Month: August 2022

Following their workshop in February, I’m pleased to share news of an upcoming performance of my violin and viola duo, Incantation, by Euna Kim and William Lane of Hong Kong New Music Ensemble at Tai Kwun in Hong Kong on September 12.

Incantation was premiered in 2013 at the Aspen Music Festival.  The performance at Tai Kwun will be the premiere of its revised version following the HKNME workshop and subsequent edits and conversation.

My work’s title evokes those repeated phrases, spells, and rituals, which have the power to stir emotions and also spirts—for good or for evil.  I’m looking forward to stirring these spirits with fresh ears in an amplified performance at this unique outdoor space in Central next month.

I’ve spent the last eleven days in Helsinki, concluding last evening with the premiere of my solo violin work, Passions, by Sini Virtanen at the Sibelius Music Institute in Hämeenlinna. Finland has offered me a much-needed pause, a calmness and order that isn’t possible in Hong Kong’s dense insistence.

Sini’s performance was captivating and personal, showing all sides of my work and its many expressions: the questioning, the outbursts, the longing introspection, the steady build-up to strident wails…and the afterthoughts—those memories that remain.

I have so enjoyed visiting Sibelius’s birth house, eating delicious food, seeing the beautiful islands of Suomenlinna, breathing fresh, cool air, and, above all, spending time with interesting and creative people.  This is a place I hope soon to return.