Taiwan’s Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra returns to Vancouver to participate in the 3rd Sound of Dragon Music Festival in early April. The featured events are its collaboration with the Turning Point Ensemble on April 5 and 6 at the Annex Theatre. On April 7, the musicians sit in a jam party with Vancouver Celtic musicians at the Roundhouse Community Centre. This event is open to musicians of every level, ethnic background any kind of instruments to come to join in. On April 8, Little Giant’s maestro Chih-Sheng Chen conducts the collaboration between Vancouver’s Sound of Dragon Ensemble and the Toronto Chinese Orchestra Chamber Players to close the festival.
The first-class large chamber ensembles in Canada and Taiwan come together in the collaboration between the Turning Point Ensemble (Vancouver) & Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra (Taiwan). They will perform two concerts of completely different programs of inter-cultural works by Canadian and Taiwanese composers at 8pm on April 5 and 6 at the Annex. Chinese traditional instruments meet western classical instruments in various combinations under the baton of conductors Owen Underhill and Chih-Sheng Chen (Taiwan).
The ensembles will give the world premiere of three rising stars of Taiwanese female composers whose music will be heard in Vancouver for the first time. Both Chia-Lin Pan and Chih-Chen Wei’s works are inspired by the ever-changing shapes of the clouds. Chihchun Chi-sun Lee’s Phragmites Under the Sun honours her late mentor Prof. Yen Lu and utilizes materials from Lu’s musical languages and orchestration techniques for a grand piece of 21 instruments. The Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra has performed Ching-wen Chao’s Slow Rain in Vancouver in 2014 and met with critical acclaim. This year their collaboration with the Turning Point Ensemble will give the North American premiere of her Dark Light, featuring violist Tawnya Popoff.
In addition, the Taiwanese musicians will participate in two innovative free workshops:
6:30-8:30pm on April 3 at SFU Harbour Centre, Taiwanese artist Li Tung and zheng soloist Hsin-Fang Hsu offer participants hands-on opportunity to try brush painting and playing the zheng at Mountain High River Flow – Asian landscape painting and music workshop.
5-7pm on April 7 at the Roundhouse, bring your own instruments of any kind to play with members of Taiwan’s Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra and surprise guests in Vancouver’s first official “Asian and Celtic Music Jam”.
The Sound of Dragon Music Festival debuted in 2014 and is held in Vancouver every two years. It showcases very diverse musical styles. By presenting musicians, ensembles and composers from different ethnicities, nationalities, and musical genres, Sound of Dragon reflects Vancouver’s growing multicultural environment, representing a highly creative music scene.
For more information and tickets, please visit http://soundofdragon.com/.
Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra (Taiwan) & Turning Point Ensemble
8pm April 5-6 at the Annex Theatre (823 Seymour Street, Vancouver)
Mountain High River Flow – Chinese landscape painting & music workshop
6:30pm April 3 at SFU Harbour Centre (515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver)
Asian & Celtic musicians jam party
5pm April 7 at the Roundhouse Community Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver)
Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra (Taiwan) with the Sound of Dragon Ensemble & Toronto Chinese Orchestra Chamber Players
7:30pm April 8 at the Annex Theatre (823 Seymour Street, Vancouver)
