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Lei Liang Composer Portrait at New York's Miller Theatre

Nov. 02, 2016

Lei Liang Composer Portrait at New York's Miller Theatre

Columbia University’s Miller Theatre celebrates the music of Lei Liang with a Composer Portrait concert on November 17. The program includes the world premiere of Lakescape V written for the loadbang ensemble, along with the New York premiere of Luminous for solo contrabass and ensemble featuring Mark Dresser and conductor Steven Schick, as well as performances of Serashi Fragments with the JACK quartet, and Ascension for brass quintet and percussion.

The portrait program brings together several of Liang's most influential works from the last 10 years. Serashi Fragments, Liang’s first string quartet, is a tribute to the Mongolian chaorer (an ancient two-string fiddle) player named Serashi (1887-1968) and was premiered by the Arditti Quartet in 2006. His Ascension juxtaposes two opposing imaginary rituals, one "peaceful and contemplative, like a sacred prayer," the other "full of wild energy and exuberance.” Luminous, Liang's concerto for contrabass and ensemble which premiered with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players in 2015, takes inspiration from Dresser’s “uniquely powerful musical expressions and innovative techniques,” as well as the instrument’s rich spectra of sonic possibilities.

Liang’s new work, Lakescape V, is the continuation of a series of works inspired by a visit to a Buddhist monastery in upstate New York nearly 20 years ago. Liang says of the series:

Having been interested in Mahayana Buddhism for a number of years, I went to a Buddhist monastery in upstate New York to study meditation in 1999. One evening, while walking alone by the side of the lake, I caught the sight of a “V” shape floating and extending on the surface of the water. It was a beaver taking a swim under the moon. This image gave me insight into my relationship with silence: underneath the music is a profoundly deep silence upon which I seek to inscribe my signature through sound.  It inspired me to compose a number of works.

The new work is scored for the unique instrumentation of the loadbang ensemble: baritone voice, clarinet, trumpet, and trombone. In Lakescape V, the tranquility in the original “Lake” series is disturbed by showers of “phonetic particles’ taken from Wai-lim Yip’s poetry (in both English and Chinese) as the piece traverses through different states of mind. 

For more information on Lei Liang, visit schott-music.com. 

Lei Liang
Serashi Fragments (2005)
for string quartet
7’

Ascension (2008)
for brass quintet and percussion
11’ 

Luminous (2014)
for solo contrabass and chamber ensemble
bcl-hn-perc-pno-vn.va.vc
20’ 

Lakescape V (2016)
for baritone voice, trumpet, trombone, and bass clarinet
text (Chinese, Eng) by Wai-lin Yip
10’

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