Below is information about my music, present and past.

EDGE

is my jazz quartet featuring Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet, flugelhorn), Andrew Drury (drum kit), Ken Filiano (string bass) and myself (composer, violin). Asian Improv Records recently released our first CD.

Local Lingo

is my duo with Sang Won Park (kayagum, ajang, voice). We recently completed production on a CD, which will be released in 2007.

Graphic Evidence

is a collective, cross-continental trio featuring Francis Wong (soprano sax, San Francisco), Tatsu Aoki (string bass, Chicago) and myself (violin, Jersey City). In 2005, we performed at the Chicago Cultural Center, as part of Chicago’s Asian American Jazz Festival, to celebrate the release of our CD on Asian Improv Records.

The Floating Box

is my chamber opera, with librettist Catherine Filloux that was presented by the Asia Society, Music From China, the Museum of Chinese in the Americas and Meet the Composer/New Residencies, in the fall of 2001. Inspired by my experiences performing in Anthony Braxton's opera, Trillium R, Shala Fears for the Poor and Henry Threadgills's oratorio Run Silent, Run Deep, this opera is based upon both personal and community history. New World Records released the double-CD of The Floating Box this past April.

Chamber Music

Bending Duration, Breathing Distance (erhu, accordion, cello, vibraphone) and Interior Migrations (erhu, viola, pipa, bass clarinet) were through composed works exploring ideas later incorporated into The Floating Box. Both works, along with the opera, were created with the support of Meet the Composer/ New Residencies. Flight of Whispers composed for Music by Homemade Instruments, employs both notation and improvisation.

Dance Works

Unbroken Thread and Wake Up Call were both commissioned by the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company.

Flim and TV Works

At the rough-cut stage, the director, editor and I develop concepts for the score. Then, with sequencing software, as the editor locks "scenes spotted" for music, music is composed, timed precisely to picture. A demo using sampled sounds is produced for each cue, allowing revisions to be considered before the final recording that employs musicians.

Afterbirth

is a poetic documentary film inspired by ideas about Asian American identity developed from my experiences at Basement Workshop, and numerous conversations with my mentor at that time, Will Connell, Jr.