12/05 @ 8:00pm - jenny chai / wu fei

Saturday, December 13

jenny chai / wu fei

wu fei

Composer/vocalist/guzheng (Chinese zither) player Wu Fei and singing-speaking pianist Jenny Q Chai bring their diverse interpretations of the new music of East and West to Issue Project Room on Saturday, December 13th in Brooklyn.

“Soulful, lyrical and powerful music from this remarkable young composer/performer from Beijing!” – John Zorn, describing Wu Fei’s latest album “Yuan”.

“Jenny Q Chai is an extraordinary pianist with limitless imaginations.” – Valladolid Daily News, Valladolid, Spain

Issue Project Room is pleased to present a co-billed concert of composer/performer Wu Fei and pianist Jenny Q Chai. The collaboration of these two outstanding artists provides not only the highest level of music performance but introduces a wide range of styles in modern music, spiced by a clash of Western and Eastern culture. The concert begins with a set of Wu Fei’s solo improvisations and compositions on guzheng and voice. Wu’s solo outings offer a sort of modern “poetry” on strings and voice, tracing streams in the ether like trails of ink from the calligrapher’s brush. This will be followed by Jenny Q Chai’s selection of works representing the extension of piano technique and the new view of piano as an evolving instrument. Chai’s program dives into realms including electronics and visual art, combines playing with singing and speaking techniques, and will feature the work of American and European composers such as Rzewski, Cage, Lachenmann, Boucourechliev and Rakowski, as well as composers of the younger generation.
Born and raised in Beijing, Wu Fei is a virtuoso musician who spent her formative years at the China Conservatory before coming to the US in 2000. She is a versatile artist, having composed for choir, string quartet, Balinese gamelan, orchestra and more and performed with John Zorn, Fred Frith, Elliott Sharp, and Béla Fleck. Wu Fei’s works have been performed around the world, with the most recent premier occurring in the Forbidden City Concert Hall. She draws from the spectrum of contemporary classical, world music, avant-garde, and “tonal-experimentalism”.

Contemporary pianist Anthony de Mare had this to say about Jenny Q Chai: “The astute quality that infuses her versatile musical personality reveals itself time and time again”. Classically trained at The Curtis Institute of Music, Chai has made a dramatic shift in focus towards the music of the present, currently working on her D.M.A. degree at Manhattan School of Music and majoring in contemporary piano performance. “I feel it is necessary to be involved in today’s music. It is my responsibility as a musician.” – Jenny Q Chai

This event is a must-see! This performance should attract fans of classical contemporary, world music evolution, and anyone with a sense of adventure. It will be a showcase of skill, ferocity, and tenderness, a coveted glimpse into the modern sounds coming from China’s new generation of musical avant-garde.

More Praise for Wu Fei:

“Fei’s playing on the guzheng is breathtaking.” -Fred Frith

“My soul undergoes a meltdown when Wu Fei’s delicate guzheng figures remind us of the frailty of purpose amidst the often overwhelming forces of life.” – Paris Transatlantic

Magazine

More Praise for Jenny Q Chai:

“It is quite remarkable to hear a performer of her technical and interpretive skills now addressing herself to a repertoire of music composed within the last 100 years, with special emphasis on music of the last thirty.” – Nils Vigeland

“She really presented the colorful musical images with clear layers.” – Composer Chen Yi

www.wufeimusic.com

www.jennychai.com

www.myspace/chaipiano

www.myspace.com/feiwu (chamber works)

www.myspace.com/feifeifei (solo improvisations and compositions)

8pm $15