UMS Concert Program, Sunday Oct. 09 To 22: University Musical Society: Fall 2011 - Sunday Oct. 09 To 22 --

Season: Fall 2011
Hill Auditorium

Fall 2011 Season
133rd Annual Season
General Information
On-site ticket offices at performance venues open 90 minutes before each performance.
Children of all ages are welcome at UMS Family and Youth Performances. Children under the age of three will not be admitted to regular, full-length UMS performances. All children must be able to sit quietly in their own seats without disturbing other patrons. Children unable to do so, along with the adult accompanying them, will be asked by an usher to leave the auditorium. Please use discretion in choosing to bring a child.
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While in the Auditorium
Starting Time Every attempt is made to begin concerts on time. Latecomers are asked to wait in the lobby until seated by ushers at a predetermined time in the program.
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are prohibited in the auditorium.
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Please turn off your cellular phones and other digital devices so that everyone may enjoy this UMS event disturbance-free.
In the interests of saving both dollars and the environment, please either retain this program book and return with it when you attend other UMS performances included in this edition or return it to your usher when leaving the venue.
Event Program Book
Sunday, October 9 through Saturday, October 22, 2011
Yuja Wang
Sunday, October 9, 4:00 pm Hill Auditorium
State Symphony Capella of Russia 13
Thursday, October 13, 7:30 pm St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church
Goran Bregovic and His Wedding and Funeral Orchestra 21
Saturday, October 15, 8:00 pm Hill Auditorium
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan 25
Friday, October 21, 8:00 pm Saturday, October 22, 8:00 pm Power Center
ums University Musical Society
Fall 2011
@@@@ September
1 An Evening with Ahmad Jamal
18 Emerson String Quartet
23-24 Mark Morris Dance Group
25 Dan Zanes & Friends
October
I John Malkovich and Musica Angelica
Baroque Orchestra: The Infernal Comedy:
Confessions of a Serial Killer
9 Yuja Wang, piano
9 National Theatre Live: One Man, Two
Guvnors
13 State Symphony Capella of Russia
15 Goran Bregovic and His Wedding and
Funeral Orchestra
21-22 Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan:
Water Stains on the Wall
27 Schola Cantorum de Venezuela
27-29 Gate Theatre of Dublin: Beckett's
Endgame and Watt
30 National Theatre Live: The Kitchen
November
; Apollo's Fire with Philippe Jaroussky, j countertenor
i Audra McDonald
5 i Diego El Cigala 9 AnDa Union
11
A Night in Treme: The Musical Majesty
of New Orleans
12 20 27
St. Lawrence String Quartet
Beijing Guitar Duo with Manuel Barrueco
Canadian Brass
December
Handel's Messiah
6
London Philharmonic Orchestra with
Janine Jansen, violin
7
Stile Antico
Winter 201
January
8 I National Theatre Live: The Collaborators 20-22 I Einstein on the Beach
23 Denis Matsuev, piano
28 i Les Violons du Roy with Maurice Steger, recorder
Hamburg Symphony Orchestra with Francesco Tristano, piano: Messiaen's From the Canyons to the Stars
February
4 : Sabine Meyer and the Trio di Clarone
10 i Chamber Ensemble of the Shanghai : Chinese Orchestra
12 I Michigan Chamber Players
The Tallis Scholars
i Sweet Honey In The Rock
I Wayne McGregor I Random Dance: FAR
! FELA! (at Music Hall, Detroit) 19 National Theatre Live: Title TBA
@@@@ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with i Wynton Marsalis
! Hagen Quartet
March
9 i Chicago Symphony Orchestra with
Pinchas Zukerman, violin Max Raabe & Palast Orchester Ex Machina: The Andersen Project National Theatre Live: The Comedy of Errors San Francisco Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor: American Mavericks
April
: Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion
CheikhLo
Charles Lloyd New Quartet 18 Pavel Haas Quartet
19-21 Ballet Preljocaj: Snow White 22 i Ford Honors Program: Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with Joshua Bell, violin
May
11 ] Breakin' Curfew
UMS Educational and Community Events
All UMS educational activities are free, open to the public, and take place in Ann Arbor unless otherwise noted. For complete details and updates, please visit www.ums.org or contact the UMS Education Department at 734.615.4077 or umsed@umich.edu. "t
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Calligraphy in the Lobby
Friday and Saturday, October 21 and 22,
7:00-7:45pm
Power Center Lobby
Water Stains On The Wall is a popular metaphor that represents the highest state in the aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy. You're invited to join local calligraphers in exploring and experimenting with the art of calligraphy in the Power Center lobby before the performance. Must have a ticket to the performance to attend.
Artist Interview: Cloud Gate
Friday, October 21, Post-performance Power Center
Choreographer and Artistic Director Lin Hwai-min takes audience questions in a post-performance Q&A. Must have a ticket to the performance to attend.
Gate Theatre of Dublin
Artist Interview:
Barry McGovern, Actor and Renowned
Beckett Performer, Gate Theatre of Dublin
Sunday, October 23, 5:00 pm
Ann Arbor District Library Downtown Branch,
343 S. Fifth Avenue
Actor Barry McGovern, one of the world's leading interpreters of Samuel Beckett's works, will be interviewed by U-M Professor Enoch Brater. Mr. McGovern will discuss his work with the Gate Theatre and his new solo performance adaptation of Beckett's novel Watt.
The Essential Samuel Beckett
Tuesday, October 25, 7:00 pm
Ann Arbor District Library Downtown Branch,
343 S. Fifth Avenue
Theater historian and Samuel Beckett specialist Enoch Brater presents an overview of the life and works of playwright Samuel Beckett, his influence upon modern theater, and the landmark productions of Beckett's works staged by the Gate Theatre of Dublin.
visit www.ums.org for more information C
urns
presents
Yuja Wang
Piano
Program
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Ludwig van Beethoven
Claude Debussy
Maurice Ravel
Isaac Albeniz
Alexander Scriabin
Scriabin
Sunday Afternoon, October 9, 2011 at 4:00 Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor
Etudes-tableaux Op. 39, No. 6 Etudes-tableaux Op. 39, No. 4 Etudes-tableaux Op. 39, No. 5 Elegie, Op. 3, No. 1
Sonata No. 13 in E-flat Major, Op. 271 ("quasi unafantasia") Andante-Allegro-Andante Allegro molto e vivace Adagio con espressione Allegro vivace
Estampes (excerpt) La soiree dans Grenade
Miroirs (excerpt) Alborada del gracioso
Iberia (Book II) (excerpt) Triana
INTERMISSION
Prelude in B Major, Op. 11, No. 11 Prelude in b minor. Op. 13, No. 6 Prelude in g-sharp minor. Op. 11, No. 12 Etude in g-sharp minor. Op. 8, No. 9 Poeme in F-sharp Major, Op. 32, No. 1
Sonata No. 5, Op. 53
Eighth Performance of the 133rd Annual Season
133rd Annual Choral Union Series
The photographing or sound and video recording of this recital or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
This afternoon's recital is supported by Donald Morelock. Media partnership is provided by WGTE 91.3 FM.
The Steinway piano used in this afternoon's recital is made possible by William and Mary Palmer and by the Steinway Piano Gallery of Detroit.
Special thanks to Tom Thompson of Tom Thompson Flowers, Ann Arbor, for his generous contribution of floral art for this afternoon's recital.
Ms. Wang is a Steinway Artist.
Ms. Wang records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon.
Ms. Wang appears by arrangement with Opus 3 Artists, New York, NY.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Now that you're in your seat...
F
rom Russia to Spain via France with a stopover in Vienna and back to Russia again, this afternoon's program covers a lot of geographical ground. Chronologically, though, most of the music comes from a rather brief period: the final decades of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th. This was the time when European Romanticism reached its "overripe" stage, combining heart-on-the-sleeve expression with ever-bolder harmonic experimentation. The end of the Romantic era will be juxtaposed to its beginning, with one of Beethoven's two "fantasy sonatas," the companion piece of the "Moonlight," whose date of composition, at the very beginning of a new century, is in itself symbolic.
Snapshots of History... In 1916:
World War I is raging in Europe
Spanish composer Enrique Granados is killed when the British ship on which he is returning from America is torpedoed by a German submarine
Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 4 ("The Inextinguishable") is premiered in Copenhagen
James Joyce publishes The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Albert Einstein publishes the theory of general relativity
In 1892:
The immigration center on Ellis Island opens its doors
Piotr Tchaikovsky composes The Nutcracker
Conan Doyle writes The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
France and Russia sign a treaty of military alliance
Claude Monet begins a series of paintings of the Rouen Cathedral
Three Etudes-tableaux from Op. 39
(Nos. 6, 4, 5) (1916) Elegie, Op. 3, No. 1 (1892) Sergei Rachmaninoff Born April 7, 1873 in Semyonovo, Russia Died March 28, 1943 in Beverly Hills, California
The nine Etudes-tableaux published as Op. 39 were written at the height of World War I. Rach?maninoff's family owned a large estate at Ivanovka, about 300 miles southeast of Moscow, where the composer spent most of the war years. Although he had a busy concert schedule in the two Russian capitals, in May 1916, he travelled to the Cauca?sus to take the mineral baths there. Following the 1915 death of Rachmaninoff's former schoolmate
Alexander Scriabin at the age of 43, Rachmaninoff undertook an extended concert tour in Russia to play his deceased colleague's music.
