Columbia Sounds:
Ensemble Recherche (Freiburg) performs works by Wang Lu that engage with the sound world of contemporary China, along with Marches by Fred Lerdahl, in tribute to Wang's mentor at Columbia University.
The concert will include a conversation between Wang Lu and the writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo (Fellow, Institute for Ideas and Imagination).
Program:
Wang Lu:
Movable Set (2016,2019)
“Envy”
Between Air
3965 mi2
Wang Lu: Unbreathable Colors (2017)
Fred Lerdahl: Marches (1992)
Wang Lu: Urban Inventory (2015)
Composer and pianist Wang Lu writes music that reflects a very natural identification with influences from traditional Chinese music, urban environmental sounds, linguistic intonation and contours, and freely improvised traditions, through the prism of contemporary instrumental techniques and new sonic possibilities. She is currently the David S. Josephson Assistant Professor of Music at Brown University. Wang Lu’s works have been performed internationally, by ensembles including the Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Alarm Will Sound, Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, Holland Symfonia, Shanghai National Chinese Orchestra, Taipei Chinese Orchestra, Musiques Nouvelles, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and International Contemporary Ensemble. Wang Lu has a doctorate in Composition from Columbia University. She received the Berlin Prize in Music Composition (Spring 2019 residency) and was a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow. Her portrait album Urban Inventory was released in March 2018 to critical acclaim.
Ensemble recherche has played a major role in shaping the development of contemporary chamber and ensemble music. Its repertoire includes classics of the late 19th century, Impressionists and Expressionists, composers of the Second Viennese and Darmstadt Schools, the Spectralists and the experimental avant-gardists of the contemporary arts. The ensemble recherche has given 500 performances and has released about 50 CDs, many of which have been awarded international prizes including the annual German Critics’ Award (“Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik”) and the Diapason d`Or.
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Cosponsors
Fritz Reiner Center for Contemporary Music; Columbia Global Centers | Paris; Department of Music, Columbia University; Columbia University Club of France; and Columbia Undergraduate Programs in Paris
This performance has been made possible through the New Music Fund, a program of FACE Foundation, with generous funding from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, Florence Gould Foundation, Fondation CHANEL, French Ministry of Culture, Institut français-Paris, and SACEM (Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique).