Artist
1895-1953

Xu Beihong is the most influential artist and art educator in 20th-century China. He is widely known as the father of modern Chinese painting, famous for his iconic paintings of free-running horses. During the 2022 China Now Music Festival, two works of music will honor the memory of this prolific and important figure in Chinese art: Huang Anlun’s Capriccio Xu Beihong, commissioned for the festival, and the third movement of the piano concerto Xu Beihong's Color-And-Ink Paintings by Jiang Wenye, a piece that was until recently thought to have been entirely lost during the Cultural Revolution. Both pieces will be performed during the final concert of the festival, Journey to the East: the Music of Alexander Tcherepnin and the Art of Xu Beihong, at Alice Tully Hall on October 22.

Composer
1894-1965

Russian-born Jewish composer Aaron Avshalomov spent nearly three decades living and working in Shanghai after fleeing the Russian pograms. There, he became a major figure in the development of Chinese classical music before emigrating to the United States in 1947. His 1931 symphonic poem Hutongs of Peking paints a vivid portrait of the city’s bustling street life. The Orchestra Now will perform this vibrant piece during the opening concert of the 2022 China Now Music Festival on October 7 at Bard College and October 9 at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Composer
1893-1950

Abing, born as Hua Yanjun, was a blind Chinese street musician and composer who was well known in his hometown of Wuxi during his lifetime for his soulful erhu playing, and is now considered to be one of the most influential musicians of Chinese music in the 20th Century. His most famous musical work is Erquan Yingyue which can be translated as Moon Reflecting on Erquan Pond. An orchestral version of this iconic piece will be performed during the final concert of this year’s China Now Music Festival on October 22 at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center.

Composer
1899-1977

Russian-born composer and pianist Alexander Tcherepnin had a lifelong interest in China, and composed many pieces with Chinese musical or folkloric influences. The one-act chamber opera The Nymph and The Farmer features a libretto in French by Siao Yu based on a tale from Chinese folklore. This opera has rarely been performed and will be presented in concert format during the 2022 China Now Music Festival’s final concert Journey to the East: the Music of Alexander Tcherepnin and the Art of Xu Beihong on October 22 at Alice Tully Hall.

Composer
1910-1983

A student of Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin, Jiang Wenye was born in Taiwan and lived and worked in both Japan and mainland China during his lifetime. He composed two works being performed at the 2022 China Now Music Festival’s final concert, Journey to the East: the Music of Alexander Tcherepnin and the Art of Xu Beihong, on October 22, 2022 at Alice Tully Hall: Taiwan Dance and the third movement of Xu Beihong's Color-And-Ink Paintings, a piano concerto composed for Xu’s daughter which was lost during the Cultural Revolution and only recently recovered.

Composer
b. 1949

Chinese-Canadian composer Huang Anlun was commissioned by the 2022 China Now Music Festival to compose a work in honor of the painter Xu Beihong. The resulting piece, Capriccio Xu Beihong, references iconic paintings from Xu’s immense ouevre - including the world renowned ink painting Six Galloping Horses (1942) - and will receive it’s world premiere at the concert Journey to the East: the Music of Alexander Tcherepnin and the Art of Xu Beihong at Alice Tully Hall on October 22.

Composer
b. 1955

Xiaogang Ye is regarded as one of China’s leading contemporary composers. He studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in China and after graduation was appointed Resident Composer and Lecturer there. In the 1980’s he studied at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester in New York. Ye’s oeuvre comprises symphonic works, a range of chamber music, stage works and film music, and much of his music bears a connection to Chinese culture and tradition. His Great Wall Symphony, composed in 2002, will be performed during the 2022 China Now Music Festival in the Tales from Beijing concerts on October 7 at Bard College and on October 9 at Jazz at Lincoln Center. This monumental work consists of nine movements drawing on traditional folk tunes, and features vocal parts and traditional Chinese musical instruments.

Composer
b. 1956

Celebrated throughout the world as a leading composer of the Chinese avant-garde, Guo is a member of the distinguished composition faculty at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. His opera Rickshaw Boy (2014) was commissioned by the National Center for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing and was performed there in 2014 and 2017, as well as touring Italy in 2015. The 2022 China Now Music Festival Tales from Beijing concerts at Bard College on October 7 and Jazz at Lincoln Center on October 9 will premiere Selections from Rickshaw Boy - Xiangzi and Huniu for orchestra and voice, created by Guo especially for the festival and featuring selected scenes from the opera.

Composer
b. 1971

Hao Weiya is a highly respected composer best known for his ambitious completion of Puccini’s unfinished opera Turondot. Hao serves on the faculty of the Central Conservatory of Music, China, in addition to composing operas, symphonies, ballets, and film scores. His haunting chamber opera, Painted Skin, was premiered in Shanghai in 2019. The 2022 China Now Music Festival will present a new production of the opera with an American spin on October 13 at Hudson Hall in Hudson, NY, and on October 15 at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Director, US-China Music Institute
Artistic Director, China Now Music Festival

Conductor Jindong Cai is the founding director of the US-China Music Institute and the founder of the China Now Music Festival. Cai came to Bard after spending many years at Stanford University. He has conducted orchestras throughout the US and abroad, especially in his native China. Cai is also a scholar with deep interest in the history and evolution of classical music in China. He will conduct all five concerts of the 2022 China Now Music Festival, in programs that present works of contemporary Chinese music never before heard in the US as well as classic works rarely performed that illustrate deep crosscurrents between Western and Chinese music and culture.

director, Painted Skin 画皮

Michael Hofmann is an opera stage director, administrator, performer, and artist based in Hudson, New York. His frequent experience with premiere works and devised performances has positioned him as a specialist in contemporary opera direction dedicated to genuine, engaging, and accessible storytelling. His directorial debut, a semi-staged performance of Bernstein’s Candide with The Orchestra Now in February 2017, was noted as "stunning in its brilliance, humor, and overall gestalt... an astonishing accomplishment" (Millbrook Independent). Hofmann has since directed or stage managed performances with the Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School, University of Connecticut, Fresh Squeezed Opera, the Bard Music Festival, and the Bard College Music Program. Most recently, he directed Jillian Flexner’s world premiere chamber opera Self-Defined Circuits at HERE Theater in May 2022, a production praised for being “riveting... so artfully done, so sensitive and authentic” (Observer) and “particularly inventive in its use of technologies” (BroadwayWorld).

soprano

Manli Deng was born in Chongqing, China. As a young artist she was selected to perform in the Maryland Lyric Opera Institute. Deng received her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Recently, she completed her Master of Music in Voice Performance at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and she will be pursuing the Artist Diploma at the Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts in the Fall of 2022. Recent opera engagements include Helene in Hin unt Zurück, Fiordiligi in Così Fan Tutte, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas，Mimi in La Bohème, and Yuqing Hou in Enming Deng. Future credits include returning to the Maryland Lyric Opera in September 2022 for her role debut as Dama di Lady Macbeth in Macbeth and as Gran Sacerdotessa in Aida in May 2023. Deng recently won third place in the Sylvia Green Vocal Competition; she was also the finalist in the Upper Midwest Regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; and a finalist in the Atlantic Regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. This is her first time performing in the China Now Music Festival.

suona

Boston-based Yazhi Guo is regarded by many as the finest suona player in the world, and his expressive performances and unique style have created many opportunities in the world of modern music for the instrument. Guo graduated with distinction from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 1990 and for nine years lectured on suona there. In the 1990s, he recorded the original songs for more than 100 films and popular TV series, and drew a huge following of fans. Guo was appointed as principal suona by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 1999. Since then, he has performed with many orchestras around the world. He also lectured at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and led the Hong Kong Suona Association as its first executive director. Guo received the Hong Kong Award for Best Artist in 2012 and that same year, at age 46, relocated to Boston to explore jazz at Berklee College of Music. While studying at Berklee, he actively showcased the uniqueness of suona on various occasions and made the traditional suona more fashionable and popular. He is a currently a visiting artist and teaches master classes at Philadelphia University of the Arts and Berklee College of Music, as well as at the Bard Conservatory of Music.

soprano

Noted for her “dazzling, virtuoso singing” (Boston Globe), Lucy Fitz Gibbon is a dynamic musician whose repertoire spans the Renaissance to the present. She believes that creating new works and recreating those lost in centuries past makes room for the multiplicity and diversity of voices integral to classical music’s future. As such, Ms. Fitz Gibbon has given U.S. premieres of rediscovered works by Baroque composers Francesco Sacrati, Barbara Strozzi, and Agostino Agazzari, as well by 20th century composers including Tadeusz Kassern, Roman Palester, and Jean Barraqué.

A graduate of Yale University, Ms. Fitz Gibbon is the recipient of numerous awards for her musical and academic achievements. She holds an artist diploma from The Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory and a master’s degree from Bard College-Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program.

She is currently Interim Director of Vocal Programs at Cornell University and on the faculty of Bard College Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, as well as on voice faculty for Kneisel Hall’s 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Ms. Fitz Gibbon will sing the role of the nymph in Alexander Tcherepnin’s rarely performed chamber opera, The Nymph and the Farmer, during the final concert of the 2022 China Now Music Festival, at Alice Tully Hall on October 22.

www.lucyfitzgibbon.com

soprano

Holly Flack is a coloratura soprano with a unique range that extends beyond an octave above high C. Praised as an “explosive talent” with her warm, flowing middle voice, rippling coloratura and effortless trills, she “wields an impressive range, effortlessly reaching higher than high notes” with her stratospheric vocal extension.

She has traveled multiple times to China with the iSing! International Young Artists Festival for concerts in different cities around the country, and has performed on CCTV, Dragon TV, and Jiangsu Weishi TV for China’s National Day Celebration and the Chinese New Year. In 2022, she singularly represented the USA singing in a promotional video for the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Originally from Portland, Oregon, she holds a Bachelor's Degree in Vocal Performance from St. Olaf College, and a Master's Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Kentucky, where she studied with renowned soprano Cynthia Lawrence.

Holly plays the role of the scholar’s wife in the China Now Music Festival production of Hao Weiya’s ghost story chamber opera, Painted Skin.

www.hollyflack.com

mezzo-soprano

Praised as “a fine actress with a deep, spacious sound” [Parterre], American mezzo-soprano Kristin Gornstein brings her “rich-voiced mezzo-soprano” and “lines of an uncannily silky legato” [New York Times] to her work, ranging from the traditional to the edgy and imaginative.

A frequent performer on the New York opera scene, Ms. Gornstein has appeared as Lucretia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia with Loft Opera, as Mrs. Slender in Salieri’s Falstaff with Dell’Arte Opera, as Dulcinée in Massenet’s Don Quichotte with Utopia Opera, and as Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Opera Modo. Never straying too far from the edgy and imaginative, she is an Associate Artist with Heartbeat Opera; appearing as Xantippe in Daphnis and Chloé, as featured soloist in Queens of the Night: Mozart in Space at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust and as part of the first fully staged opera pastiche ever performed on Manhattan’s High Line.

She performed in the ensemble of Michael Gordon and Deborah Artman’s groundbreaking opera Acquanetta, both in the 2018 world premiere at the Prototype Festival, and in its reprisal at the Bard Summerscape Festival in 2019.

Ms. Gornstein plays the role of the scholar in the China Now Music Festival’s production of Hao Weiya’s ghost story chamber opera, Painted Skin. www.kristingornstein.com

piano

Pianist Xiaofu Ju, recognized by world-renowned pianist Jörg Demus as a “pianist with promising talents and a natural depth in music,” started learning piano at the age of 4. He is a graduate of the music middle school affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Ting Zhou, and is pursuing his bachelor of music at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Yoheved Kaplinsky. Ju’s remarkable performance of the Yellow River Piano Concerto at the US-China Music Institute’s 2022 Chinese New Year Concert, The Sound of Spring, brought the audience to its feet. Ju will perform in Ye Xiaogang’s Symphony No. 2 “The Great Wall” during the 2022 China Now Music Festival’s Tales From Beijing concerts on October 7 at Bard’s Fisher Center and on October 9 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater.

tenor

Proving himself a formidable talent and a rising star to watch in the opera world, Tenor Yi Li is quickly gaining attention across the globe. Most recently, Li debuted the role of Cheng Quing in Meredith Monk’s ATLAS with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and moved into bigger repertoire – debuting the role of Dick Johnson in La fanciulla del West in Maryland Lyric Opera’s inaugural season. Mr. Li subsequently returned there as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor and Turridu/Luigi in Il Tabarro/Cavalleria Rusticana, as well as The Metropolitan Opera as the Young Lover in Il tabarro. Engagements last season included a return to Maryland Lyric Opera for Turandot – singing Pang and covering Calaf, Danny in An American Soldier at China Now Music Festival, his debut at Opera Tampa as Turridu in Cavalleria Rusticana, the tenor soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at Jackson Symphony, Angel Island Oratorio at the Sante Fe Opera, and a gala concert for the 10th Anniversary of Finger Lakes Opera. Upcoming, Yi Li can be seen performing with the Irish National Opera. This season, Li will take on the role of Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth, and rejoin the China Now Music Festival in partnership with Bard College.

piano

Born in Beijing, Xu Fangfang began her piano studies at age five. At nine, she entered the Preparatory Music Elementary School Affiliated to the Central Conservatory of Music. In 1968, with a diploma from the Preparatory Music High School Affiliated to the Central Conservatory of Music, she was assigned to work as a piano accompanist for the China National Peking Opera Company, helping to make The Red Lantern into one of Jiang Qing (Madame Mao)'s model operas. In 1972, she was assigned to the Central Philharmonic Orchestra's music research group where she participated in preparing the descriptions of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s repertoire for top leaders' review. In 1973, under the direction of maestro Eugene Ormandy, it became the first American orchestra to travel to the People’s Republic of China.

