Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society presents
S.E.E. (Sino-Electric Explorations)
~ Witness Chinese instruments cutting loose and breaking the rules! ~
Sunday, November 8, 2015, 7:30pm
Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour St.)
tickets online at vcme.brownpapertickets.com or at door after 6:30pm
general $15, students & seniors $10
The Chinese instruments are acting up and yearning to go wild on this very special night! Inspired by adventurous and innovative composers, Remy Siu, Sammy Chien and Alan Lau, Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble will be presenting SEE (Sino-Electric Explorations), an unforgettable program of experimental music at the Orpheum Annex on Sunday, November 8, 2015.
The centre piece of SEE is a new composition written by Remy Siu specifically for Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble (VCME): “VCME is presenting an exciting opportunity for me to explore the tension between the instruments of my ancestors and my Western composition training. The demographic of Vancouver has allowed these unique projects and ensembles to emerge; I hope to explore the socio-economic-political relationships between East and West through music, light, and image… I am searching for a musical vocabulary that can represent the climate and environment in cities like Hong Kong, Beijing, and Vancouver. I believe this project will allow me to create a method of expression that speaks of the 21st Century and my experience as a Chinese-Canadian on the West Coast of Canada.”
The other highlight of the program will be the premiere of a piece by interdisciplinary media artist Sammy Chien who will perform (dance) and lead the musicians through physical gestures: “With this piece I’d like to explore the notion of Wu Wei, which is a Taoist philosophy of the ‘non-doing’. I see it as an attitude, a way of life that is without much effort and intentions while naturally attaining harmony with the universe.”
Alan Lau will contribute two pieces to the program: one, a premiere presenting a condensed chronology of the development of Chinese music from prehistoric times to present day, and the other showcasing the sound and texture of the Korean a-ak (아악/雅樂), music for Confucian rituals introduced from China around the 12th century.
Formed in 1989, Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble is the first professional Chinese music group established in Canada. Together with the Ensemble, the Society works to introduce Canadian audiences to traditional Chinese music and contemporary music for Chinese instruments and/or based on Chinese music.
Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, City of Vancouver and Government of British Columbia through Direct Access to Charitable Gaming.