Live Stream 現場直播: https://www.youtube.com/live/hEAw-ul0FBM
Date: Sunday November 17, 2024
Time: 10:00 AM EST
The New York Qin Society proudly presents the final Yaji of 2024, focused on the guqin and modern composition, organized by our Vice President, André Ribeiro. This online event, titled Modern Qin: Mirroring the Past, is scheduled for November 17th. While the title suggests a focus on innovative aspects of the guqin, the event aims to harmonize tradition and modernity. The organizers seek to honor the rich history of the guqin while exploring contemporary interpretations and compositions.
The Yaji will feature performances of both traditional and contemporary guqin pieces, showcasing the versatility and adaptability of this ancient instrument. Participants are encouraged to explore creative approaches to classic compositions or to share their original works.
This event promises to be a fascinating journey through the guqin’s past, present, and future, inviting audiences to appreciate the timeless beauty of this instrument and its ongoing evolution.
Featuring Artists:
Nina Starostina (Нина Старостина / 載妮娜)
Dominic Eckersley (隱嘯 Yin Xiao)
Hippocrates Ching Nam Cheng (鄭靖楠)
Jin Yong Derek Oh (Jin Oh)
Please join us to hear their insights into qin compositions and to celebrate the enduring legacy of the guqin.
Program Notes
1. Nina Starostina, a guqin player from Moscow, will delve into the fascinating world of blending ancient Chinese music with contemporary Western ensembles.
In this captivating presentation, Starostina will discuss her innovative approach to composing for mixed ensembles featuring the guqin. She will analyze two of her significant arrangement works:
“Orchid and Wamwood”: A quintet for guqin, flute, violin, viola, and cello, inspired by the Tang Dynasty poem《蘭與艾》by Bai Juyi 問友（772-846). (To look at the score please click here )
The piece pays homage to the classic melody “Lonely Orchid,” seamlessly blending ancient Chinese music with Western instrumentation.
“Lisao”: An octet featuring guqin, flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and strings. This composition is based on the melody of “Lisao” from the 1425 musical manuscript《神奇秘譜》Shenqi Mipu.
白居易問友
種蘭不種艾，蘭生艾亦生。根荄相交長，莖葉相附榮。香莖與臭葉，日夜俱長大。鋤艾恐傷蘭，溉蘭恐滋艾。蘭亦未能收回，艾亦未能除。沉吟意不決，問君合何如。
Through her insightful analysis, Starostina will provide a unique perspective on the intersection of Eastern and Western musical traditions, illuminating the possibilities for contemporary interpretation of ancient Chinese music.
Please also listen to Nina’s composition Lisao, an octet for guqin, violin, viola, cello, flute, oboe, clarinet, and French horn: Нина Старостина. “Скорбь разлученного” для октета – YouTube
2. Dominic Eckersley, a German qin player now based in Vietnam, will present a performance that blends ancient Chinese musical traditions with contemporary sensibilities.
A highlight of the concert will be the world premiere of Eckersley’s latest composition,《怅望黄河》 (Chàngwàng Huánghé) or “Looking Mournfully over the Yellow River”. Inspired by his connection to the Yellow River, this piece pays homage to the Ming Dynasty style while incorporating subtle modern influences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOkdxPLJrKU
Eckersley will guide the audience through a sonic journey that evokes the vastness and power of the Yellow River, intertwining traditional finger techniques with innovative musical ideas. This performance promises to offer a unique perspective on the enduring appeal of the guqin and its ability to connect us to the past while inspiring us toward the future.
About the composition
《怅望黄河》 (Chàngwàng Huánghé) or “Looking Mournfully over the Yellow River”.
“Recorded for presentation at the New York Guin Society meeting in November 2024, this is a composition of my own creation inspired by my second visit to the Yellow River with the instrument maker who made this instrument, Xu Yachong. The Yellow River, known as the mother river of China, has brought prosperity to the country due to the sealed which was able to be used in brickmaking et cetera. But it has also caused the loss of perhaps 13 million lives over the millennia due to flooding. The instrument used in this recording is 雁鸣. (On his YouTube page)
3. Ching Nam Cheng, a brilliant young composer, theorist, ethnomusicologist, and guqin performer,
will share his insights into the world of guqin music composition, highlighting his recent work, “Serendipity”. This innovative piece, premiered by renowned qin player Feng Chi in 2022, blends traditional Chinese musical aesthetics with contemporary influences.
The presentation will offer a unique opportunity to learn about the creative process behind this groundbreaking composition and appreciate the guqin’s timeless beauty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avSD58q3HUc
4. Jin Yong (Singapore/Finland) is a composer and qin player currently based in Finland; he is pursuing a Master’s in Composition at the Sibelius Academy. Jin Yong will play the first section from 春晓吟 (Chūn Xiǎo Yín) in connection with an excerpt from his composition, showcasing his creative approach to the instrument. Through his performance, Jin Yong will offer insights into his practice and compositional process, providing a glimpse into the world of contemporary guqin music.
Bios of Artists
Nina Starostina (Нина Старостина), composer, soloist of the Leonid Lundstrem Art Studio, guqin player, and musicologist. Nina was born in Moscow and graduated from the Vesna Children’s Choir School and the Theoretical Department of the Moscow Conservatory. From 1999 to 2005, she taught harmony of Russian church music at the Moscow Seminary for Chormaisters and Singers.
