve learned and enjoyed a lot from this collaboration! What's a fun fact about yourself? Interesting hobby outside of music? Besides listening to various styles of music, I enjoy food and travel a lot. I also like cooking. To me, cooking is somehow like composing, trying to combing different materials together in a logical way. Sometimes when I miss my hometown, I also make some authentic Taiwanese snacks, such as radish cake, oyster omelet, or popcorn chicken. 
Find out more about Lily by visiting: http://chenlily.com http://soundcloud.com/chenlily Don't miss Lily's piece! Early Music Meets New: Liaison Ensemble + Helia Music Collective Saturday, October 27th at 8:00pm Center for New Music (55 Taylor St., SF, CA) $15 general/$10 members, students, seniors Tickets available at the door and online here.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |