INK AND SOUND: a Conference on Chinese Music and Visual Arts

Friday, April 8, 2022 9:00 AM 09:00
Saturday, April 9, 2022 10:00 PM 22:00

US China Music Institute Bard College Conservatory of Music Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, 12504 United States (map)

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The annual conference of the US-China Music Institute, Ink and Sound: a Conference on Chinese Music and Visual Arts, is a two-day series of scholarly, interactive, and musical events to explore the interrelationship between Chinese visual arts (including calligraphy and ink painting) and musical composition. The conference is co-presented by Bard’s Asian Studies Program and is an extension of the Ink Art and New Music Project, a collaboration between the US-China Music Institute, the Bard Conservatory, the University of Hong Kong and M+, Hong Kong, in which three composers from China and four composition students from the Bard Conservatory and the University of Hong Kong each create a new piece of music combining Chinese and Western instruments and inspired by contemporary ink art pieces in the M+ collection. The new compositions will be premiered by musicians of the Bard Conservatory during the conference. Other interdisciplinary and interactive events are planned with visiting scholars and artists, and members of the Bard community.

All events are open to the public.
In-person events require proof of vaccination. Register and submit vaccination info here.

Conference Schedule

Friday, April 8

9am to 11am
About the Ink Art and New Music Project
An Online Webinar with the Project Participants
Location: Zoom (online).
Link: https://bard.zoom.us/j/82489687400?pwd=YzZIVmxndkVuYmwvdUFOTWFkRXpmUT09
Webinar ID: 824 8968 7400
Passcode: 039726
International numbers available: https://bard.zoom.us/u/kePHHe4n9
Free and open to the public.

Hosts
Robert Martin, Founding Director Emeritus, Bard College Conservatory of Music
Jindong Cai, Director, US-China Music Institute, Bard College Conservatory of Music
Speakers
Lesley Ma, former Curator, Ink Art, M+, Hong Kong
Hing-yan Chan, composer, University of Hong Kong
Panelists
Yeung-ping Chen, composer, South China Normal University
Yiwen Shen ‘10, composer, Tianjin Julliard School
Austin Leung, graduate student in composition, University of Hong Kong
Samuel Mutter, composition major, Bard Conservatory of Music
OGA, composition major, Bard Conservatory of Music
Jing Wang, graduate student in composition, University of Hong Kong

2pm to 4:30pm
Scholars’ Presentations
Location: László Z. Bitó ‘60 Conservatory Building, Bard College
Free and open to the public. In person only.

Qing 清: the Key Standard of Qin Aesthetics in Song Dynasty China (960-1279)
Meimei Zhang, Occidental College, Department of Comparative Studies in Language and Culture
Silk Strings and Rabbit Hair: Qin Music and Calligraphy
Mingmei Yip, Bard Conservatory of Music, US-China Music Institute
Chinese Calligraphy: History, Significance, and Musicality
Yu Li, Loyola Marymount University, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Chen Zhen: the Harmony of the Life Force
Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky, Bard College, Asian Studies and Art History

7pm to 8pm
Ink Art and New Music Project
Concert One
STUDENT COMPOSERS’ PREMIERES
Location: László Z. Bitó ‘60 Conservatory Building, Bard College
Free and open to the public. Event will be live-streamed on YouTube.
Link: https://youtu.be/pNvMhbXs9k8

Beyond Form
Austin Leung, University of Hong Kong
Sibei Betty Wang, guzheng
Ethan Young, cello
Nocturnal Scars
Samuel Mutter, Bard Conservatory of Music
Andrea Abel, flute
Xiaoyan Luo, pipa
Chang Liu, erhu
Wurzel Aus
OGA, Bard Conservatory of Music
Kehan Wang, guqin
Yining Zhu, percussion
Yangxin Song, violin
Trace
Jing Wang, University of Hong Kong
Sibei Betty Wang, guzheng
Yining Zhu, percussion
Grace Molinaro, cello
Additional solo performances by students of the US-China Music Institute to be announced on stage.

Saturday, April 9

12pm to 3pm
An Elegant Gathering: Chinese Music, Calligraphy, and Musical Poetry
Readings, calligraphy and instrument demonstrations.
Light lunch and tea will be served. Suggested donation: $20 ($10 for students)
Location: Bard Hall, Bard College. In person only.

