To be presented April 9, 2006 - 1:30PM

Music and the Asian Diaspora

Westminster Choir College of Rider University, Princeton, New Jersey

April 8-9, 2006

Registration: http://www.rider.edu/883_4399.htm

OPERA AND JAZZ

The Vibration of Ethnicity and Instinct

Composer/violinist Jason Kao Hwang and soprano Sandia Ang, will perform excerpts from his compositions.

Composer/jazz violinist Jason Kao Hwang will explain the inner workings of his two recently released CD's, The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown, a chamber opera that features Chinese and Western instruments and EDGE, his jazz quartet. Both the opera, completely notated, and EDGE, highly improvised, draw upon his cultural heritage through vibrations inspired by instinct, history, community and intellect. Facilitated by a democracy of sound, these vibrations reach full resonance upon an edge where identity is imagined and constructed.

Commissioned by Meet the Composer/New Residencies to "celebrate the spirit and heritage of specific communities," The Floating Box, an original story by librettist Catherine Filloux based upon the oral histories of Chinatown, New York City, charts the journey of an immigrant family over continents, languages, and generations. Orchestration is the instrument for a sonic language locating identity, history, and place. No matter what chord or phrase, the orchestra plays music that manifests the physical and psychological landscape of the story, Chinatown, Asian America. Initially, for ears conditioned to the Western tradition, Chinese and Western instruments unite as suspensions, rather than homogenous solutions. Over the course of The Floating Box, this conditioning evolves democratically, to accommodate whole sounds that emote and represent, without discrimination.

EDGE, a jazz quartet featuring the composer's violin with Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Ken Filiano (string bass) and Andrew Drury (drums), creates upon fine lines that shift between cultures and genres, expectations and fantasies. EDGE emphasizes the improvisational voices of the performers. The compositions for EDGE place these "storytellers" within architectural compositions built upon each individual's edge. Each compositional "room" provides a context to stimulate improvisations that emote images of a distinct poem. Though improvisations will vary, each performance consistently maintains the essence of each distinct composition through architectural means. This creative process, which supports the individualism and cultural integrity of each performer, stands upon an edge irreverent of genre expectations.