The two sets of Etudes-tableaux (the eight pieces published as Op. 33 in 1911 and the Op. 39 collection) fully live up to their hyphenated genre designation: they are, at once, virtuoso studies and expressive character pieces. The a-minor work which will open this afternoon's recital even re?ceived a programmatic nickname from the com?poser when he recorded it on a piano roll in 1921: he dubbed it "The Tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf." Commentators have tried to jus?tify it by interpreting the fast chromatic scales in the low register as the growling of the wolf and the scurrying sixteenth passages as Little Red Rid?ing Hood's attempts to escape. As Max Harrison comments in his 2005 biography of Rachmaninoff: "There is no happy end to this fairy tale."
The b-minor work (Op. 39, No. 4) could also easily be thought to narrate a fairy tale, although in this case the composer left us no clues as to which one it might be. Yet the abrupt register changes, the agitated rhythms and, in particular, the archaic modal cadences (without the leading tones we are accustomed to in classical music) are definitely full of meaning, even if we cannot quite put that meaning into words.
No. 5, in e-flat minor, is marked "Appas?sionato," and it stands out even among Rach?maninoff's works for its sheer emotional intensity and the grandeur of its gestures. The pianistic virtuosity is placed in the service of great expres?sivity; passionate outbursts alternate with calmer moments as Rachmaninoff unfolds a multitude of complex harmonic progressions against the con?stant background of pounding triplet rhythms.
After these mature masterpieces, one may appreciate the precocious artistry of a work like the Elegie, Op. 3, No. 1, written when the com?poser was not quite 18 years old. A simple and even somewhat banal melody is taken through a dramatic series of crescendos, culminating in a shattering fortissimo climax: there is no doubt that Rachmaninoff's musical personality was already fully formed well before he completed his formal education.
Snapshot of History... In 1801:
Thomas Jefferson becomes President of the United States
The British defeat Napoleon's forces in Egypt
Friedrich Schiller writes his dramas Maria Stuart and The Maid of Orleans
The German Romantic poet Novalis dies at the age of 28
Czar Paul I of Russia is assassinated
Sonata No. 13 in E-flat Major, Op. 271
(1801)
Ludwig van Beethoven
Born December 15 or 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany Died March 26, 1827 in Vienna
Each one of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas has a distinctive personality; each one has something in it that is peculiar to it alone, whether a startling modulation or a vividly painted character portrait, tragic, comic, or contemplative. But there are a group of works, written at the dawn of the 19th century, that question the very concept of the sonata as it had been practiced in the works of Haydn, Mozart, and early Beethoven. Of course, Beethoven would go much further in that ques?tioning in his late sonatas, written in the 1820s. Yet he definitely rocked the boat in a pair of works that, at first sight, seem gentle and peaceful enough but that turn out, on closer inspection, to be extremely bold an innovative. Of the two works entitled Sonata quasi una fantasia and published as Op. 27, the second is the so-called "Moonlight Sonata," which famously begins with a soulful slow movement instead of the usual sonata alle?gro. Op. 27, No. 1 in E-flat, which we shall hear this afternoon, does not have a nickname and is therefore not as well remembered by the average
listener. Yet it is, arguably, even more revolutionary than its popular companion. The "fantasia" in the title means that Beethoven all but broke down the division into movements, having all the sections of the sonata follow each other without pauses. As in the "Moonlight," there is not a single movement that observes "sonata form," the usual structural layout based on a largely predetermined succes?sion of themes and keys. What is more, for most of the sonata he scrupulously avoids the dominant key of B-flat Major, which would be the natural tonal destination for any piece that starts in E-flat (only the final rondo respects this convention). In?stead, Beethoven emphasizes other keys to which he returns with some regularity: C Major, which comes as something of a jolt every time it occurs since it is more distant from E-flat Major than B-flat would be; or A-flat Major, which is lower rather than higher in the circle of fifths and therefore projects an idea of descent rather than ascent. Even a listener who is not musically trained will no?tice that the music takes a lot of unexpected turns along its way.
Another fantasy-like aspect of the sonata is how the opening "Andante" is suddenly interrupted by an animated "Allegro" after which the "Andante" again returns; it is almost like two movements rolled up into one. The second movement is a dark and mysterious scherzo with an explosive middle section. Then, a beautiful slow movement ("Ada?gio con espressione") begins, but Beethoven does not allow it to unfold completely; rather, he makes it segue, after a brilliant cadenza, into the final rondo. Closely to the end, he unexpectedly brings back the theme of the "Adagio," before conclud?ing the sonata with a few energetic measures.
Snapshots of History... In 1903-1907:
1903: Picasso is in his "blue period"
1904: Henry James writes The Golden Bowl
1905: The first revolution in Russia
1905: Albert Einstein publishes three seminal papers that change the history of physics
1907: Gustav Klimt paints The Kiss
La soiree dans Grenade (Evening in Granada) from Estampes (Engravings) (1903)
Claude Debussy
Born August 22, 1862 in St. Germain-en-Laye, nr. Paris
Died March 25, 1918 in Paris
Alborada del gracioso (The Jester's
Morning Song) from Miroirs
(Mirrors) (1904-05) Maurice Ravel Born March 7, 1875 in Ciboure,
Basses-Pyrenees, France Died December 28, 1937 in Paris
Triana from Iberia (Book II) (1907) Isaac Albeniz
Born May 29, 1860 in Camprodon, Spain Died May 18, 1909 in Cambo-les-Bains (Pyrenees), France
For a long time, French composers were fascinated by the sounds of Spain, and they even taught their southern neighbors how to use their own musical heritage to create truly innovative music around the turn of the last century. Both Isaac Albeniz and Manuel de Falla spent time in Paris where they met Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, who had merged the Spanish idioms with their own impres?sionistic harmonic idiom and pianistic style. It was an example from which the Spaniards could (and did) learn a great deal. The next three pieces on Ms. Wang's program illustrate this remarkable ar?tistic synergy.
Debussy composed the three movements of Es?tampes (Engravings) in 1903 for the superb Cata?lan pianist Ricardo Vines who lived in Paris and who was a prime exponent of new music at the time. Like the later preludes or Ravel's Miroirs, Es?tampes is a set of pieces inspired by visual images. The Spanish movement, La soiree dans Grenade (Evening in Granada) is the second in the set. It is
a fantasy on the rhythm of the Habanera dance in which, in the words of French music specialist Roger Nichols, "[he] threw together a series of im?pressions and out of their friction grows an under?standable excitement."
Miroirs (Mirrors) is the first of Ravel's great solo works. It was written in 1904-05, inspired by and dedicated to a group of progressive-minded artist friends, known as the "Apaches," who used to get together every week to discuss their new work. As with Debussy's Estampes, the first performance was given by Ricardo Vines on January 6, 1906.
In the fourth movement, Alborada del gracioso (The Jester's Morning Song), Ravel asks us to imag?ine the gracioso, a comic character in the tradi?tional popular theater, a Spanish version of the Ital?ian commedia dell'arte. The jester accompanies his own singing on the guitar, and the piano imitates both the voice and the instrument, as it does in the Debussy. In the slower and soulful middle sec?tion, it seems as if the jester had suddenly forgot?ten his jokes and became sad, perhaps lamenting an unhappy love. He is still strumming his guitar, but his heart just isn't in it. He soon pulls himself together, though, and continues his alborada with even more fire than before.
The 12 large piano pieces that make up Albe-niz's Iberia represent the cornerstone of the Span?ish piano repertory. In these works, published in four books with three pieces in each book, Spanish melodic and rhythmical elements are integrated into a far more global artistic vision.
"Triana," the last piece in Book II, is named after the Gypsy quarter in Seville, famous for its flamen?co dancers. One has to imagine a street festival with guitars, castanets, and dancers clicking their heels. Yet once again, the interest of the piece is not merely folkloric: the dazzlingly virtuosic piano writing raises the level of excitement beyond all measure.
Snapshots of History... In 1894-1903:
1894: Nicholas II becomes Czar of Russia
1895: France is rocked by the Dreyfus Affair
1895: Antonin Dvorak writes his Cello Concerto in New York City
1898: Richard Strauss writes his symphonic poem Ein Heldenleben
1903: Gustav Mahler begins work on his Symphony No. 6
Prelude in B Major. Op. 11, No. 11 (1895) Prelude in b minor. Op. 13, No. 6 (1895) Prelude in g-sharp minor, Op. 11, No. 12 (1895) Etude in g-sharp minor. Op. 8, No. 9 (1894) Poeme in F-sharp Major, Op. 32, No. 1 (1903) Alexander Scriabin Born January 6, 1872 in Moscow Died April 27, 1915 in Moscow
In some ways, the young Alexander Scriabin al?most seemed like a reincarnation of Chopin. A prodigiously talented composer-pianist, he ad?opted many of the genres in which the Polish master had once excelled, but quickly refashioned them to suit his own brilliant and eternally rest?less mind. Already in his early works, while pay?ing tribute to Chopin, he sometimes seems to turn Chopin's world upside down, often striking a darker tone and indulging in many novel experi?ments in rhythm, harmony, and piano technique. In 1903, an extraordinarily productive year in his career, Scriabin entered a new creative period (the external signs of which were his resignation from his teaching post at the Moscow Conservatory; he also left his wife and four children and took up with an enthusiastic young admirer at this time). Scriabin's later music is filled with bold harmonic experimentation and a strong bent for mysticism.
The ambitious young man intended to outdo his early idol in the genre of the piano prelude: if Chopin composed one prelude in every major and minor key in his celebrated Twenty-Four Preludes, Op. 28, Scriabin wanted to compose two such sets, to reach the Bachian number of 48 preludes. (He certainly had no desire to add the same num?ber of fugues to create a new Well-Tempered Cla?vier.) Scriabin came remarkably close to his goal, completing 46 preludes in all; we don't know why he stopped before the last two. In any case, he ended up publishing one set of 24 in the Chopin-ian mold; the remaining 22 were divided among four subsequent collections of piano music.
The three preludes we shall hear at this recital were eventually published in two different col?lections, but they were all composed in the same year: the B Major and b minor in Moscow, and the g-sharp minor in Vitznau, on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. Each prelude is a miniature character study, in turn songful, agitated, and dream-like. In contrast with the preludes, the etudes are rather heftier affairs. From the 12 published as Op. 8 (an?other collection that channels Chopin), Ms. Wang
has chosen No. 9, which shares its key of g-sharp minor with the preceding prelude. The tempo marking "Alia ballata" may be an allusion to Cho?pin's ballades; in any case, the piece contrasts a tempestuous opening, filled with thundering oc?taves, with a more peaceful middle section where the same octaves carry a hymn-like melody. The tempestuous opening material then returns but the piece has a surprisingly subdued ending.
With the Poeme in F-sharp Major, Op. 32, No. 1, we get a glimpse of the "new," ever more radical Scriabin. In some sense, it is a transitional work: it exudes an aura of pure Romanticism, yet at the same time the bold harmonies and complicated cross-rhythms are harbingers of a whole new era in Scriabin's career. The Poeme consists of two strophes, each made up of the same two themes. The first theme is a lyrical duet between the right and the left hands; when it returns, the right hand takes up the left-hand melody and vice versa. The second theme, slightly more animated than the first, bears the mysterious instruction "inaferan-do." There is no such word in the Italian diction?ary; the closest one can come is "inafferrabile," "elusive"--and that is truly an apt description of this atmospheric piece.
Program notes by Peter Laki.
Snapshot of History... In 1907:
John M. Synge writes The Playboy of the Western World
Rachmaninoff finishes his Symphony No. 2
Sibelius finishes his Symphony No. 3
Picasso paints Les demoiselles d'Avignon
Oklahoma becomes the 46th state of the United States of America
Sonata No. 5, Op. 53 ("Poem of Ecstasy")
(1907) Scriabin
Alexander Scriabin, now considered one of the outstanding composers of the 20th century, entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1888. During his four years at the conservatory, he was noted to be hot-tempered, controversial, and did not hesitate to argue with his professors, particularly Arensky, his composition teacher. His brilliant piano playing earned him the "Little Gold
Medal" (Rachmaninoff won the "Big Gold"). When Arensky refused to sign his diploma in composition, Scriabin, although granted a diploma as a "Free Artist" (1892), left the school in huff. He took up a career as a concert pianist and struggled to win recognition as a composer as well as a pianist. With the aid of his patron, the Russian publisher Mitrofan Belaieff, who gave him a stipend, he was able to publish his early works and grudgingly accepted a position to teach at the Moscow Conservatory. The piano sonata form attracted him and his life began to change. When it seemed he would become just another Chopin, he dramatically changed his style of playing and modes of expressing himself in his compositions. About the time he finished writing his Sonata for Piano No. 3, he was drawn to eroticism, the feeling of languor, the sensation of flying, and the idea of luminosity. When he worked on Sonata for Piano No. 4 he was already obsessed with mysticism and the philosophy of Eastern religions. The changes in his moods and thinking not only influenced his piano playing and composition but also led to the creation of huge orchestral works. He wrote poems and long philosophical tracks to accompany his music. After he became an established celebrity he toured extensively worldwide to present his works. Wherever he went he caused controversy and a flurry of excitement about his playing and the nature of his compositions. Back in Russia after one of his tours, he died unexpectedly on April 27, 1915, from blood poisoning following attempts to treat a "carbuncle" or tumor on his lip.
Scriabin's musical legacy consists of three symphonies, the Poem of Ecstasy, Prometheus (The Poem of Fire), and numerous compositions for the piano, among which are 10 sonatas, etudes, and 90 preludes. The creative works of Scriabin are distinguished by their great emotional richness and philosophical conceptions of the composer.
The Sonata No. 5 appeared in 1907 very shortly after the symphonic Poem of Ecstasy and has been called a "glorious afterthought" to the orchestral work. The relationship between the two compositions in Scriabin's thinking is manifested by the fact that he headed the printed text of the Sonata with an excerpt from his Poem of Ecstasy:
I call you to life, 0 mysterious forces! Drowned in the obscure depths Shadows of life, to you I bring audacity.
The Poem of Ecstasy (originally titled "Orgiastic Poem") is a long erotic-philosophical work written by the composer as a literary illustration of his symphonic poem of the same title. Scriabin had 500 copies of the text printed in Russian and distributed amongst his friends. He did not want the poem to be included in the score of the orchestral work but specified that copies should be on sale in the concert hall lobby when the piece was performed.
The Sonata is in one continuous movement although marked in three major sections: "Allegro," "Impetuoso," and "Conextravaganza." Scriabin provided a profusion of directions in Italian notation scattered throughout the printed score of the Sonata that reveal his intentions The notations in their English equivalents include: "impetuously, with extravagance," "languidly,' and "caressingly," where he attempts to describe and personify feelings of ecstasy, "divine joy," and sexuality as "an answer to the call of life." As the music becomes faster and more intense, one finds: "imperiously," "mysteriously," "breathlessly," "like trumpets," "lightly flying," "in fantastic rapture," "dizzily, with fury," and inevitably, as the key word, "ecstatically." The work ends in a blaze of high intensity representing the luminosity and burning sensations apparently experienced by the composer. As he tried to explain later, he had "seen" the entire Sonata as a vision that had an independent existence outside his body. It is no wonder that "when Scriabin played the Fiftn Sonata for the first time in Moscow in Februar 1909 and backstage afterwards, people fell on their knees before him" (Faubion Bowers).
Program note by Arthur Canter.
@@@@T
wenty-four-year-old Chinese pianist Yuja Wang is recognized for playing that com?bines the fearless imagination of youth witn the discipline and precision of a mature artist. Yuja s command of the piano has been described as "as?tounding" and "superhuman," and she has been praised for her authority over the most complex technical demands of the repertoire, the depth of her musical insight, as well as her fresh interpre?tations and graceful, charismatic stage presence. Following her San Francisco recital debut, The San Francisco Chronicle wrote "The arrival of Chinese-
born pianist Yuja Wang on the musical scene is an exhilarating and unnerving development. To listen to her in action is to re-examine whatever assump?tions you may have had about how well the piano can actually be played."
In the few short years since her 2005 debut with the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, Yuja has already performed with many of the world's prestigious orchestras including the Boston Sym?phony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Orchestra, and the San Fran?cisco Symphony, in the US, and abroad with Berlin Staatskapelle, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra, China Philharmonic, Filarmon-ica della Scala, London Philharmonic, NHK Sym?phony in Tokyo, Orchestre de Paris, and Orquesta Nacional Espana. She has worked with many of the world's esteemed conductors including Clau-dio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, Manfred Honeck, Pietari Inkinen, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Sir Roger Norrington, Antonio Pappano, Yuri Temirkanov, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Pinchas Zukerman. Yuja has given recitals in major cities throughout Asia, Europe, and North America, makes regular appearances at festivals, and is a dedicated performer of chamber music.
In the current season, Yuja will perform with the Israel Philharmonic, La Scala, London Symphony, NDR Symphony, and Santa Cecilia in Europe, and the US orchestras of New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. She makes her Carnegie Hall recital debut (Stern Hall) this October.
Yuja is an exclusive recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon. Her debut recording, titled Sonatas & Etudes, was released in spring 2009, and was followed by a second recording, Transformation,
in spring 2010. Most recently, Yuja collabo?rated with Maestro Abbado and the Mahler
Chamber Orchestra to record her first concerto album featuring Rachmaninoff's
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and his Piano Concerto No. 2 in
c minor.
LJMS Archives
T
his afternoon's recital marks Yuja Wang's second appearance under UMS auspices. She made her UMS recital debut at Hill Auditorium in January 2008.