She completed an internship at the Tianjin Conservatory in Professor Li Fengyun’s guqin zither class. She studied the aesthetics of traditional Chinese music under the guidance of Professor Wang Jianxin (2000-2001, 2003-2004). From 2005 to 2016, she lived in Beijing, was a choir director at the Church of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and developed a system of orthodox Chinese Octoechos singing based on ancient guqin melodies and the Fujian nanyin. She participated in the Guqin Music Festival (Chengdu, 2016) in a symposium dedicated to the anniversary of the Mei’an Guqin School (Nanjing, 2017), in a concert and conference dedicated to the collection “Donggao Qinpu” (Hangzhou, 2018). Since 2020, she has been a soloist at the Leonid Lundstrem Art Studio. Since 2021 – a member of the Moscow State Philharmonic. Since 2022 – a member of the Russian Musical Union. Winner of all Russian and international composers competitions. Author of several articles on Chinese music in the Great Russian Encyclopedia (“Musical Life of Peking”, “Guqin”, “Gongche Pu Notation”, etc.).
载妮娜 生于莫斯科，毕业于“春天”儿童合唱学校，莫斯科柴可夫斯基音乐学院直属莫斯科音乐学院理论系。2000-2001年，以及2003-2004年成为天津音乐学院实习生，师从著名的古琴演奏家李凤云教授；载妮娜在王建欣教授的指导下研究了传统中国音乐的美学。自2001年至2005年，载妮娜在俄罗斯和中国各音乐厅（包括莫斯科和天津音乐学院的独奏音乐会）的多个音乐会演出中展示了自己演奏古琴的技艺。她以钢琴家的身份参演了在北京俄罗斯文化中心举办的多场音乐会（纪念鲍罗丁，肖斯塔科维奇，普罗科菲耶夫，谢赫德林，史维里多夫等的音乐会）。 2016年4月，在第九届«ChorusInside —2016»国际合唱艺术大会合唱作品中被提名并获奖。2016年1月，应李凤云教授邀请，与杰出的音乐大师们一起参加了在成都举行的全国古琴音乐节，参演大师有龚一、李祥霆、李凤云、曾成伟，丁承运等；2017年12月，她在纪念梅庵琴派诞生百年暨古琴传承国际学术研讨会上发表演讲，深入交流了中国传统音乐与西欧合唱音乐风格的结合。2018年12月应李凤云及王建新教授邀请，载妮娜在杭州永福寺《东皋琴谱》打谱研讨会、“天籁云和”《东皋琴谱》古琴音乐会上演奏曲目，并应李凤云教授要求，诠释了自己对该首乐曲的改编处理。载妮娜是唯一一位有幸参加这三场高级别活动的俄罗斯音乐家。 2019年10月她在国立经济高等学校首场纪念B. L. Riftin(李福清) 读书会上发表主题为“关于福建南音音乐的风格特征”的报告演讲。2020年2月她在国家艺术图书馆A.P. Bogolyubov成功举办了独奏演讲音乐会。 载妮娜主要工作—中国古典音乐的研究与表演；结合中国传统音乐元素、印象派和个人风格创作合唱和室内音乐（包括改编处理古代俄罗斯和中国的旋律）。载妮娜创作及改编的合唱作品得益于与庞诺马列娃“春天”儿童合唱团的合作、与Martaccord室内合唱团在俄罗斯的定期演出（包括莫斯科音乐学院的大厅，莫斯科音乐学院的拉赫玛尼诺夫厅，作曲家家中），以及国外演出活动（2018年7月与国外的世界青少年合唱艺术家协会，及2018年8月在塞尔维亚克拉格耶瓦茨第13届国际室内合唱节等。
Dominic Eckersley. In the later years of the 1960s on a small island in Hong Kong, a young boy from Britain fell in love with the culture of a nation called China. Only years later, while living in London, did this young music student meet a Guqin at a small music shop in Chinatown. As if meeting with destiny, he was stricken by the beauty of Guqin and would then spend three decades more separated from his passion.
Finally, after a forty-year career in Western classical music, the mature Englishman purchased a Guqin and began to teach himself to play. He became so immersed in the lore of the Guqin that a friend from Shanghai gifted him the 号 hao (courtesy name), 隐啸 Yin Xiao, or “Whistling Recluse”.
From the onset, Yin Xiao’s passion extended to the revival of silk strings, and he started to experiment with strings made by different makers from China and Japan. During these forays, he found a lack of support for his art in Europe and, in particular, a traditional string glue to maintain the silk strings he so enjoyed. This led to the creation of the Yin Xiao Song Dynasty String Glue, and then the offering of his services for the upkeep and longevity of Guqin.
Hippocrates Cheng 鄭靖楠 is a composer, theorist, ethnomusicologist and multi-instrumentalist from Hong Kong. In 2024, he completed his Doctor of Music Composition with a minor in ethnomusicology at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He is now working on his PhD in music theory with a minor in Jazz studies at the same school. He teaches music theory as an associate instructor at IU and as an adjunct faculty member at IU Northwest. He is appointed as an assistant professor of music theory at SUNY Binghamton University, effective August 2024. His chamber opera on Anti-Asian Hate: All of Us premiered in June 2024 as the winning work commissioned by the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana. He studied the qin in Hong Kong under Dr. Tse Chun Yan (謝俊仁).
Jin Yong Derek Oh, a composer and qin player originally from Singapore and currently residing in Finland, is pursuing a Master’s degree in Composition at the Sibelius Academy. He is a co-founder of the Pangósmos Collective, an initiative dedicated to fostering cross-cultural and multidisciplinary collaborations. Jin Yog’s mentors in the fields of composition and electroacoustic composition include distinguished figures such as Veli-Matti Puumala, Tapio Tuomela, and Sami Klemola from Finland, as well as Alejandro Montes de Oca (Finland/Mexico), Josue Moreno (Spain/Finland), and Zechariah Goh Toh Chai (Singapore). Furthermore, he is under the tutelage of Hoh Chung Shih from Singapore for his studies in guqin.
Attendance
‘A short note on Qin and composition’ by André Ribeiro
Documentation: Peiyou Chang