SYMPHONIC PORTRAITS - WITH THE ORCHESTRA NOW
- Sosnoff Theater, Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, 12504 (map)
ASIAN
AMERICAN
VOICES
Jindong Cai conducts The Orchestra Now in a symphonic concert featuring works by Tan Dun, Peng-Peng Gong, and Xinyan Li, plus episodes from Huang Ruo’s powerful 2014 opera about the tragic death of US Army solder Danny Chen, An American Soldier. With guest artists Nina Yoshida Nelsen, Li Yi, Helen Zhibing Huang, and Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang.
PROGRAM
THE ORCHESTRA NOW
Jindong Cai, conductor
Tan Dun, Prayer and Blessing (2020)
Xinyan LI, Awakening Light, concerto for guzheng and orchestra (world premiere)
Yixin Wang, guzheng
Peng-Peng Gong, A Chinese in New York (2019)
INTERMISSION
Huang Ruo, music
David Henry Hwang, libretto
Episodes from An American Soldier (opera, 2014)
David Henry Hwang, narrator
Li Yi, tenor
Nina Yoshida Nelsen, mezzo-soprano
Helen Zhibing Huang, soprano
COVID-19 Safety protocols require all audience members to show proof of vaccination prior to admittance into the hall. Masks are required at all times indoors. Thank you for helping to keep our community safe!
Tan Dun. Photo Courtesy of Artist
In the first half of this symphonic concert, Jindong Cai will lead The Orchestra Now to showcase three new orchestral works by the composers Tan Dun, dean of the Bard Conservatory; Xinyan Li, Bard Conservatory faculty member; and Peng-Peng Gong, Shanghai- based composer and pianist. Tan’s Prayer and Blessing is his initial response to the pandemic, composed in early 2020. Li’s Concerto for guzheng and orchestra was commissioned by the festival to be performed by the winner of the 2019 Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition, Yixin Wang. Gong’s A Chinese in New York is a raw description of the experience of a Chinese student confronting cultural differences in America.
Private Danny Chen (1999-2011). Photo Public Domain
The second half of the concert will feature several moving episodes from composer Huang Ruo’s 2014 opera, An American Soldier. The opera tells the powerful and haunting true story of the death of US Army Private Danny Chen who was born and raised in New York's Chinatown and died in Afghanistan in 2011 after being subjected to relentless hazing and racial maltreatment by his superiors. The episodes presented here will be introduced by the opera’s librettist, Tony award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang.
featuring
Special thanks to the family of Danny Chen.