In 1981, she enrolled at UC Berkeley to complete her BA in history. She also earned an M.B.A. from Stanford University. In the 1990s, she was the piano accompanist for Union Avenue Opera Theatre's Opera Gala Concert in St. Louis and also played solo from Chinese repertoire at the St. Louis Art Museum. In 2000, she became the founding director of the music department at Renmin University of China. Details of her life and education can be found in Xu Fangfang's memoir Galloping Horses: Artist Xu Beihong and His Family in Mao’s China. beihongchinaarts.com

For the 2022 China Now Music Festival, Ms. Xu returns to the stage to perform the once-lost third movement of Jiang Wenye's piano concerto, Xu Beihong's Color-And-Ink-Paintings, which Jiang composed especially for her in her father's honor.

erhu

Ms. Yang is a two-string fiddle (erhu) artist, mezzo soprano, as well as an actress. Her singles and albums include “Dance of the Strings”, “China Caribe”, “You Will Never be Alone”, “Heroic China”, “Love Gone By”, and “Tug of War”. She has performed in legendary settings such as the United Nations, Abu Dhabi Palace, Time Square New Year’s Eve Countdown Stage, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Barclays Center, CBS, WNBC and many others. She also appeared in the Emmy Award-winning TV show We Speak New York. She will play the solo erhu part in the 2022 China Now Music Festival Tales from Beijing concert performance of Ye Xiaogang’s epic Symphony No. 2 “The Great Wall” on October 7 at Bard College and October 9 at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Kunqu opera singer

From the age of ten, Qian Yi studied classical Chinese opera (Kunqu) at the Shanghai Opera School. As a member of the Shanghai Opera Company, she became known for her leading roles in The Legend of the White Snake, The Water Margin and other standards of the classical Chinese opera repertoire. The New York Times described her as “China's reigning opera princess”. In 1998, Qian Yi was cast in the lead role of Lincoln Center Festival’s epic 19-hour production of The Peony Pavilion. The production toured internationally, playing at major international festivals in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Since coming to the U.S., she has starred in numerous re-workings of Chinese opera for a western theater context, including Ghost Lovers (Spoleto USA), The Orphan of Zhao (Lincoln Center) and Snow in June (American Repertory Theater). Qian Yi had her western opera premiere, singing a leading role in the San Francisco Opera’s new production of Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter's Daughter.

In addition to these performances, she appeared in several films, written two plays, and has brought her knowledge of Chinese traditional theater to American audiences in an academic context. She taught Chinese Opera movement at Barnard College, Columbia University, has given numerous lectures and demonstrations at universities and museums around the country and has participated in educational programs at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.

Qian Yi plays the ghost the China Now Music Festival production of Hao Weiya’s haunting chamber opera, Painted Skin. www.qianyiarts.com

Comprised of students of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, the Bard Chinese Ensemble is an essential part of the US-China Music Institute’s curriculum for Chinese instrument majors at Bard, and offers an opportunity for students of Western instruments to play in a mixed ensemble and learn Chinese repertoire. During the 2022 China Now Music Festival the ensemble joins with special guests to form a 20-piece Chinese ensemble for the two performances of Hao Weiya’s haunting chamber opera Painted Skin at Hudson Hall on October 13 and Jazz at Lincoln Center on October 15.

Based in New York City, NACMS is committed to bringing audiences exciting chamber music performances of the highest caliber and innovation. By delving into the giants of traditional chamber music repertoire, cultivating new voices of contemporary composers that meld elements of Western and Eastern cultures, and collaborating with a broad network of art organizations – NACMS is creating a trifecta of innovation to enable new concert-going experiences for the audience. A full orchestra of NACMS members has been formed exclusively for the China Now Music Festival’s October 22 concert.

The Orchestra Now (TŌN) is a three-year graduate program at Bard College for young professional musicians. Led by artistic director Leon Botstein, TŌN performs regularly throughout the year at Bard and in venues across New York City. The orchestra has taken part in all five China Now Music Festival seasons and joins the festival in 2022 year to perform the Tales From Beijing concerts on October 7 at Bard and October 9 at Jazz at Lincoln Center.