Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble
Transplanted Purple Bamboo
Recordings of contemporary artistic scores written by various Canadian composers and performed with traditional Chinese instruments.
Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble - History
In 1999, the Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society was established to support the work of the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble, which was formed in 1989. The Ensemble has worked with several Vancouver-based composers, including Rui Shi Zhuo, Mark Armanini, Janet Danielson, Nai Chung Kuan, Qing Hua Zheng, Jin Zhang, Lisa Miller, Kang Nian Tang, Michael O’Neill, Jon Siddall, Jacqueline Leggatt and John Oliver. This versatile group embraces the popular and the classical traditions of China as well as western classical and contemporary music performed on Chinese instruments. The Ensemble has a broad repertoire encompassing traditional music from various regions of China, to adaptations of Canadian folk songs and other music.
In addition to self-produced concert presentations, the Ensemble has presented educational concerts and performed at local events including Vancouver New Music events, the Sonic Boom Festival, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival and Chinese community celebrations, as well as in concerts and at music festivals across Canada and in the United States. They have performed at festivals in Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Mission, and in concerts in Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Richmond Hill, Kitimat, Osoyoos and Kamloops. In the United States, the Ensemble has performed in Portland, Port Angeles and Seattle. The group has performed in schools across BC and has showcased at regional and national events including Pacific Contact, ArtScan and the Canada Council for the Arts’ Presence Conference. They released their first CD, Transplanted Purple Bamboo, in 2000 and their second CD, New Frontiers, in 2006.
Together with the Ensemble, the Society works to educate Canadian audiences about traditional Chinese music and contemporary music for Chinese instruments and/or based on Chinese music.
Highlights of Past Activities
National Tour (April 19-27, 2008)
The Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble raised its national profile by presenting a concert program of traditional and contemporary music at eight venues in Quebec and Ontario in April 2008, including Festival Musique Multi-Montreal, art centres in Montreal, the Music Gallery in Toronto, the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts and the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
One Montreal performance sold out and five performances drew near capacity audiences. The tour received significant coverage by local media in Montreal, Toronto and Hamilton, including Radio Canada, OMNI TV, Sing Tao Daily, Ming Pao Daily and Whitenotes. This tour gave national exposure to the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble and its ground-breaking performances of contemporary music for Chinese instruments. This opportunity will build new markets for the ensemble’s live performances and Canadian compositions nationally.
Showcase at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto (December 5, 2007)
The Ensemble was one of only five artists from across Canada selected to showcase at the Canada Council for the Arts' Presence Conference at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto in December 2007.
Word of mouth and feedback for the event from both participants and audience was tremendous. The audience, consisting of artists, presenters, funders and others from arts communities across Canada, were able to hear traditional and contemporary Chinese music performed by some of the finest Chinese instrumentalists in Canada and the world.
Release of first contemporary Chinese music album: New Frontiers
New Frontiers, the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble’s second recording, features works by five Canadian composers, two born in Canada and three who were born and raised in China before coming to Canada, performed on a combination of contemporary and traditional Asian and Western instruments.
The New Frontiers CD includes Goldfish by Mark Armanini, Sinewave by Janet Danielson, Courage by Ji Rong Huang, Awakening by Jin Zhang, and Gu and Ling by Rui Shi Zhuo, performed by the Ensemble featuring Ji Rong Huang on erhu (Chinese violin), Yong Sun on dizi (Chinese flute), Vivian Xia on yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer), Zhi Min Yu on ruan (Chinese guitar), Angela Wang on pipa (Chinese lute) & vocals, Gui Lian Liu on pipa and Wei Li on zheng (Chinese harp). Guest percussionist, Bruce Henczel, is featured on Huang’s Courage and Zhuo’s Ling and Uzume Taiko’s Bonnie Soon and Boyd Seiichi Grealy performed on Japanese drums on Zhang’s Awakening.
“There is nothing earnest or dogmatic in any of this music. The Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble plays with passion and the insight of those who know how to perform for an audience. Their music forms an integral part of the new Canada, and the next chapter for contemporary classical music here, even as the result of the development of these instruments ripples out into the world and by consequence, back to the country of their origin.”
-- Jon Siddall
Selected Repertoire
Un Canadien Errant (2007), John Oliver*
Consensus* (2007), John Oliver*
Nine Steps to Heaven (2007), Mark Armanini*
Stark Raving (2007), John Korsrud*
Intarsia (2006), Jacqueline Leggatt*
Impromptu (2006), Kang Nian Tang*
Cormorants (2005), Lisa Miller*
Hou Yi Shot the Suns (2004), Jin Zhang*
Essence of a Feather Floating* (2003), Jon Siddall*
Tracing (2003), Jin Zhang*
Young Men of Asi Dancing in the Moonlight (2002), Nai Chung Kuan*
Awakening* (2001), Jin Zhang*
Adagio 40 (2001), Rui Shi Zhuo*
Yao (The Dream of Yesterday, Here and Today)* (1999), Rui Shi Zhuo*
Ling* (1999), Rui Shi Zhuo*
Gu* (1995), Rui Shi Zhuo*
Transplanted Purple Bamboo, Ji Rong Huang*
In Bamboo Village, Jin Zhang*
A Song From A Far Away Place, Yong Sun*
A Song from Mongolia, Vivian Xia*
Ambush from All Sides, Ancient Melody
Herdsman's Song, Guang Yi Jian
Spring at Tian Shan, Deng Tiao Hu
Birds Echo in Silent Mountains, Tian Hua Liu
World: Chinese traditional