Born in Beijing, Yuja began studying piano privately at age six, and then at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She studied at Calgary's Mount Royal College Conservatory from 1999-2001, and then moved to the US at age 15 to study with Gary Graffman at The Curtis Institute of Music, where she graduated in 2008. In 2006, Yuja received the Gilmore Young Artist Award. In 2010 she was awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant.
ums University Musical Society
presents
State Symphony Capella of Russia
Valery Polyansky, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor
Program
Dmitri Bortniansky
Piotr llyich Tchaikovsky
Sergei Taneyev
Alexander Grechaninov Sergei Rachmaninoff
Valeri Kikta
Thursday Evening, October 13, 2011 at 7:30
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church Ann Arbor
Concerto for Choir, No. 15
Ye People, Let Us Come and Sing of Christ's Resurrection He That was Crucified, Buried And Resurrected
Nine Sacred Pieces (excerpts) Cherubic Hymn, No. 3 It Is Very Meet, No. 5 I, a Blessed One, Chose, No. 7
The Golden Cloud Has Slept
Evening
Look at this Darkness
The Prayer
After the Storm
Ail-Night Vigil, Op. 37 (excerpts) Rejoice, 0 Virgin Mother of God Hexapsalmos
Slavic Hymn
INTERMISSION
Anton Bruckner
Alfred Schnittke
Johannes Brahms
Manuel de Falla Traditional
Locus Iste Ave Maria
Hail Theotokos Virgin
O Lord Jesus
Our Father (The Lord's Prayer)
Songs and Romances, Op. 93a, Nos. 1-6
Der bucklichte Fiedler Das Madchen O susser Mai Fahr wohl Der Falke Beherzigung
Ballad of Majorca
Folk Songs
In the Dark Forest
Down the River Volga
Brooms
Be Nice to Me, My Stormy Weather
Shchedryk
Kalinka
Ninth Performance of the 133rd Annual Season
UMS Voices Series
The photographing or sound and video record?ing of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Media partnership is provided by WRCJ 90.9 FM.
The State Symphony Capella of Russia appears by arrangement with World Touring Entertainment.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Concerto for Choir, No. 15
Dmitri Bortniansky
Born 1751 in Glukhov, Ukraine, Russia
Died October 10, 1825 in St. Petersburg
This evening's program begins with one of the most wonderful pieces by Ukrainian composer Dmitri Bortniansky. Upon his graduation from con?servatory in Italy in 1779 he started working as a singer, and later as director and conductor of the court chorus. He created numerous operas in Ital?ian, as well as in French. But the most essential part of his creative output was spiritual choral music. Being a master of a cappella choral composition, Bortniansky created a new form of Russian choral singing--32 chorus concertos. This particular form of concerto was way beyond traditional spiritual singing of its time.
Nine Sacred Pieces (excerpts) The Golden Cloud Has Slept
Piotr llyich Tchaikovsky
Born May 7, 1840 in Votkinsk, Viatka district, Russia
Died November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg
Tchaikovsky's fame, as both a conductor and a com?poser, spread as the result of a series of international tours, which brought him to the US in 1891. He continued to compose late into his life--the bal?lets Sleeping Beauty (1889) and Nutcracker (1892); Symphonies Nos. 5 (1888) and 6 (1893), and the Manfred symphony in b minor (1885); and three final operas, including the powerful and theatrical The Queen of Spades (1890). Younger composers emulated him, among them Mikhail Ippolitov-lva-nov and, later, Sergei Rachmaninoff. On November 6, 1893, a few days after conducting the premiere of his Symphony No. 6, Tchaikovsky died in St. Pe?tersburg. Although it was reported that he died of cholera, some scholars now believe that his death was in fact a suicide, the result of a threat to reveal his liaison with a young Russian nobleman.
Evening
Look at this Darkness
The Prayer
Sergei Taneyev
Born November 25, 1856 in Vladimir district, Russia Died June 19, 1915 in Dyudkovo, Zvenigorodsk district, Russia
Taneyev was an important Russian pianist, educa?tor, and composer active at the turn of the 20th century. Although he wrote a large quantity of key?board, orchestral, vocal, and chamber music, he is known today primarily as the teacher of Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and Gliere. Taneyev was a pupil of Tchaikovsky at the Moscow Conservatory, studying the piano with the director of the Conservatory, Nikolay Rubinstein. He was the soloist in the first Moscow performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Con?certo No. , a role he repeated in later works by Tchaikovsky for piano and orchestra. He gradually assumed fuller responsibilities at the Conservatory, of which he became director in 1885. Taneyev had left behind a substantial catalog of works, virtually none of which has entered the standard repertory.
After the Storm
Alexander Grechaninov
Born October 25, 1864 in Moscow
Died January 3, 1956 in New York City
The long-lived Alexander Grechaninov was, until the 20th century, a largely neglected figure seen as having written a few worthwhile liturgical works and some attractive children's music. Then, his five symphonies and other orchestral compo?sitions garnered some attention, while his many stage works awaited rediscovery. Stylistically, he was very conservative, and as neo-Classical, serial, and other progressive techniques took hold in the 20th century, his music was increasingly viewed as outdated. In the first decade of the 20th century, Grechaninov arranged many songs of ethnic origin for children, producing several popular numbers and giving him great prominence among Russian composers. After several trips abroad, he emigrat?ed to Paris in 1925, where he established a career as a pianist and still managed to devote much of his time to composition. He completed his third St. John Chrysostom Liturgy there, as well as his Suite for Cello and Orchestra. In 1929, he made the first of several trips to the US, a country he felt increas?ingly drawn toward. In 1939, he finally emigrated to the US, ultimately making New York City his home in 1940. He became a US citizen in 1949, at the age of 85. His last composition came in 1950, the piano work Lettres amicales. Grechani?nov was well enough to attend a 1954 concert in New York's Town Hall, held to celebrate his 90th birthday.
Ail-Night Vigil, Op. 37 (excerpts) Sergei Rachmaninoff Born April 1, 1873 in Semyonovo, Russia Died March 28, 1943 in Beverly Hills, California
Sergei Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Born in Semyonovo, near Novgorod, into a wealthy family with a strong military background, Rachmaninoff had his first piano lessons with his mother at the family estate at Oneg. He also studied harmony with Anton Arensky and counterpoint with Sergei Taneyev. Rachmaninoff's first symphony was premiered in 1897, but it was a complete flop with the critics. Some have suggested that this was as much due to the conducting of Alexander Glazunov, who may have been drunk, as it was to Rachmaninoff. The bad reception led to a nervous breakdown and complete loss of self-confidence for the young composer. He wrote very little music until he began a course of therapy with Nikolai Dahl. The second piano concerto secured Rachmaninoff's reputation as a composer, but he was also a very well known and respected pianist. He is said to have had one of the widest hand spans of any pianist, able to cover a 12th with his left hand. In other words, he could play a 'C with his left little finger, and play the 'G' an octave-and-a-half above it with his thumb. He made a number of recordings of his own music. It was as a pianist that Rachmaninoff made a tour of the US in 1909, an event for which he wrote his Piano Concerto No. 3. This tour made him very popular in America, and he emigrated there following the Russian Revolution of 1917. (Rachmaninoff would make his UMS debut in Ann Arbor in 1920.) Rachmaninoff went on to write his Symphony No. 3 (1935-36) and the Symphonic Dances (1940), his last completed work. He died in 1943 in Beverly Hills, California, having completed four piano concertos, three symphonies, two piano sonatas, the choral symphony The Bells (based on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe), a setting of the vespers and many songs, amongst other works. Most of his pieces are in a quite traditional romantic style, rather akin to Tchaikovsky, although a few of his later works, such as the fourth piano concerto and the Variations on a theme of Corelli are in a more emotionally detached style, which has made them rather less popular with audiences. Upon his death in 1943, Rachmaninoff was interred in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
Slavic Hymn
Valeri Kikta
Born October 22, 1941, in Vladmirovka, a village near Donetsk, Ukraine, Russia
Valeri Kikta is a well known Ukrainian classical composer who was educated at the Moscow C horal College, then at the Moscow Conservatoire under Semyon Bogatyryov and Tikhon Khrennikov. On the recommendation of Shostakovich, he moved on to postgraduate study. Kikta's compositions include ballets, symphonic, organ, and choral works. Mr. Kikta's compositions embody a unique blend of tradition and modernity. Via a mastery of modern musical language, he has redefined the intonations of rural folk music.
Locus Iste Ave Maria
Anton Bruckner
Born September 4, 1824 in Ansfelden, Austria
Died October 11, 1896 in Vienna
Austrian composer and organist highly regarded for his immense, original symphonic works was born in Ansfelden to a peasant family. Bruckner's early musical education consisted of organ instruc?tion from his father, music theory from his godfa?ther, and general music lessons at the Saint Florian abbey near Linz. Because he was a self-proclaimed follower of German composer Richard Wagner, anti-Wagnerian musicians and critics in Vienna opposed his works. Due to his failing health, he resigned from Conservatory in 1891, and devoted his last years to work on his ninth symphony. In his final years, however, Bruckner was greatly honored in Austria, receiving decorations and a salary and pension from the government. Bruckner wrote a Te Deum, settings of various Psalms, (including Psalm 150 in the 1890s) and various motets such as Ave Maria, Ecce Sacerdos Magnum, and Locus iste.
