Bard Conservatory’s US-China Music Institute Presents Seventh Annual China Now Music Festival: Composing the Future, October 12–19, 2024

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY—The US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Central Conservatory of Music, China, announce the seventh season of the China Now Music Festival, titled Composing the Future, from October 12 to 19. The festival’s major concerts will take place at Carnegie Hall in New York City and at Bard College.

The China Now Music Festival is dedicated to promoting an understanding and appreciation of music from contemporary China through an annual series of concerts and academic activities. In the previous six seasons, China Now has attracted more than 10,000 live audience members, and nearly 100,000 viewers have participated in online programs. The seventh season features contemporary works on the cutting edge of music with two concerts at Carnegie Hall, in Stern Auditorium on October 12 and Zankel Hall on October 19, to look at the intersection of technology and music.

Artistic Director Jindong Cai says: “Generations of composers in China have been paving the way for the future of classical music. Some are now experimenting with rapidly developing technologies, like AI, that can provide us with new ways to enhance musical expression. This year, China Now explores these new frontiers in music with some of the greatest living composers from China. But even as we venture into this brave new world, we remain certain that, at its core, music-making must always come from the creative heart and imaginative mind of a human being.”

On October 12, Conductor Jindong Cai leads The Orchestra Now in a future-focused program of new symphonic works by contemporary Chinese composers in the opening concert of China Now in Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall. The richly varied program features Juilliard-trained composer and pianist Peng-Peng Gong’s Of Peking and Opera, an abridged version of his magnificent Tenth Symphony. The Tenth Symphony was originally co-commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and was praised as “a sweet, sentimental, and direct work with highly original sounds presented in a series of vivid episodes” by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

From the inspiration of Peking Opera to a tribute to American jazz master Ray Charles, the program also presents New York–based Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun’s Hundred Heads (In Tribute to Ray Charles). The musical theme hints at Charles’s best-known tune, “Georgia on My Mind,” and his trademark brass rhythms, while drawing on Buddhist mythology to represent the essence of Charles’ musical gifts.

In keeping with the future-focused theme of this year’s festival events, China Now asked the Department of Music Artificial Intelligence of the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) to contribute orchestral pieces composed in part by AI, as well as works that experimentally incorporate AI technology in live performances. Highlights of this segment of the program include Li Xiaobing’s use of a ‘Cloud Chorus’ of 1,000 voices gathered from around the world, and a piece by Sun Yuming where a traditional ‘guzheng’ zither is played on stage without the performer touching the instrument.

Rounding out the dynamic program are two captivating symphonic pieces by Qin Wenchen and Yao Chen from the composition faculty of CCOM, locus of some of the most forward-thinking and innovative composers of our time.

A pre-concert event at the Rohatyn Room at Carnegie Hall from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm brings together an illustrious panel of composers and music researchers convene for the 2nd annual US-China Music Forum to explore how technology and music can intersect in new music composition. Note that seating is limited for the forum and advance reservations are required.

The China Now Music Festival concludes with a second concert on October 19 at Carnegie’s intimate Zankel Hall with a chamber opera by visionary composer Hao Weiya, performed by the China Now Chamber Orchestra and conductor Jindong Cai. Unlike the October 12 concert program, which highlights the fusion of music and technology, Hao Weiya’s AI’s Variation: Opera of the Future confronts us with a series of chilling questions relating to the ethics of science and technology merging with human creativity. A science fiction-themed drama for three voices and a chamber orchestra, AI’s Variation tells the story of a troubled artist who allows his identity to be ‘enhanced’ by AI but then struggles with the consequences in his personal life.

The program at Zankel Hall also features a performance by the dynamic young musicians of the Bard East/West Ensemble, whose unique combination of Chinese and Western instruments has been widely enjoyed by the audience of the China Now Music Festival in past years. They will be joined by Duo Chinoiserie, a unique pairing that combines the Chinese guzheng and the European classical guitar, to perform French composer Mathias Duplessy’s Zhong Kui’s Regrets and Zhong Kui’s Journey in a new arrangement for the Duo and the Bard East/West Ensemble.

The Ensemble further advances into imaginative spaces with Chinese composer Jia Guoping’s Ripples in Spacetime, inspired by pulsar signals in deep space, and Shi Fuhong’s Vital Momentum. Commissioned by the China Now Music Festival and inspired by the cicada, Shi’s hope-filled piece delves into profound themes of life, vitality, humanity, nature, heaven, earth, and time. Another commission for the Bard East/West Ensemble by young composer Yan Yan, from China Now’s Emerging Composers Discovery Project, presents a new re-imagining of the classic ghost story Painted Skin, composed especially for the Bard East/West Ensemble.

