Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet, flugelhorn
Andrew Drury - drum kit
Ken Filiano - string bass
Jason Kao Hwang - composer, violin, viola

Jason Kao Hwang's Spontaneous River, based in New York City, is an orchestra of 37 string improvisers plus drum set. It is only in recent years that more and more string players have engaged in the art of improvisational music. Spontaneous River is an ensemble and a community that represents this emerging movement. The power of Spontaneous River is drawn from both the sonic unity of strings and the undeniable individualism of each musician's "voice."

Mr. Hwang's composition, Symphony of Souls is a spontaneous flow of notated passages and conducted improvisations that sing stories of life journey through an abundant sound emanating from blues, jazz, classical and world sources. As Dr. Thomas Stanley writes in the liner notes, "The orchestra is then summoned to explore soul as both a nexus of dialog and as the motive force compelling action and interaction". "I felt in this one unified sound, I could hear the voice of each soul," Jason recalls, "The music was a whole tree, but you could hear each individual leaf in motion."

Jason Kao Hwang (composer, conductor, violin)

Drum set: Andrew Drury

Violin: Julianne Carney, Mark Chung, Rosi Hertlein, Elektra Kurtis, Gwen Laster, Amanda Lo, Jesse Montgomery, Skye Steele, Curtis Stewart, Mazz Swift, Midori Yamamoto, Helen Yee

Viola: Leanne Darling, Nicole Federici, Josh Henderson, Jessica Pavone, Eric Salazar, Brian Thompson

Guitar:  Cristian Amigo, Bradley Farberman, James Keepnews, Dom Minasi, Tor Snyder, Hans Tammen

Cello: Martha Colby, Loren Dempster, Tomas Ulrich, Gil Selinger, Alex Waterman

String Bass: Ken Filiano, Francois Grillot, James Ilgenfritz, Clifton Jackson, Pascal Kemper

EDGE is a sharp line shifting between cultures and genres, where music dances, vibrations are transformed and identities imagined.

Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet, flugelhorn
Andrew Drury - drum kit
Ken Filiano - string bass
Jason Kao Hwang - composer, violin, viola

EDGE is a sharp line shifting between cultures and genres, where music dances, vibrations are transformed and identities imagined.

Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet, flugelhorn
Andrew Drury - drum kit
Ken Filiano - string bass
Jason Kao Hwang - composer, violin, viola

With an orchestration of Chinese and Western instruments, The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown boldly charts the journey of an immigrant family over continents, languages, and generations. After her father's sudden death, Eva/Yee-Wa, who was raised in the U.S., struggles with her mother's fierce silence. As her father appears in both memory and spirit, she confronts a forbidden box of composite photographs, fragmented images, which unearth a mysterious past. Set in a small apartment in New York City's Chinatown, tales of love, tragedy and heroism, from both China and America, are unveiled in a story, which flows freely through time. With music creating a cross-cultural landscape of dreams, memories, and stark realities, The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown tells an essential and mythic tale of one family's loss, transformation, and survival.

Jason Kao Hwang, composer/conductor

The music of Local Lingo is an expression of innate instinct. Through empathic listening, instincts guide a dialogue where cultural traditions are wholly transmuted. This is the creative journey Sang Won Park (kayagum, ajang, voice) and Jason Kao Hwang (violin, composer) have traveled over the past sixteen years, first with The Far East Side Band, and now, as a duo. The compositions of Jason Kao Hwang inspire revelatory improvisations with Sang Won Park, creating a dynamic American music that is their Local Lingo.

Jason Kao Hwang (composer, violin)
Sang Won Park (kayagum, ajang, voice)

Jack Tchen, Gopal Sukhu, Fay Chiang, Shu Lea Cheang Directed by Jason Kao Hwang