Hail Theotokos Virgin
O Lord Jesus
Our Father (The Lord's Prayer)
Alfred Schnittke
Born November 24, 1934 in Engels, near
Saratov, Russia Died August 3, 1998 in Hamburg, Germany
Alfred Schnittke was born in November 1934 in Engels, on the Volga River, in the Soviet Union. Schnittke began his musical education in 1946 in Vienna where his father, a journalist and transla?tor, had been posted. In 1948 the family moved to Moscow, where Schnittke studied piano and received a diploma in choral conducting. Schnittke has written in a wide range of genres and styles. His Concerto Orosso No. 1 (1977) was one of the first works to bring his name to prominence. It was popularized by Gidon Kremer, a tireless proponent of his music. Many of Schnittke's works have been inspired by Kremer and other prominent perform?ers, including Yury Bashmet, Natalia Gutman, Gen-nady Rozhdestvensky, and Mstislav Rostropovich. Schnittke composed nine symphonies, six concerti grossi, four violin concertos, two cello concertos, concertos for piano, and a triple concerto for violin, viola, and cello, as well as four string quartets, and much other chamber music, ballet scores, choral, and vocal works. His first opera, Life with an Idiot, was premiered in Amsterdam (April 1992). His two new operas, Gesualdo and Historia von D. Jo-hann Fausten were unveiled in Vienna (May 1995) and Hamburg (June 1995) respectively. From the 1980s, Schnittke's music gained increasing expo?sure and international acclaim. In 1985, Schnittke suffered the first of a series of serious strokes.
Despite his physical frailty, however, Schnittke suffered no loss of creative imagination, individu?ality, or productivity. Beginning in 1990, Schnittke resided in Hamburg, maintaining dual German-Russian citizenship. He died, after suffering anoth?er stroke, in August 1998 in Hamburg.
Songs and Romances, Op. 93a, Nos. 1-6
Johannes Brahms
Born May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany
Died April 3, 1897 in Vienna
Composer and pianist, Johannes Brahms, was one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vi?enna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musi?cal scene. In his lifetime, Brahms' popularity and influence were considerable; following a comment by the 19th-century conductor Hans von Bulow, he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs."
Brahms composed for piano, chamber en?sembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works; he also worked with the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed many of his works and left some of them unpublished. While many contem?poraries found his music too academic, his contri?bution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as the progressive Arnold Schoenberg and the conservative Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms' works was a starting point and an inspira?tion for a generation of composers.
Ballad of Majorca
Manuel de Falla
Born November 23, 1876 in Cadiz, Spain Died November 14, 1946inAlta Gracia, Cordoba province, Argentina
Born in 1876 in Cadiz, the historical seaport town at the southern-most tip of Andalucia, Manuel de Falla is the greatest Spanish composer of this century. His formal musical education began with piano lessons, and when de Falla was 20 his family moved to Madrid where he studied with the distin?guished teacher Jose Trago. In 1907, he achieved a long-held ambition of travelling to Paris and was welcomed there by Ravel, Debussy (with whom he had previously corresponded), and especially by Paul Dukas. Following the deaths of his parents in 1919 he settled in Granada, where he remained until the end of the Civil War (1939), and com?posed several of his most important works includ?ing El retablo de maese Pedro (Master Peter's Pup?pet Show), Psyche, and Concerto per clavicembalo (Harpsichord Concerto). He then moved to Argen?tina and worked there until his death in 1946 just a few days before his 70th birthday, leaving the vast oratorio Atlantida still unfinished.
Folk Songs
Traditional
"People create music," wrote Glinka, "we, com?posers, only put it together." An essential part of the State Symphony Capella's repertoire is devoted to folk songs, which speaks to us about love of the land, the spirituality of Russia, freedom, and joy.
"Shchedryk," from the Ukrainian word shche-dryi (bountiful), is a Ukrainian shchedrivka, or New Year's carol. It was arranged by composer and school teacher Mykola Leontovych in 1916, and tells a story of a swallow flying into a household to sing of wealth that will come with the following spring. "Shchedryk" was later adapted to an English Christmas carol, "Carol of the Bells," by Peter J. Wil-housky, following a performance of the original song by Alexander Koshetz's Ukrainian National Chorus at Carnegie Hall in October 1921. Wilhousky copy?righted and published his new lyrics (which were not based on the Ukrainian lyrics) in 1936, and the song became popular in the US, where it became strongly associated with Christmas.
Program notes courtesy of the State Symphony Capella of Russia.
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alery Polyansky is recognized today as a leading interpreter of the works of Sergei Rachmaninoff and a number of other Russian composers. Mr. Polyansky was born in Moscow in 1949 and distinguished himself as a student in both the choral and orchestral conducting programs at the Moscow Conservatory, where his teachers included Boris Kulikov and Odisei Dimtriadi. Although Mr. Polyansky did have a fleeting engagement conducting the Moscow Operetta Theater while still a student, it was not until his introduction to conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky (at a postgraduate conducting course) that the full form of his musical ethos would take shape.
In 1977, he assisted Rozhdestvensky at the Bolshoi Theater in a production of Shostakovich's Katerina Ismailova. The production was a success, and Mr. Polyansky was immediately re-engaged as a permanent opera conductor there, a post that would prove to be the springboard for his career. During the next decade, his guest appearances became more frequent and included the Helsinki
Symphony Orchestra in Finland, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan, and numerous other orchestras scattered across Germany, Holland, Iceland, and Turkey.
Mr. Polyansky's commitment to the music of Rachmaninoff is extensive. In addition to serving as the President of the Rachmaninoff Music Society, Mr. Polyansky has recorded his complete choral and orchestral works. Devoted to his homeland and heritage, Mr. Polyansky has invested a considerable amount of time and energy into the recording and performing of works by neglected Russian composers, including Alfred Schnittke, Sergei Taneyev, and Nikolai Miaskovsky. He has also helped to unearth a large number of works by Alexander Grechaninov and Dmitri Bortnyansky, saving them from almost certain oblivion.
Mr. Polyansky's career solidified once he was invited to succeed Rozhdestvensky in 1992 at the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, where his strong initiative and choral background led to his creation of the Symphonic Capella choir as a subsidiary. His performances there have received consistent praise for their musical creativity, qual?ity, and integrity. In 1993, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Opera Nights Festival in Gote-burg, Sweden, after an acclaimed performance of Eugene Onegin. He has conducted performances for a number of recordings on the Chandos record?ing label.
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eaturing 50 glorious voices, the State Sym?phony Capella of Russia was founded in 1991 as a result of a merger of the USSR State Chamber Choir and the State Symphony Or?chestra of the USSR Ministry of Culture. Specialists admire the strict performing discipline that reigns in the collective, which results in beautiful phras?ing, a rich and warm sound, noble expression, and skillful balance.
The Capella's first performance, of Dvorak's cantata The Spectre's Bride, took place in Decem?ber 1991 in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conser?vatoire, under Gennady Rozhdestvensky. The con?cert was an outstanding success, setting from the outset the high creative standard of the ensemble and demonstrating its professionalism. In 1992, Valery Polyansky became the new artistic director and chief conductor of the Capella. The orchestra and choir that make up Mr. Polyansky's State Sym-
phony Capella enjoy a certain creative autonomy from one another, giving concerts, making record?ings, and touring independently. Together however, the Capella is able to perform some of the greatest works of classical music--masses, oratorios, requi?ems, and cantatas--that are scored for orchestra, choir, and soloists. The Capella's performances have included masses by Mozart, Schubert, Bruckner, and Liszt; the Requiems of Verdi, Cherubini, Brahms, Mozart, Dvorak, Britten, and Schnittke; Rachmaninoff's The Bells, Stravinsky's Wedding,
and many operas-in-concert performances. A large number of works have been revived by Mr. Polyan?sky after they had fallen into obscurity, and thanks to him, the public has also had the opportunity to become acquainted with the work of a number of contemporary composers, in particular Sidelnikov, Gubaidulina, and Schnittke.
UMS welcomes both Maestro Polyansky and the State Symphony Capella of Russia, who make their UMS debuts this evening.
