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Chatter Premieres Lei Liang's Thirteen Rounds in New Mexico

Sep. 01, 2021

On September 11, Chatter gave the world premiere performance of Lei Liang's Thirteen Rounds at SITE Santa Fe, followed by another performance of the work the next day at Las Puertas in Albuquerque. The composer notes:

"Thirteen Rounds (2021) draws on the materials from my chamber opera Inheritance which anchors in the life and legacy of Sarah Winchester, heir to the gun-manufacturer fortune, and explores her life as a metaphor and a means to reflect on America’s deeply complex relationship with violence and guns. Thirteen Rounds is a musical story without a narrative, and explores the elements of violence, self-imprisonment, atonement, and Winchester’s obsession with the number 13."

Thirteen Rounds is commissioned by and written for Chatter (Jeff Brooks, bass clarinet; Kathleen McIntosh, harpsichord; Jeff Cornelius, percussion; Elliot Simpson, guitar; David Felberg, conductor), with funding generously provided by Eleanor Eisenmenger.

Listen to Lei Liang's Serashi Fragments (2005):

(Lei Liang/Serashi Fragments/JACK Quartet)

Next month, the NewMusic Camerata at East Carolina University will premiere Lei Liang's Close your eyes. Lei Liang notes:

"'Close your eyes' is a phrase my then 5-year-old son Albert once said, before he handed me a surprise present.

I also think of it as an invitation to experiencing a world illuminated by sounds, or by other means, for that matter.

Close your eyes explores the idea of “the living score” in which the notation serves as a reference for a possible interpretation and a point of departure. After the notation is internalized through rehearsals and group discussions, the piece is to be performed at least twice, once from the score, and once from memory. The latter explores the possibility of making the score “alive” by altering some parameters of the written version." 

To learn more about Lei Liang, visit: schott-music.com.

Lei Liang
Thirteen Rounds (2021)
for clarinet, guitar, harpsichord, and percussion 
9'

Close your eyes (2020)
for voices (soprano/alto) and mixed ensemble
3fl.3cl-3euph-3perc(I. rice, flower pot, temp-bl; II. super balls, small pebbles [for shaking], 2bng, temp-bl; III. b.d, 2cong, temp-bl)-6 or 12 voices(3sop, 3alt or 6sop, 6alt) each with a pair of pebbles, rice and flower pots
11'

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