With David Conte and other faculty and students from the San Francisco Conservatory the week has been full of various concerts, receptions, and social events. Their visit also coincided with the annual Shanghai International Spring Music Festival.
I went to concerts on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday this week. Sunday’s (May 8) concert featured my pipa teacher Shu Yin performing a dynamic pipa solo, and Monday’s (May 9) concert featured new works for Chinese instruments by living Chinese composers. I was most impressed by “The Silk Road” by Jiang Ying, composer in residence with the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra. Wednesday and Thursday’s concerts were marathon concerts, running nearly three hours each, and featured various chamber works – both from the canon and new works – performed by musicians from both Shanghai Conservatory of Music and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. David Conte’s Piano Trio received its premiere on Wednesday and was simply stunning. It had that perfect balance of variety and unity, so hard to find when working on your own composition! I also had the opportunity to meet members of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music composition faculty Deqing Wen and Lu Pei.
David and I spent some quality time together too this week. On Tuesday, March 10th, I treated the two of us to a lavender oil body massage at Dragonfly using the remaining credit on my membership card. In the afternoon we went to Tianzifang, where we had a delicious lunch at Lapis Thai, followed by shopping for his friends and family. After spending so much time with him, and others from San Francisco that he introduced me to like his student Louis Cruz, it was sad to say goodbye to them on Friday, May 13th. I suffered a brief bout of post-festival blues, but mainly was just happy to have quality exchange in my mother language with such interesting people.
I went to concerts on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday this week. Sunday’s (May 8) concert featured my pipa teacher Shu Yin performing a dynamic pipa solo, and Monday’s (May 9) concert featured new works for Chinese instruments by living Chinese composers. I was most impressed by “The Silk Road” by Jiang Ying, composer in residence with the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra. Wednesday and Thursday’s concerts were marathon concerts, running nearly three hours each, and featured various chamber works – both from the canon and new works – performed by musicians from both Shanghai Conservatory of Music and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. David Conte’s Piano Trio received its premiere on Wednesday and was simply stunning. It had that perfect balance of variety and unity, so hard to find when working on your own composition! I also had the opportunity to meet members of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music composition faculty Deqing Wen and Lu Pei.
David and I spent some quality time together too this week. On Tuesday, March 10th, I treated the two of us to a lavender oil body massage at Dragonfly using the remaining credit on my membership card. In the afternoon we went to Tianzifang, where we had a delicious lunch at Lapis Thai, followed by shopping for his friends and family. After spending so much time with him, and others from San Francisco that he introduced me to like his student Louis Cruz, it was sad to say goodbye to them on Friday, May 13th. I suffered a brief bout of post-festival blues, but mainly was just happy to have quality exchange in my mother language with such interesting people.
 |
| Hanging out with David Conte in Tianzifang |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.