Hu Jianbing, a traditional Chinese wind musician and sheng soloist, has performed regularly with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, and premiered concertos with many orchestras.
Composer Biography
Huang Ruo, cited as 'one of the most intriguing of the new crop of Asian-American composers,' draws inspiration from Chinese folk, Western avant-garde, rock, and jazz, using a technique he calls dimensionalism.
Composer Biography
Bright Sheng, a MacArthur Fellow and Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor, is strongly influenced by folk and classical music traditions from eastern and central Asia.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The four composers on this album grew up musically bilingual, speaking fluently the musical languages of both Western classical music and the ancient Chinese tradition.
Performer Biography
The PRISM Quartet has been creating and nurturing contemporary works for saxophones for nearly three decades, crossing the whole spectrum of modern classical styles.
Interpretation
The PRISM Quartet consistently plays against type, defying expectations of what a saxophone should sound like, and uses extended techniques like flutter-tonguing and multiphonics that resemble East Asian techniques.
Performer Biography
Music From China, founded in 1984 by Director Susan Cheng and under the artistic direction of erhu virtuoso Wang Guowei, performs an eclectic repertoire of traditional and contemporary Chinese music.