12 PM Presentation
How poetry, painting, calligraphy, and music connect in Chinese culture
Professor Li-hua Ying, Asian Studies
12:30 PM Light lunch and tea
Suggested donation: $20 ($10 for students). Cash only at the door.
1 PM to 3 PM
Poetry recitations
Introduced by Professor Lu Kou, Asian Studies
Calligraphy demonstrations
Introduced by Professor Huiwen Li, Asian Studies
Chinese instrument demonstrations
Introduced by Professor Jindong Cai, US-China Music Institute

8pm to 9:30pm
Ink Art and New Music Project
Concert Two
FACULTY COMPOSERS’ COMMISSIONED PREMIERES
Location: Olin Hall, Bard College
Free and open to the public. Event will be live-streamed on YouTube.
Link: https://youtu.be/g3RTimYHY88

Faculty Composers’ Commissioned Premieres
An Ink Artist’s Two Seasons
I. Autumn Cicadas
II. Winter Thunders
Hing-yan Chan, University of Hong Kong
Yining Zhu, percussion
Isabel Chin Garita, violin
Beitong Liu, erhu
Wild Grass
Yiwen Shen ‘10, Tianjin Julliard School
Andrea Abel, flute
JinOu Dong, pipa
Sibei Betty Wang, guzheng
Beitong Liu, erhu
Yangxin Song, violin
Ethan Young, cello
Song of Ink
Yeung-ping Chen, South China Normal University
Monika Dziubelski, flute
Qizhi An, guqin
Wenjun Lu, pipa
Ying-ting Hong, piano
Isabel Chin Garita, violin
Commissioned Arrangements for the Bard East/West Ensemble
Silk Road
Jiang Ying
Arr. Xinyan Li
The Five Colored Winds
Arr. Chengjin Gao
Yazhi Guo, suona, sheng, guanzi, hulusi, saxophone

All events are open to the public with advance registration. You must upload proof of vaccination for in-person events. Please register below.

Conference Participants

Ink Art and New Music Project

Commissioned Composers

Featured

Hing-yan Chan 陳慶恩

Chan Hing-yan is currently James Chen and Yuen-Han Chan Professor in Music at the University of Hong Kong. Lauded for their subtle mediation between Chinese elements and Western idioms, Professor Chan’s compositions have been heard around the world at prestigious festivals. Recent works include three chamber operas (2018, 2015, 2013). The first two were commissioned by the Hong Kong Arts Festival, who also entrusted Chan as the composer and Music Director of an extravaganza staged cantata to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover in 2017.

Professor Chan served as Artist Associate 2016-18 of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Over the years, the orchestra has commissioned and presented his works at home and abroad in Europe (2005), South America (2010), Canada and New York (2012), Taiwan (2016), Beijing (2010), and Shanghai (2007).

Professor Chan received the “Best Artist Award (Music)” at the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards in 2013. His three collaborations with the City Contemporary Dance Company (2009, 2007, 2005) won him much acclaim as well as a Hong Kong Dance Award in 2008, when he also received commendation for “Persons with Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Arts and Culture” in the Secretary for Home Affairs’ Commendation Scheme.

At HKU, Professor Chan was conferred the Outstanding Research Student Supervisor Award (2013-14), in recognition of his guidance to postgraduate students in the pursuit of research excellence. In addition, he has been an advisor to HKU’s Cultural Management Office since its inception, and has been instrumental in planning and delivering a number of innovative programmes for its MUSE series.

Yeung-ping Chen 陳仰平

A Hong Kong Composer, Chen has received degrees from Hong Kong Baptist University, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) where he studied with Lei Liang. Chen is a recipient of fellowships from the Asian Cultural Council, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund, and the CASH Music Scholarship. His recent research focuses are new music of the area of Guangzhou-Hong Kong-Macau, contemporary “wenren” music, as well as a compositional model based on traditional transcriptional practice. Chen is Associate Professor and Director of Academic Colloquia of School of Music at the South China Normal University.

Yiwen Shen 沈逸文 '10

Yiwen Shen is a Chinese conductor, composer, and pianist. He currently serves as the assistant dean of performance activities at The Tianjin Juilliard School. Shen made his conducting debut in China with the National Ballet of China Symphony Orchestra at the National Performing Arts Center in Beijing. He has also worked with many orchestras in Europe and North America. Shen has received many composition awards in China and abroad. His full-length ballet, The Crane Calling, commissioned by the National Ballet of China, premiered in 2015, toured over 30 cities in China, and received its European debut in 2017 and North American debut in 2018. In 2010 Shen received a dual bachelor’s in composition and German studies from Bard College and the Bard Conservatory of Music. He also holds a master’s and doctorate in composition from Juilliard, and a master’s in orchestral conducting from the University of Maryland.

Art Curator

Featured

Lesley Ma 馬唯中

Lesley Ma is the incoming inaugural Ming Chu Hsu and Daniel Xu Associate Curator of Asian Art in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. From 2013 to 2022, she was founding Curator, Ink Art at M+, Hong Kong and led the museum's acquisition and programming on ink art. She co-curated “Individuals, Networks, Expressions,” a survey of visual art from the museum’s collection, and curated “M+ Commission: Tong Yang-Tze,” a set of large-scale calligraphy, for the museum opening in November 2021. A co-editor of M+ Collections: Highlights and writer for Chinese Art since 1970: M+ Sigg Collection, she curated “The Weight of Lightness: Ink Art at M+” in 2017. Previously Ma was project director at Cai Guo-Qiang’s studio in New York. She received an AB from Harvard College, MA from New York University, and PhD from UC San Diego.

Student Composers

Featured

Austin Leung 梁騫仁

Leung recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London. In the UK, Leung’s main mentor was Prof. Simon Bainbridge. Leung also studied with Unsuk Chin at the competitive Philharmonia Orchestra Composers’ Academy.

In the past, Leung’s music was performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra (United Kingdom), Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (Canada), Avanti! Chamber Orchestra (Finland), Ostrava New Orchestra (Czech), Hong Kong Sinfonietta (Hong Kong), Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (Hong Kong), and New York Philharmonic/Metropolitan Opera Orchestra players (USA) etc.

Leung is the winner of a number of prizes including the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize 2017, MusCan 2018 Student Composition Competition, Chengdu-China 12th Sun River Prize Students’ New Music Composition Competition (2016) etc.

Leung’s composition is distinctive in its manner of integrating contrasting musical materials in the same work. Materials range from tonal, expressive melodies to brutal contemporary noise.

Leung is currently studying his Ph.D. in composition at the University of Hong Kong under the guidance of Prof. Chan Hing-yan.

Samuel Mutter

Samuel Mutter is a composer, pianist, and trumpeter currently based at Bard College where he attends the conservatory as a second-year music composition student. Mutter’s influences include a wide range of classical, folk, jazz, and rock music. He has a deep interest in the music of different cultures, and this often affects his writing. Mutter’s musical style is just as broad as the music that influences him.

Even at a young age, Samuel’s music has been performed by large ensembles, chamber ensembles, and soloists. Recent collaborations include at Atlantic Music Festival where the Pierrot Ensemble premiered Mutter’s piece, “Incarceration” and the new music ensemble, Sputter Box, whose recently released album, Sputter (Shrinks The) Box, contains his piece, “The Spice Cabinet”. Other collaborations have included a live-streamed performance of his duet for violin and cello, “Autumn Day Nostalgia”.

In addition to concert music, Samuel enjoys writing music for film and has participated in prestigious programs such as the NYU Screen Scoring Workshop. Mutter aspires to write music professionally for both concert and film settings.

Before coming to Bard College, Mutter studied composition privately with Long Island based composer, Alan Hankers. He currently studies composition with composer George Tsontakis, and is pursuing a Bachelor’s of Music in Composition.

OGA

OGA (b.1999, Beijing, China) is a composer and visual artist based in Tivoli, NY. They write acoustic and electroacoustic music in concert music format and is also active in performance art, installation and sculpture. As a composer, they have worked with professional ensembles such as International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and Fear No Music. Currently, they are a third-year student in the Bard College Conservatory double degree program, majoring in music composition and studio arts. Besides music and art making, they enjoy working on farms.

Jing Wang 王婧

Jing Wang (b.1992) is a composer and new music improviser. She obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in composition at the Central Conservatory of Music under Guo-ping JIA, Xin-min LUO, and Jian-ping TANG, and Master’s Degree in composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln under Johannes Schöllhorn. She’s currently conducting her PhD research of composition at the University of Hong Kong under CHAN Hing-yan.

Her composition includes chamber music, orchestra and stage works in a variety of themes, such as Time, Space, Nature, Game, Kung-Fu, etc. Her work “Free fireflies” has achieved the Honorable Mention of 2012 BICW New Music Award and it has been premiered by E-MEX Ensemble. After that, her works started to be performed in China, Germany, Italy, Netherland, US, Canada, etc. She has participated in numerous music festivals in Europe and Asia, and worked closely with many performers and ensembles. Recently in 2020, her work “Beiss mich!” has been published by Breitkopf & Härtel, and her work “Yan” has been performed in several occasions by Ensemble Musikfabrik.

In the aspect of improvisation, she has performed new music as a pianist with improvisers and sound artists in Germany, Italy, and Canada. She also has conducted salons of new music and improvisation in China.

Speakers

Featured

Jindong Cai

Conductor Jindong Cai is the director of the US-China Music Institute, profes- sor of music and arts at Bard College, and associate conductor of Bard’s The Orchestra Now. Before coming to Bard, Cai was a professor of performance at Stanford University. Over the 30 years of his career in the United States, Cai has established himself as an active and dynamic conductor, scholar of Western classical music in China, and leading advocate of music from across Asia. At Bard, Cai founded the annual China Now Music Festival. In its first three seasons, China Now presented new works by some of the most important Chinese composers of our time, with major concerts performed by The Orchestra Now at Bard’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Stanford University. In 2019, the festival premiered a major new work by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Zhou Long, Men of Iron and the Golden Spike—a symphonic oratorio, in commemoration of the Chinese railroad workers of North America on the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Together with his wife Sheila Melvin, Cai has coauthored many articles on the performing arts in China and the book Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese. Their latest book, Beethoven in China: How the Great Composer Became an Icon in the People’s Republic, was published by Penguin in September 2015.

Patricia Karetzky

Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky is the Oskar Munsterberg Chair of Asian Art at Bard College, New York and Adjunct Professor at Lehman College, City College of New York. She has dual interests in contemporary and medieval Chinese art. She was the editor of the Journal of Chinese Religions for over 5 years and published several books and articles on medieval Chinese religious art and numerous articles on contemporary art in such journals as Yishu, the Journal of Contemporary Art, and Paradoxa n. She has also curated exhibitions and written catalogues on Chinese contemporary art. For more information see the website www.karetzky.com.

Lu Kou

Lu Kou has been an Assistant Professor of Chinese at Bard College since 2019. He received his doctorate in East Asian languages and civilizations from Harvard University, with a secondary specialty in classical philology. His dissertation, “Courtly Exchange and the Rhetoric of Legitimacy in Early Medieval China,” examined the power of words to fashion state legitimacy in early medieval China (4th to 7th centuries), a period of political division and fragmentation in which several rival states vied for dominance. His areas of expertise include premodern Chinese literature and culture, medieval court culture, classical tales and their adaptations, and historiography. He comes to Bard from Williams College, where he was a visiting assistant professor of Chinese in the Asian Studies Department. Courses taught at Williams include the Fantastic in Chinese Literature, Masterpieces in Modern Chinese Literature, and advanced and intermediate Chinese. Professor Kou, a native of Beijing, is currently at work on a manuscript, Rhetoric, Legitimacy, and Courtly Writings in Early Medieval China and European Middle Ages. He has presented at numerous conferences and workshops on subjects such as “Detainees and Letters to Request Release in Early Medieval China” (Harvard University) and “War of Words: Diplomacy and Literature in Early Medieval China” (Washington University). BA, Peking University; MA, PhD, Harvard University.

