listen to complete piece

composer	Chen Yi (b. 1953)
performers	San Francisco Contemporary Music Players: Barbara Chaffe, flute Stephen Harrison, cello Julie Steinberg, piano Daniel Kennedy, percussion Harvey Sollberger, conductor
publisher	Theodore Presser (ASCAP)http://www.presser.com
recording	Live concert performance at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, San Francisco, California, March 17, 1997
duration	10:08

about the music

Qi was commissioned jointly by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, New Music consort of New York, and Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. The Chinese word Qi is roughly translated as 'air,' 'eternal,' and 'spirit.' Chen Yi:

"I try to use a mixed combination of Western instruments to create the sound from the East, to express my feelings of the Qi abstractly -- it's so untouchable, so mysterious, but so strong and powerful. It melts into air and light, it's like the space in Chinese paintings, it's filled into the dancing lines in Chinese calligraphy, it's the spirit in a human mind. In my composition I translate my general feeling of the Qi, the element of nature, into my musical language in a quite free and slow tempo. There are also exaggerated textures with tension, in which I try to sound the inner voices and spirit of human beings, to experience this eternal power."

about the composer		back to top

Chen Yi combines Chinese and Western traditions in her music, seeking to transcend cultural and musical boundaries and serve as an ambassador for the arts.

A native of Guangzhou, China, Chen began classical music training at three years of age, studying violin and piano with Zheng Rihua and Li Suxin. During the Cultural Revolution which overtook China in the 1960's, she secretly continued to practice the violin; when she was sent into the countryside for two years of mandatory forced labor, she would play classical pieces and folk songs to entertain local farmers. In the process she gained a wider knowledge of her country's folk music, and when she returned home at 17 she became concertmaster and composer with the Beijing Opera Troupe, a position she held for eight years. At this time, she also began to research Chinese traditional music and Western and Chinese theory under the supervision of Zheng Zhong.

In 1977, when the Chinese school system was restored, Chen enrolled in the Beijing Central Conservatory, where she studied composition, violin, and Chinese traditional music; her principal teachers were Wu Zu-qiang and Alexander Goehr. In 1986, she was the first woman in China to receive a master's degree in composition. Chen travelled to the US to further her musical studies at Columbia University in New York City, studying with Chou Wen-chung and Mario Davidovsky. Since then Chen has received commissions from a wide range of orchestras, ensembles, and universities in the US, Europe, and China, as well as the Barlow, Ford, Fromm, Koussevitzky, Rockefeller, and Roche Foundations. Her awards and honors include the Charles Ives Living Award (2001-2004) from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, CalArts/Alpert Award, Grammy Award, Lili Boulanger Award, Stoeger Prize, and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation.

In 1996 Chen presented a full-evening multimedia orchestral concert with three sold-out performances in San Francisco, California; in 2001 and 2008, the China National Symphony Orchestra performed concerts dedicated to her orchestral and choral music. On faculty at the Conservatory of the University of Missouri-Kansas City since 1998, Chen has also taught at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland and has served as composer-in-residence for the Women's Philharmonic, Chanticleer, and the Aptos Creative Arts Program, all in San Francisco. In 2006 she was appointed by the China Ministry of Education to a three-year Changjiang Scholar Visiting Professorship at the Beijing Central Conservatory.

Chen's music has been recorded on many labels including Albany, Angel, Atma, Avant, Bis, Cala, China Record Corporation, CRI, Hugo, Naxos, New Albion, New World, Nimbus, and Teldec.

related websites
http://www.presser.com/Composers/info.cfm?Name=CHENYI

about the performers		back to top

The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players is one of the oldest and most active ensembles in the United States dedicated to performing and recording contemporary chamber music. Founded in 1971 by composer Charles Boone, the group has presented over 900 works, over 100 of which were world premiere performances, and 62 commissioned by the ensemble itself. Prominent among its commissions are works written in the last 20 years, with a special emphasis on California composers; for this the ensemble has eight times received the Award for Adventurous Programming in Contemporary Music from ASCAP/Chamber Music America. The group made its European debut at the Cheltenham Festival of Music in England in 1986, and regularly tours throughout California. It also offers lectures and master classes for high school students of the San Francisco School of the Arts. Recordings of the ensemble can be found on the Albany, CRI, Delos, Music & Arts, New Albion, Newport Classic, New World, and Seoul labels.

related websites
http://www.sfcmp.org