State Symphony Capella of Russia
Valery Polyanskiy, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor
Soprano I
Elena Belousova Yuliya Kondritskaya Natalia Kurbakova Zoya Sokolova Inna Orekhova Marina Ryabova Liliya Nizaeva
Soprano I
Irina Kameneva Yulia Rogova Natalia Rubleva Marina Sudarkina Liudmila Orlova Anna Zmeeva
Alto I
Ekaterina Bogdanova Milana Korneeva Ramilya Sibgatulina Victoria Smolnikova Elena Zhidchenko
Alto II
Ekaterina Fedorova Inna Kamenskaya Elena Korneva Tatiana Zheranzhe Victoria Sidorenko Elena Zolotova
Tenor I
Alexander Khvatov Grigory Konkov Fedor Ryzhkov Vyacheslav Poliugaev Vladimir Sytnik
Tenor II
Vladlen Baltinskiy Andrey Demin Roman Laptev Dmitriy Shendalev Alexey Sukhanov Evgeny Tyukhaev Andrey Victorov
Baritone
Danil Cherepukhin Vladimir Elkin Ruben Gurdzhiev Nikolay Oskin Sergey Romakh Sergey Shirmanov
Bass
Evgeny Frolov Mikhail Makhov Ivan Parusnikov Sergey Pershin Vladimir Sizov Alexey Tal Sergey Veprintsev Aliaksei Krasouski
Administrative Staff
Alexander Shanin, General Director
Eilina Tikhomirova, Sovinart Representative
Tour Manager Nadia Fleishaker
Production
World Touring Entertainment Leonid Fleishaker, Executive Producer www.worldtouring.net
urns
presents
Goran Bregovic
and His Wedding and Funeral Orchestra
Program
Saturday Evening, October 15, 2011 at 8:00 Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor
Tonight's program is approximately two hours and 30 minutes in duration and will be announced from the stage by the artists. It will be performed without intermission.
10th Performance of the 133rd Annual Season
UMS World Series
The photographing or sound and video recording of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Media partnership is provided by Michigan Radio 91.7 FM.
Goran Bregovic and His Wedding and Funeral Orchestra appear by arrangement in North America with Pomegranate Arts.
Large print programs are available upon request.
ums University Musical Society
Goran Bregovic
and His Wedding and Funeral Orchestra
Goran Bregovic
Composer, Guitars, Synthesizer, Derbouka, Vocals
Gypsy Brass Band
Muharem Redzepi, Drums, Vocals Bokan Stankovic, Trumpet 1 Dalibor Lukic, Trumpet 2 Stojan Dimov, Saxophones Milos Mihajlovic, Trombone 2 Aleksandar Rajkovic, Trombone 1
Bulgarian Voices
Ludmila Radkova-Trajkova, Vocals Daniela RadkovaAleksandrova, Vocals
Sextet of Male Voices
Dejan Pesic, First Tenor Nenad Cica, Second Tenor Igor Arizanovic, Second Tenor Vladimir Rumenic, Baritone Dusan Ljubinkovic, Bass Sinisa Dutina, Bass
String Quartet
Ivana Matejic, First Violin Bojana Jovanovic, Second Violin Sasa Mirkovic, Viola Tatjana Jovanovic, Cello
Sound Engineer Dusan Vasic
North American Road Manager Shelley Valfer
R
oots in the Balkans where he stems from, head in the 21st century which he fully in?habits, Goran Bregovic's music marries the sounds of a Gypsy brass band with traditional Bul?garian polyphonies, those of an electric guitar, and traditional percussion with a curious rock accent-all against a background of a bedeviled string or?chestra and deep sonorities of a male choir, creat?ing music that our soul recognizes instinctively and the body greets with an irresistible urge to dance.
Born in Sarajevo of a Serbian mother and a Croatian father, after a few years of violin studies Goran formed his first group, the White Button, at the age of 16. Composer and guitar player, he admitted his immoderate love for rock 'n' roll. "In those times, rock had a capital role in our lives. It was just about the only way we could make our voices heard, and publicly express our discontent without risking jail."
Studies in philosophy and sociology would most certainly have landed him a position teach?ing Marxist thought, had the gigantic success of his first record not decided otherwise. There fol?lowed 15 years with the White Button, marked by marathon tours. At the end of the 1980s, Mr. Bregovic took time away from his hectic schedule to compose music for Emir Kusturica's film Times of the Gypsies, and to make his childhood dream come true: to live in a small house on the Adriatic coast. The war in Yugoslavia shattered this, and many other dreams, and Mr. Bregovic had to aban?don everything for exile in Paris.
Coming from the same background, the same generation, and survivors of the same experiences, Mr. Bregovic and Mr. Kusturica formed a team that didn't need words to communicate. After Times of the Gypsies, Mr. Bregovic composed the origi?nal soundtrack for Arizona Dream (1993). His next film project was Patrice Chereau's La Reine Mar-got, winner of a Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Mr. Bregovic has since devoted him?self to his own music projects and a second stage career--without completely abandoning film, however.
Over 10 years after he abandoned pure rock in 1985, Mr. Bregovic's music had never been per?formed live. This all changed in 1995 when, with a band of 10 traditional musicians, a choir of 50 singers, and a symphony orchestra, he undertook a series of mega-concerts in Greece and Sweden followed by a concert given at the Forest National of Brussels for an audience of 7,500. A later con-
cert at the Piazza St. Giovanni in Rome in front of 500,000 people confirmed beyond any doubt that his music achieved an impact on the international level.
In 2009, the first part of the CD Alkohol, re?corded live in Guca in the summer of 2007, was released in Europe and in North America. Guca is a small town in Serbia of approximately 20,000 inhabitants that holds an annual contest of brass bands each August when its population swells to 150,000. The remainder of 2009 included Mr. Bregovic's first extensive North American tour and a piece composed for Bang on a Can which had its premiere at Lincoln Center.
Goran Bregovic's new album Champagne for Gypsies, due to be released in North America in 2012, is a reaction to the extreme pressures that Gypsies (Roma) have been experiencing lately across Europe. His latest project serves as a re?minder of some of the world's favorite musicians who have left a trace in popular culture around the globe.
UMS welcomes Goran Bregovic and His Wedding and Funeral Orchestra for their UMS debut tonight.
Founded in 1998 by Linda Brumbach, Pomegranate Arts is an independent production company dedicated to the development of international contemporary performing arts projects. Since its inception, Pomegranate Arts has conceived, produced, or represented projects by Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, London's Improbable, Sankai Juku, Dan Zanes, and Goran Bregovic. Special projects include Dracula: The Music And Film with Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet; the music theater work Shockheaded Peter, Brazilian vocalist Virginia Rodrigues; Drama Desk Award-winning Charlie Victor Romeo; Healing The Divide, A Concert for Peace and Reconciliation, presented by Philip Glass and Richard Gere; and Hal Winner's Came So Far For Beauty, An Evening Of Leonard Cohen Songs. Recent projects include the first North American tour of Goran Bregovic and the remounting of Lucinda Childs' 1979 classic Dance. Pomegranate Arts will be re-mounting the Robert Wilson and Philip Glass masterpiece Einstein on the Beach with choreography by Lucinda Childs in celebration of Philip Glass' 75th birthday in 2012.
North American Tour Representation for Goran Bregovic
Pomegranate Arts
Linda Brumbach, Director Alisa E. Regas, Associate Director Kaleb Kilkenny, General Manager Emerie Snyder, Office Manager Linsey Bostwick, Associate
For further information, please visit www.pomegranatearts.com.
North American Label Management
Mel Puljic, Wrasse Records
ums University Musical Society
presents
Water Stains on the Wall
A production of
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Lin Hwai-min
Founder and Artistic Director
Lin Hwai-min
Concept, Set, and Choreography
Toshio Hosokawa Music
Lulu W.L. Lee Lighting Design
Lin Ching-ju Costume Design
Ethan Wang Projection Design
Friday Evening, October 21, 2011 at 8:00 Saturday Evening, October 22, 2011 at 8:00 Power Center Ann Arbor
11th and 12th Performances of the 133rd Annual Season
21th Annual Dance Series
The photographing or sound and video recording of this performance or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
These performances are sponsored by the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan.
Saturday evening's performance is supported by Rani Kotha and Dr. Howard Hu. Saturday evening's performance is hosted by Frank Legacki and Alicia Torres. Media partnership is provided by Between the Lines and Metro Times.
Special thanks to Tzywen Gong, Cathy Sun, and the U-M Department of Dance for their support of and participation in the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan residency.
This tour is made possible by grants from the Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan).
Water Stains on the Wall is a co-production by National Chiang Kai-Shek Cultural Center, Taiwan, R.O.C.; Esplanade--Theatres on the Bay, Singapore; Movimentos Festwochen der Autostadt in Wolfsburg, Germany; and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan.
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan appears by arrangement wi:h Rena Shagan Associates, Inc., New York, NY.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Water Stains on the Wall
Concept, Set, and Choreography
Music
Lighting Design
Costume Design
Projection Design
Co-Productions
Lin Hwai-min
Toshio Hosokawa
Lulu W.L. Lee
Lin Ching-ju
Ethan Wang
National Chiang Kai-Shek Cultural Center, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Esplanade--Theatres on the Bay, Singapore
Movimentos Festwochen der Autostadt, Wolfsburg, Germany
Water Stains on the Wall premiered November 19, 2010 at National Theater, Taipei, Taiwan.
The title of the work derives from a legendary conversation between two of the most respected Chinese calligraphers from the Tang Dynasty (618-907):
"Where do you get inspirations for your calligraphic style" asked Yen Chen-ching, whose signature style of Kai script brought the art of calligraphy to a new height, and has influ?enced today's Chinese brush writing.
"I observe summer clouds that resemble mountains with spectacular peaks," replied Huai Su, the young monk who later became the most renowned master of wild cursive style. "The most exciting parts remind one of birds flying out of woods and snakes slithering into bushes...."
" How about water stains on the wall" asked Yen Chen-ching.