Huiwen Li

Huiwen Li is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Chinese at Bard College since 2021. Huiwen Li’s teaching and research interests include Chinese language and culture, Chinese calligraphy, culture shock and adaptation, and culturally responsive teaching. He is president of the American Society of Shufa Calligraphy Education, a nonprofit organization serving the needs and interests of educators, researchers, students, and enthusiasts of shufa calligraphy in North America. He comes to Bard from Cleveland State University, where he taught courses in Chinese language and culture, calligraphy, and research methodology. He is the author/coauthor of numerous articles in publications including Confucius Studies, Frontiers in Psychology, Teaching Chinese in International Contexts, Journal of Overseas Chinese Education, Chinese Language Teaching Methodology and Technology, and Journal of Research on Chinese Teaching, among others. Li received his BA in English language and literature from Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China; an MA in psychology in education from the University of Pittsburgh; and an EdD from Duquesne University. He is a PhD candidate at Cleveland State University.

Yu Li

Yu Li is a Professor of Modern Languages & Literatures at Loyola Marymount University who accompanies students on global explorations that revolve around collaborative discovery, learning, and growth. Earning a doctorate in Linguistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Li strives to transform students into members of society who think creatively and critically, act courageously, and care deeply through the study and analysis of language and its cultural underpinnings.

Robert Martin

Robert Martin is emeritus professor of Music and Philosophy at Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York). At Bard since 1994, Martin was founding director of the Conservatory of Music (2005) and held other administrative positions including vice president for Academic Affairs. He was Artistic Co-director of the Bard Music Festival from 1994 to 2017.

Martin studied cello at the Curtis Institute of Music with Leonard Rose and Orlando Cole, liberal arts at Haverford College, and philosophy at Yale University (PhD 1965). He pursued a dual career in music and in philosophy, holding joint appointments at several universities and serving as cellist of the Sequoia String Quartet from 1975 to 1985. He was Assistant Dean of Humanities at UCLA before coming to Bard. and served from 1999 to 2004 as president of Chamber Music America. He is editor of and contributor to many books and articles on philosophy and music.

Li-hua Ying

Li-hua Ying is Associate Professor of Chinese language and literature at Bard College. She directs the Chinese Program and teaches a wide range of courses on Chinese language, literature, and culture, including Chinese calligraphy. In 1999 she began running an eight-week summer intensive program at Qingdao University. Among her publications are “Negotiating with the Past: The Art of Calligraphy in Post-Mao China,” “Vital Margins: Frontier Poetics and Landscape of Ethnic Identity,” and “Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature.” She served for many years as the Executive Director of the American Society of Shufa Calligraphy Education, promoting the teaching of Chinese Calligraphy in the U.S. She received her B.A. from Yunnan Normal University, China and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Austin. She has been at Bard since 1998.

Mingmei Yip

Mingmei Yip received her PhD in musicology from the University of Paris (Sorbonne). A master performer on the Qin, she has given lectures and performances at venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, the New York Philharmonic, Columbia University, Oxford University, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Beijing University, the University of Paris, Amsterdam University, Oberlin Conservatory, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the China Institute in New York. Dr. Yip has served as consultant for Beijing’s Chinese Qin Association 北京中国古琴会, director for Chinese Kun Opera and Guqin Research Association 中国古琴昆剧研究会理事, artistic consultant for New York Cultural Art Association, as well as on the academic board of the Chengdu International Qin Conference. Dr. Yip has also published fourteen books, with two on the qin.

She is also accomplished as a painter and calligrapher. A one-person show of her paintings of Guan Yin (the Chinese Goddess of Compassion) and calligraphy was held at the New York Open Center Gallery in SoHo in 2002. Dr. Yip was lecturer and senior lecturer of music at Chinese University of Hong Kong and Baptist University respectively, and in 2005, an International Institute of Asian Studies fellow in Holland researching on the qin. As a Visiting Professor on the faculty of the US-China Music Institute at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, she teaches Chinese music literature and history.

Meimei Zhang

Meimei Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Studies in Language and Culture of Occidental College. Her research interest lies in the intersection between music and literature in premodern China. She is working on her book manuscript, which is tentatively entitled The Cultural Biography of the Qin and the Changing Literati Soundscape from China’s Tang to the Song Dynasties. It employs an interdisciplinary range of object, sound, and literary theories to examine the literary compositions on music, musical instruments, and the literati soundscape from the tenth to thirteenth centuries in China.