Note: This program will also be performed in a free concert at Bard’s Fisher Center for the Performing arts on Friday, October 18 at 7 pm.


EVENT DETAILS AND TICKETING

CONCERT 1:
COMPOSING THE FUTURE: THE ORCHESTRA NOW (TŌN) CONDUCTED BY JINDONG CAI

Saturday, October 12 at 7:30 pm
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
Tickets: $25/$40/$60
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
57th Street and Seventh Ave, New York, NY, 10019
For tickets, visit: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2024/10/12/Composing-the-Future-A-Concert-with-The-Orchestra-Now-Jindong-Cai-Conductor-0730PM


CONCERT 2:
COMPOSING THE FUTURE: THE CHINA NOW CHAMBER ORCHESTRA AND THE BARD EAST/WEST ENSEMBLE
Featuring AI’S VARIATION: OPERA OF THE FUTURE
Jindong Cai, conductor

Friday, October 18 at 7 pm
Sosnoff Theater, Fisher Center at Bard College
FREE and open to the public.
For more information, visit: https://fishercenter.bard.edu/events/composing-the-future/

Saturday, October 19 at 7:30 pm
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall
Tickets: $25/$35/$45/$60
Seventh Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets, New York, NY, 10019
For tickets, visit: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2024/10/19/Composing-the-Future-A-Concert-with-the-China-Now-Chamber-Orchestra-and-the-Ba-0730PM

US-CHINA MUSIC FORUM: COMPOSING THE FUTURE
Saturday, October 12 from 5:30 pm to 7 pm
Rohatyn Room at Carnegie Hall
57th Street and Seventh Ave, New York, NY, 10019
The US-China Music Forum is free and requires reservations via Eventbrite. Seating is limited.
For more information about the China Now Music Festival and for full programming details, please visit: barduschinamusic.org/composing-the-future


ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Jindong Cai, artistic director and conductor
Jindong Cai is director of the US-China Music Institute, professor of music and arts at Bard College, and associate conductor of The Orchestra Now (TŌN). Previously, he was a professor of performance at Stanford University. During his career of more than 30 years in the United States, Cai has established himself as a dynamic conductor, scholar of Western classical music in China, and leading advocate of music from across Asia. Born in Beijing, Cai received his early musical training in China, where he learned to play violin and piano. He came to the United States for graduate studies at the New England Conservatory and the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. He is a three-time recipient of the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming for Contemporary Music. Cai started conducting with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and has worked with orchestras throughout North America and Asia. He has conducted most of the top orchestras in China.

At Bard, Cai founded the annual China Now Music Festival, which presents new works by some of the most important Chinese composers of our time. Concerts are performed by The Orchestra Now at Bard’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Stanford University. In 2019, the festival premiered Men of Iron and the Golden Spike by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Zhou Long—a symphonic oratorio in commemoration of the Chinese railroad workers of North America on the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

With his wife, Sheila Melvin, Cai has coauthored many articles on the performing arts in China, as well as two books, Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese and Beethoven in China: How the Great Composer Became an Icon in the People’s Republic.


Duo Chinoiserie: Jing Xia, guzheng Bin Hu, guitar
Founded in 2016, Duo Chinoiserie has emerged as a musical phenomenon, captivating audiences with their performances. The exceptional talents of Chinese guzheng virtuoso Jing Xia and classical guitarist Bin Hu combine to create awe-inspiring performances. With their resolute global vision, Duo Chinoiserie explores the elegance of the Chinoiserie style, seamlessly blending Eastern and Western cultures through their extraordinary musical interpretations.

Having graced illustrious stages in Spain, China, and the United States, Duo Chinoiserie maintains an active concert schedule. They have been presented by Arizona Arts Live, St. Andrew’s Bach Society, Tucson Guitar Society, Qinling International Guitar Festival, and many others. In recognition of their talent and creative artistry, Duo Chinoiserie has garnered widespread media attention. Their award-winning debut album, Chinoiserie: Building New Musical Bridges, on Navona Records, received high praise from music critics worldwide as “showcasing artistry at the highest level.”