"Right on! You old devil!" exclaimed Huai Su.
In reality, water stains on the wall are the result of a long process of natural, organic, and fluid evolution. The legend of the conversation established "water stains on the wall" as a popular metaphor that represents the highest aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy.
Section All compositions by Toshio Hosokawa
1 "wie ein atmen im lichte," from Hosokawa: Deep Silence (Gagaku)
2 Seeds of Contemplation--Mandara (excerpt), "V. Chinhsi,"
from Works by Toshio Hosokawa
"Fragmente I," from Works by Toshio Hosokawa
Sen VI, from Toshio Hosokawa: Tabi-bito; Sen VI; Die Lotosblume
5 Seeds of Contemplation--Mandara (excerpt), "I. Introduction,"
from Works by Toshio Hosokawa
ATEM-LIED, by Toshio Hosokawa from Toshio Hosokawa: Birds Fragments "Ferne-Landschaft II," from Toshio Hosokawa
The use of the above musical works is licensed by Schott Music Co. Ltd., Tokyo. The recordings are used under the permission of WERGO, FONTEC, STRADIVARIUS and KAIROS (www.kairos-music.com).
Photo LiuChen-huang
Casting
Section 0
The Company
Su l-ping
Su l-ping Yang l-chun
Hou Tang-li Liu Hui-ling Chiu l-wen Lin Hsin-fang Tsai Ming-yuan
Lee Tzu-chun Wong Lap-cheong Hou Tang-li Huang Mei-ya
Tsai Ming-yuan
Ko Wan-chun
Hou Tang-li Lee Tsung-hsuan Lin Chia-liang Lin Hsin-fang
Huang Mei-ya Lin Chia-liang Chiu l-wen Liu Hui-ling
Lin Hsin-fang Liu Hui-ling Yu Chien-hung
Chou Chang-ning
Chiu l-wen Yang l-chun
Hou Tang-li Lin Chia-liang
Hsiao Tzu-ping
Chou Chang-ning Ko Wan-chun Su l-ping Tsai Ming-yuan Yang l-chun
Chiu l-wen Huang Mei-ya Lin Chia-liang
Hou Tang-li Lee Tsung-hsuan Lee Tzu-chun Lin Hsin-fang Liu Hui-ling Wong Lap-cheong
About Water Stains on the Wall
T
he virtuosity of Cloud Gate dancers has made the critics ask "when has one ever seen a company with such magical and beautiful bodies" (Neues Deutschland) and gasp that they "possess a control and articulation that verge on the superhuman. These are performers who can make stillness every bit as eloquent as animation. In his new work, Water Stains on the Wall, Lin Hwai-min challenges his dancers with the daunting task of dancing on a tilted stage with an eight-degree inclination.
Covered with white Marley, the entire set looks like a blank piece of rice paper traditionally used by Chinese calligraphers and painters, onto which negative images of drifting clouds in dif?ferent shades of black are projected. With move?ments reminiscent of free-flowing ink, these ever-morphing clouds create exquisite spaces that are constantly shifting, bringing Chinese landscape ink painting to life on stage.
Accompanied by the renowned contemporary Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa's Zen-like music using traditional Asian instruments, Cloud Gate dancers whirl and leap high on the slanted space with deceiving ease. Firmly grounded on the ramp at a height of 1.25 meters, yet appearing to be floating all the time, the dancers give the illusion of clouds and water as their light skirts are frequently "dyed" black by the projected shadows and reappear in shining white light.
Inspired by the legendary metaphor "water stains on the wall," Lin Hwai-min and Cloud Gate dancers create an abstract work of spellbinding beauty and breathtaking technique that stands sublimely on its own.
UMS Archives
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his weekend marks the second and third UMS performances by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan under UMS auspices. The Company made their UMS debut in November 1979 at the Power Center in a repertoire evening of works by Artistic Director Lin Hwai-min.
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ccording to legend, Cloud Gate is the name of the oldest known dance in China, a ritual dance of some 5,000 years ago. In 1973, choreographer Lin Hwai-min adopted this classical name for the first contemporary dance company in any Chinese-speaking community: Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Cloud Gate's rich repertoire has its roots in Asian myths, folklore, and aesthetics, but it brings to these age-old beliefs and stories a contempo?rary and universal perspective. The company is made up of two dozen dancers whose training in?cludes chi kung, meditation, internal martial arts, modern dance, ballet, and calligraphy.
Cloud Gate has been on extensive overseas tours throughout the continents of Europe, Asia, Austra?lia, North America, and South America, including engagements at New York's Next Wave Festival, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival, Lyon Biennale de la Danse, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Adelaide Festival, Berlin Festival, Moscow Chekhov International Theatre Festival, Sadler's Wells Theatre and Barbican Centre in London, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Kennedy Center, and Internationales Tanzfest NRW directed by Pina Bausch.
In 2003, Cloud Gate opened the Melbourne International Arts Festival with Cursive II, win?ning both the Age Critics' Award and the Patrons' Award; while in New York, Moon Water was named the best dance of the year by the New York Times. In 2006, Cursive: A Trilogy was chosen as the best dance choreography of the year as a re?sult of critics' poll by Ballet-Tanz and Theaterheute.
At home, Cloud Gate also enjoys high acclaim and popularity. It performs throughout Taiwan, in venues ranging from the lavish National Theater in Taipei to mid-sized cultural centers in various cities. The company also gives free outdoor performanc?es several times a year, drawing audiences of up to 60,000 per performance.
To further tour campuses and grass-roots com?munities and to foster young choreographers in Tai?wan, Cloud Gate 2 was founded in 1999. In 1998, Cloud Gate Dance School was founded to bring the joy of dance to students, from ages four to 84.
In 2003, in recognition of Cloud Gate's contri?bution to the cultural life of Taipei City, the Tai?pei City Government proclaimed August 21--the opening day of Cloud Gate's 30th anniversary season--as "Cloud Gate Day" and named Fu-Hs-ing North Road Lane 231, home of Cloud Gate's office, as "Cloud Gate Lane." This was the first
time Taiwan bestowed the honor of naming a day and place after a living artist andor artistic group. In 2010, a new asteroid, numbered 200025 dis?covered by Taiwan's Lulin Observatory of National Central University in 2007, was officially named after Cloud Gate.
Most of Cloud Gate's productions have been made into videos. Among them, Songs of the Wan?derers, Moon Wafer, Bamboo Dream, and Cursive II were filmed in Europe. They have been broadcast in many countries and are available on DVD.
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ounder and Artistic Director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, Lin Hwai-min studied Chinese opera movement in his native Taiwan, modern dance in New York, and classical court dance in Japan and Korea. He founded the company in 1973.
An internationally renowned choreographer, Lin often draws from traditional Asian culture for inspiration to create works with innovative forms and contemporary relevance, which have received rave acclaims around the world.
A two-time winner of the National Culture and Art Foundation's National Award for Arts in Taiwan, Lin Hwai-min holds honorary doctorates from five universities in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Among the international honors received by Lin are the John D. Rockefeller III Award, New York; the Joyce Award of Chicago; the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the so called "Nobel Prize of Asia;" the "Best Choreographer" at Lyon Biennial Festival; and the "Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters" from the France Ministry of Culture. He was celebrated by Time magazine as one of "Asia's Heroes" in 2005. In 2009, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Movimentos Dance Prize, Germany.
Lin Hwai-min has been the subject of full-length television documentaries in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and, most recently, in Discovery Channel's Portraits Taiwan: Lin Hwai-min, Opus Arte's Floating on the Ground and ARTEZDF's Lin Hwai-min -Interface Between Worlds. Many of his choreographic works have been made into DVDs.
His dance works have been restaged by dance companies and universities in the US and Europe. In 2004, his production Smoke was restaged by the Zurich Ballet, the first restaging of one of his works by a classical ballet company. In 2006, upon invitation by Sylvie Guillem, Lin choreographed a solo piece, Sally, in her honor. Lin's opera direction credits include Rashomon in Austria and Tosca in Taiwan.
An acclaimed writer, Lin holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Writers' Workshop, University of Iowa. His novella Cicada from 1969 enjoys a rare longevity in Taiwan, and several of his short stories have been translated into English and published in the US. His biographies, Legend of Lin Hwai-min and Cloud Gate and
Hwai-min as a Young Man, are popular sellers in Chinese-speaking communities.
As an educator, Lin founded the Department of Dance at Taipei National University of the Arts in 1983 and served as its Chairman for five years. In 1993 and 1994, he was the founding dean of the university's graduate dance program. In 1999, he gave workshops in Cambodia assisting local dancers to organize teaching materials of Khmer classical dance for children.
Since 2000, Lin has also been serving as the Artistic Director of Novel Dance Series, introducing internationally renowned ensembles and artists to dance-lovers in Taiwan, including Jerome Bel, Akram Khan, Emanuel Gat, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
In 2003, Lin donated his prize from the Executive Yuan National Cultural Award, the highest honor of its kind in Taiwan, as the seed money for the Wanderers' Fund, which supports local young artists to travel in Asia.