The duo’s visionary spirit continues to reshape contemporary music through its unwavering dedication to artistic excellence. Embracing a passion for innovation and the exploration of new musical forms, Duo Chinoiserie warmly welcomes collaborations that integrate chamber music into other creative realms of performing arts.


Lucy Fitz Gibbon, soprano
Noted for her “dazzling, virtuoso singing” (Boston Globe), Lucy Fitz Gibbon is a dynamic musician whose repertoire spans the Renaissance to the present. Fitz Gibbon has given modern premieres of rediscovered works by Baroque composers Francesco Sacrati, Barbara Strozzi, and Agostino Agazzari, and by 20th-century composers including Tadeusz Kassern, Moses Milner, and Florence Price. She also works closely with today’s composers, workshopping and premiering works by John Harbison, Katherine Balch, Kate Soper, and Pauline Oliveros, among others. Fitz Gibbon has appeared as a soloist with ensembles including the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; Tafelmusik; Naples Philharmonic; Albany, Richmond, and Tulsa Symphonies; and American Symphony Orchestra in her Carnegie Hall debut. As a recitalist she has performed with her husband and collaborative partner, pianist Ryan McCullough, at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Park Avenue Armory, and Merkin Hall; London’s Wigmore Hall; and Toronto’s Koerner Hall.

In opera, she recently performed Alexander Tcherepnin’s La Fée et le cultivateur (Fée) with New Asia Chamber Music Society at Alice Tully Hall; gave the Chinese premiere of Tan Dun’s Tea: Mirror of Soul (Princess Lan) at Shangyin Opera House; and joined Seattle Opera for the premiere of Sheila Silver’s A Thousand Splendid Suns (Laila, cover). During the 2024 season she joined the Brentano String Quartet and violinist Alexi Kenney at the 78th Ojai Festival; appeared at Festival Mozaic; and returned to the Marlboro Music Festival.

A graduate of Yale University, Fitz Gibbon also holds an artist diploma from the Glenn Gould School and a master’s degree from Bard College Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program. Her principal teachers include Monica Whicher, Edith Bers, and Dawn Upshaw. She serves on the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.


Hong Zhenxiang, baritone
Hong Zhenxiang is a teacher in the Vocal and Opera Department of Xinghai Conservatory of Music, a doctoral student at the Central Conservatory of Music, and a standing member of the Young Singers Academic Committee of the Chinese Association for the Promotion of Traditional Culture. He has studied under Chen Xiao and Liu Yue, a world-renowned bass singer and opera performance artist.

In 2023, Hong won first place in the China International Vocal Competition, male group, and third prize in the solo male vocal category of the 17th International Tchaikovsky Music Competition. He was also winner of the Golden Bell Award for Vocal Music (Bel Canto) at the 14th Golden Bell Awards for Chinese Music.

Hong has accumulated a large repertoire in various styles, held solo recitals, and collaborated with many top conductors in China and elsewhere. He has performed the leads in The Magic Flute, Marriage of Figaro, Don Juan, Rigoletto, Don Carlo, La Traviata, Carmen, The Wilderness, Farewell to Cambridge, Xinghai Xinghai, Yin Red Kapok, and others. In 2021, he released his solo album Love, through China Record Group Co., Ltd.


Shi Lin, mezzo-soprano/alto
Shi Lin is an opera singer and teacher in the Central Conservatory of Music’s Voice and Opera Department. She graduated from the Central Conservatory’s middle school and was admitted to the Conservatory that same year. She then enrolled in the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, where she graduated with a double master’s degree in opera performance and concert singing in 2013. She also attended the Curtis Institute of Music. Shi was awarded gold prize of the 13th China Music Golden Bell Award, second prize in the Wenhua Award of the 8th National Vocal Competition of the Ministry of Culture of China, and first prize in the 4th International Vocal Competition at the Immling Festival, Germany.

She has performed at the SemperOper in Dresden, Opera House in Hannover, Niedersachsen Music Festival, Champs-Elysees Theater in Paris, Theater Bern in Switzerland, Chautauqua International Music Festival, National Center for the Performing Arts in Warsaw and in China, and more. Lin appeared with world-renowned conductors Andreas Spering, Robin Ticciati, Fabio Luisi, Marco Armiliato, and Yu Feng, among others. She has sung in more than 30 operas including Madame Butterfly, Cosi fan tutte, Werther, Alcina, La Cenerentola, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Rigoletto. She also performed at the National Theatre and Mariinsky Theatre in Lucia di Lammermoor and San Francisco Opera’s China tour performances of Dream of the Red Chamber.
The Bard East/West Ensemble is a dynamic and original music group that brings together the essence of Chinese and Western soundscapes to create a new model of cross-cultural performance. The ensemble’s founder and artistic director, Jindong Cai, has devoted his career as an orchestra conductor and educator to advocate for the development of Chinese music in the West. The Bard East/West Ensemble appeared at the renowned Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in 2022, and on the stage of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City in 2023. The group has collaborated with world-class solo artists including winds virtuoso Guo Yazhi and pipa virtuoso Wu Man.