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cclaimed as one of Japan's best-known living composers, Toshio Hosokawa was born in Hiroshima in 1955. He went to Berlin to study composition with Isang Yun at Hochschule der Kunste in 1976, and continued his study with Klaus Huber at the Staatlichen Hochschule fur Musik in Freiburg from 1983 to 1986.
In 1980, Hosokawa won "First Prize" in the Valentino Bucchi Composition Competition in Rome and participated for the first time in the Internationale Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik in Darmstadt. Since then, he has presented his works throughout Europe and Japan, gaining an international reputation and winning numerous awards and prizes, including "First Prize" in the Composition Competition on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester (1982), Rheingau Musikpreis (1998), Duisburger Musikpreis (1998), and musica viva-Preises der ARD und BMW AG (2001).
Lin Hwai-min
ums University Musical Society
Hosokawa has been invited to nearly all of the major contemporary music festivals in Europe as composer-in-residence, guest composer, or lecturer, including the Warsaw Autumn, Festival d'Automne a Paris, Salzburger Festspiel, and Venezia Biennale.
AttheMunchenerBiennalein 1998, his first opera, Vision of Lear, commissioned by the City of Munich for the festival, was premiered and highly acclaimed as "a work inspired by the encounter of East and West which has opened up a new musical world." In 2004, his second opera, Hanjo, commissioned by the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, premiered at the Festival La Monnaie in Belgium. In 2005, his orchestral work, Circulating Ocean, commissioned by the Salzburg Festival, was premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Valery Gergiev. It received its UK premiere in 2006 at the BBC Proms and had its German premiere at Berliner Philharmonie.
As the winner of the 2008 Roche Commissions (awarded in collaboration with the Lucerne Festival, the Cleveland Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall), Toshio Hosokawa's Woven Dreams had its world premiere at the Lucerne Summer Festival in 2010, and had its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall in this past February. Highlights of 2011 include premieres of his new opera Matsukaze, commissioned by La Monnaie, and a new horn concerto, co-commissioned by Berliner Philharmoniker, the Barbican Centre London, and Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
Since 2001, Hosokawa has served as Music Director for the Takefu International Music Festival. He was composer-in-residence with Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin in the 200607 season and with WDR Rundfunkchor Koln between 2006-2008. Since 2004, he has been a guest professor at Tokyo College of Music.
A resident of Berlin, Hosokawa has been a member of Academy of Fine Arts (Akademie der Kijnste) Berlin since 2001 and a Fellow of the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study since 2006.
Lulu W. L. Lee (Lighting Designer) holds an MFA in Theater Lighting Design from Temple University, Phil?adelphia, and has worked as the architecture light?ing designer at The Lighting Practice, the technical supervisor for 2001 Taipei Lantern Festival, the resi?dent stage manager at Novel Hall, and the technical manager for Taipei Arts Festival.
Lee's lighting design works encompass operas, dance works, and theater productions for various performance companies including Guo Guang Op?era Company, Golden Bough Theatre, Creative So?ciety, and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. Her
design credits with Cloud Gate include listening to the River (2010), Oculus (2007), and Lost Shadows (2007) as lighting designer, and The Road to the Mountain (2004), Cursive II (2003), and Bamboo Dream (2001) as assistant lighting designer.
Appointed as technical director in 2010, Lee has worked closely with Cloud Gate for many years as project lighting director.
One of the most respected senior costume design?ers in Taiwan, Lin Ching-ju (Cosfume Designer) has worked in this field for over 20 years. She studied at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. In 1992, she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study in New York to participate in productions of the New York City Ballet and the New York City Op?era. In 2006, she received the National Award for the Arts, the highest award for artists in Taiwan.
Lin's Cloud Gate credits include the company's repertoire, including Lost Shadows (2007) by British choreographer Akram Khan, The Road to the Moun?tain (2004), Cursive II (2003), Cursive (2001), Moon Water (1998), Nine Songs (1993), The Dream of the Red Chamber (1983), Symphony of the Sorrow?ful Songs (1995), Shooting the Sun (1992), Legacy (1978), and Nirvana (1982).
Lin has designed for more than 70 other major works, including designs for New Classic Dance Company; ballet repertoires Swan Lake and Nut?cracker, the modern dance Life of Mandala by Tai Gu Tales Dance Theatre in 1990; the theater work The Kingdom of Desire by the Contemporary Legend Theatre; musical and opera repertoires Tosca, Mid?summer Night's Dream, and Rigoletto.
Ethan Wang (Projection Designer) received his MA degree in Communication Design majoring in New Media Pathway from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, University of the Arts London.
Serving as the visual art designer for Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei and the guest art designer for the Hua-shan Art District, Taipei, Wang found?ed his own studio Over Quality with his partners in 2006, focused on digital graphic animation cre?ations. His credits on moving images and multi-me?dia slideshows include Wind Shadow and Listening to the River by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan; Reed Field by Taipei Crossover Dance Company; and Next Exit at the 8th International Architecture Exhibi?tion in Venice, Italy. His talent also extends to the graphic designs for Taishin Arts Award, and Danc?ing Allegories and Bevy by Taipei Crossover Dance Company.
Wang is the recipient of numerous awards, in?cluding "Grand Prize" of the More Than a Face graphic competition in 2000, hosted by the National Association of Architects.
Lee Ching-chun (Associate Artistic Director) gradu?ated with a MA in Dance Studies from City University of Laban Centre, London, in 1999. In 2004, she re?ceived the National Award for the Arts from Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation, the highest award for artists in Taiwan.
Joining Cloud Gate in 1983, Ms. Lee takes lead?ing roles in all Lin Hwai-min's works including Wild Cursive, Cursive II, Cursive, The Road to the Mountain, Smoke, Bamboo Dream, Burning the Juniper Branch?es, Portrait of the Families, Songs of the Wanderers, Nine Songs, The Dream of the Red Chamber, and Legacy. She has also danced in Helen Lai's The Rite of Spring, Invisible Cities, La Vie en Rose, and Frida.
Her choreographic works include Woman and Man, Man and Woman for Cloud Gate and While White Is Revealing for Spotlight Dance Company, both of which premiered in 1996. In 1999, collabo?rating with Canadian stage designer Tania Etienne, she choreographed and performed the dance solo work Courtyard of Pearls. In 2006, she choreo?graphed Blossom and Moonlight for Kaohsiung City Ballet Company.
Serving as Rehearsal Director for nine years, Ms. Lee was appointed Associate Artistic Director in 2003. In 2004 and 2005, she represented Lin Hwai-min to re-stage his works Smoke and White for Zu?rich Ballet in Switzerland and Introdans in the Neth?erlands respectively.
Ms. Lee is also the Chief Consultant for Cloud Gate Dance School and has helped to create and de?velop class syllabi for students aged four to 84.
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Cloud Gate Dance Foundation
Honorary Chairman Lee Yuan-tseh
Chairman
Shen Hsueh-yung
Board of Directors Hong Min-hong Hsu Chia-shih Hsu Sheng-hsiung Ko Wen-chang Barry Lim Lin Hwai-min Stan Shih Tsai Hong-tu Tseng Fang-churng Wang Chi-mei Wang Wing-hung Wen Huei-wen Diane Ying
Executive Director Yeh Wen-wen
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre
Founder Artistic Director Lin Hwai-min
Associate Artistic Director Lee Ching-chun
Music ConsultantCreative
Assistant to Mr. Lin Liang Chun-mei
Chi Kung Master Hsiung Wei
Internal Martial Arts Master Adam Chi Hsu
Calligraphy Master Huang Wei-jong
Ballet Teachers Lee Shu-hui Wu Ching-yin
Rehearsal Director Chou Chang-ning
Rehearsal Assistants Yang l-chun Huang Pei-hua Tsai Ming-yuan
Medical Consultant Chou Ching-long
Accompanists Holy Chang Kuo Tsung-han
Dancers
Chou Chang-ning Huang Pei-hua Lee Ching-chun Tsai Ming-yuan
Chiu l-wen Ko Wan-chun Lin Chia-liang Liu Hui-ling Su l-ping Wang Chih-hao Wong Lap-cheong Yang l-chun Yu Chien-hung
Hou Tang-li Huang Mei-ya Lee Tzu-chun Lin Hsin-fang
Apprentices Chen Wei-an Chen Mu-han Fang Yu-ting Hsiao Tzu-ping Kuo Tzu-wei Lai Chun-wei Lai Hsing-lun Lee Tsung-hsuan Wang Po-nien Yeh Yi-ping
Administrative Staff on Tour
International Representative Wang Jaw-hwa (Joanna)
Senior Project Manager Wang Shu-chen (Janice)
Project Coordinator Lin l-hsuan (Claire)
Technical Staff on Tour
Technical Director Lee Wan-ling (Lulu)
Project Production Manager Li Chia-nung (Vicky)
Senior Stage Manager Kuo Yuan-hsien (Jack)
Stage Supervisors Chen Chih-feng Lin Ching-kai
Lighting Supervisor Lin Szu-chen
Wardrobe Mistress Hsu Wen-wen
Exclusive North American Tour Representation Rena Shagan Associates, Inc. www.shaganarts.conn