The ensemble aims to combine Eastern and Western musical traditions, and is committed to performing arrangements and original works with unique instrumentation, thereby creating a new realm of musical expression. The core members of the orchestra are composed of a Western string quintet and seven Chinese instruments including dizi, erhu, pipa, ruan, suona, guzheng and sheng, with Chinese and Western percussionists.
About The Orchestra Now (TŌN)
In 2015 conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein founded The Orchestra Now (TŌN), a group of vibrant young musicians from across the globe, as a graduate program at Bard College. TŌN offers both a three-year master’s degree in Curatorial, Critical, and Performance Studies and a two-year advanced certificate in Orchestra Studies. The orchestra’s home base is the Fisher Center at Bard, where it performs multiple concerts each season and takes part in the annual Bard Music Festival. It also performs regularly at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other venues across NYC and beyond.

The orchestra has performed with many distinguished guest conductors and soloists, including Leonard Slatkin, Gil Shaham, Fabio Luisi, Joan Tower, Vadim Repin, Tan Dun, and JoAnn Falletta. Among TŌN’s many recordings are albums featuring pianists Piers Lane, Anna Shelest, and Orion Weiss; Buried Alive with baritone Michael Nagy; Classics of American Romanticism; and the soundtrack to the motion picture Forte. Recordings of TŌN’s live concerts from the Fisher Center can be heard on Classical WMHT-FM and WWFM The Classical Network, and are featured regularly on Performance Today, broadcast nationwide. More info at ton.bard.edu.

The China Now Music Festival is an annual series of events produced by the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music in collaboration with the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music, China. The festival is dedicated to promoting an understanding and appreciation of classical music from contemporary China. Each year’s festival explores a singular theme. The inaugural festival in 2018, Facing the Past, Looking to the Future: Chinese Composers in the 21st Century, presented US and world premieres of orchestral works by 11 living Chinese composers in concerts at Bard College, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. The following year, the festival presented China and America: Unity in Music at Bard College, Carnegie Hall, and Stanford University, and featured the world premiere of the symphonic oratorio Men of Iron and the Golden Spike, by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Zhou Long, honoring the Chinese railroad workers of the American West on the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Recent seasons featured Beethoven and China in 2020, Asian American Voices in 2021, East of West in 2022, and The Bridge of Music in 2023.
The US-China Music Institute was founded in 2017 by conductor Jindong Cai and Robert Martin, founding director of Bard College Conservatory of Music, with the mission to pro- mote the study, performance, and appreciation of music from contemporary China and to support musical exchange between the United States and China. In partnership with the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Institute has embarked on several groundbreaking projects, including the first degree-granting program in Chinese instrument performance in a US conservatory and a Master of Arts in Chinese Music and Culture, a unique multidisciplinary opportunity for graduate-level academic study and performance of Chinese music outside of China. Planned is the construction of a permanent home for the US-China Music Institute on the Bard campus in upstate New York. The Chinese Music Pavilion will be a landmark for the study and appreciation of Chinese music in the United States and throughout the West. barduschinamusic.org
About the Central Conservatory of Music, China
Established in 1949 and merged with the National College of Music and several other music educational institutions in China, the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) is a specialized Chinese institution of higher education for nurturing high level music professionals. It currently enrolls 1,543 undergraduate students and 633 graduate students. Functioning as a national center of music education, composition, performance, research and social promotion of music, CCOM is a world-renowned institute of music that represents the highest caliber of music education in China. While carrying on the diverse musical heritage of China, CCOM is actively absorbing the essence of various music cultures across the world, embracing different artistic elements with an open mind. Facing a time of increasing opportunities, CCOM will continue its efforts to become a world-leading conservatory with top-notch programs in music education, dedicated to preparing future generations of professional music leaders for the development of art in China, and to bringing China’s vibrant music culture to the world.

About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year, residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,200 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in more than 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 13 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 164-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.

This event was last updated on 10-03-2024

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