Lingling H. Peng 何玲玲

Premiere Concert

Ian Rosenbaum, Adam Rosenblatt, Candy Chiu, Greg Jukes, Percussion

"Mountain Dream?, composed by Dr. Lu Pei, is a specially commissioned piece, scored for Lingling and a percussion group of four players; it associates folk music elements of Chinese ethnic minorities with western composition style. The work combines colorful instrumentation and intricate vocal techniques to evoke exotic scenes of mountain village life in southwest China. 

About Composer

As a prolific and internationally renowned composer and professor, Dr. Pei Lu?s music has been performed throughout Europe, Asia and Africa, such as France, Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Britain, South Africa, Italy, Mainland China, as well as the U. S. His compositions also appeared in the Fullerton Hall of the Art Institute of Chicago, Merkin Concert Hall of New York City, Green Lake Music Festival of Wisconsin, Minnesota Symphony Hall, Chicago Orchestral Center, Chicago Grant Park Music Festival at Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, as well as in Taiwan National Music Hall. During the period of June 26 to July 7, 2002, one of his commissioned pieces, Ballad Variation No.1, was performed in Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project concert series in Washington D.C. at the 36th Annual Smithsonsian Folklife Festival.

Dr. Lu?s teaching career started from Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1987. After earning his doctoral degree from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor in 2002, he also taught at the University of Louisville and Nanking Normal University. He was granted the Honorable Professorship by the Guangxi Institute of Fine Arts. He is a full professor at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, China and has been teaching there since 2006.

Program Notes of Mountain Dreams

Lu Pei 

In my hometown Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southwest China lived as many as thirteen ethnic minority groups. People from those groups are famous for their talents and love of singing and dancing - they celebrate as well as mourn with songs and dances; they propose and wed with songs and dances; they work and compete with songs and dances. Singing and dancing are as common and important to these folks in expressing themselves as language is to others. This is why Guangxi is also known as ?the Land of Songs and Dances? in China.

                My love for my hometown did not ebb away after I left home in pursuit of my dreams in music. No matter where I went, the sounds of the music and the images of the dancers of Guangxi had been following me, awake or asleep ? I would see trees outside of my window dancing like a beautiful girl of the Miao nationality; I would hear the wind carrying the songs of a handsome lad of the Yao or Dong nationalities; I dreamed to dance with people of Zhuang or Molao nationalities. Guangxi had been so relentlessly hunting me and I was so helpless in dodging the hunt until Ms. Lingling, a wonderful mezzo-soprano, asked me to compose a piece for her.

                Thus was the piece called Mountain Dream. On the day the piece was finished, I dreamed again: I was standing in the mountain, looking around: It was dark. There was nothing except for the shadows of the trees and the skylines of the mountains. Stars were twinkling in the dark-blue sky. Suddenly, I heard the music drifting to me from afar. It was so familiar that I could sing with it. The sky suddenly became bright and I felt that I was like Alice in the Wonderland, surrounded by beautiful fairies?I thought I had long passed the age to dream like this, but the dream continued?I was dancing with the fairies, donning traditional dresses of Yao, Miao, Dong and Zhuang?I slept peacefully that night.

With deep gratitude to: Peabody Percussion Department; Peabody Career Development Grant;

Prof. Phyllis Bryn-Julson; Prof. Robert Van Sice; and Students in the voice class at Nova Music & Art Academy for their support of this project.

Recent Videos

简历

美籍华裔次女高音歌唱家何玲玲毕业于广西艺术学院音乐系，1998年何玲玲前往美国学习声乐，先后就读于世界著名学府约翰• 霍普金斯大学琵芭迪音乐学院 (Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University) 和美国那布拉斯加- 林肯大学音乐系, 从师于著名声乐教育家菲利斯 · 布莱尔-尧生 (Phyllis Bryn-Julson) 和大都会歌剧院著名次女高音歌唱家艾瑞尔· 拜比(Ariel Bybee)，获得了音乐硕士学位和表演艺术文凭。

何玲玲的声音圆润，感性，具有强烈的表现力，近年来她分别在美国纽约和丹佛举行的歌达•雷声纳和韦拉•司根门两项国际声乐大赛中获奖, 2005年在摩纳哥举行的第三届蒙特卡罗国际声乐大赛中， 她是十二位由全球八大城市里被挑选出来, 受邀参加比赛的选手之一。 她也曾获得美国歌唱教师协会声乐比赛的第一名和新加坡作曲家协会举办的创作歌曲演唱赛冠军。在美国留学期间，何玲玲连续三年荣获新加坡艺术理事会授予的“海外艺术奖学金”，并两度获得琵芭迪音乐学院事业发展奖学金。

近年来，何玲玲先后在十多部歌剧中扮演不同风格的角色, 凭着出色的演唱才能获得了好评， 爱尔兰的《芒斯特快报》说“何玲玲扮演的吉普赛女王具有神奇的力量,和强烈的戏剧感染力…”；美国《记者之星》评论“她扮演‘蝴蝶夫人’中的女佣铃木给人留下深刻的印象…”，“她有着非常深沉和优美的音色…”，“她成功地把声音和表演融为一体…”。华盛顿《新艺术》评说“次女高音何玲玲扮演‘伊兰妲’中的奶妈 玛尔塔声音园润, 表现突出.” 近年来，她还应邀参加了意大利罗马音乐节，爱尔兰沃特佛国际歌剧节和新加坡亚洲艺术节的演出， 并在美国, 新加坡, 马来西亚, 奥大利亚等国家举行个人独唱音乐会和演唱音乐会， 受到了广泛的赞誉。 星加坡《联合早报》专评“何玲玲歌唱时完全没有压力，有娴熟的歌唱技巧但却不刻意炫耀，感性的歌声总是跟着旋律的流动和音乐的跌宕起伏，那么自然地从她的口里 ——不， 应该是从心中流出来，动人心弦。”

2008年她与著名美籍华裔作曲家陆培合作，以广西少数民族音乐素材为基础结合西方现代作曲风格，创作了别开生面，即为次女高音与四位打击乐而作的“山之梦”—穿越时间隧道的歌。在美国的巴尔的摩市戈雷士沃音乐厅举行的首演音乐会上，该作品获得了音乐界人士和观众的高度赞赏。当地的《多维时报》称赞这是“穿越古今，联结中西， 荡涤心灵的时空之乐”，“何玲玲在民族音乐国际化的道路上迈出了精彩的一步”。

何玲玲目前是华盛顿国家歌剧院的签约歌唱家。玲玲曾任教于美国那布拉斯加- 林肯大学（University of Nebraska-Lincoln）, 美国路德教会大学 (Concordia University) 。目前是美国音乐艺朮家协会会员，美国歌唱教师协会会员， 美国歌剧协会会员，华盛顿国家歌剧院歌剧推广教育部声乐指导。

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLpdJlMKqMg TV Coverage 11/29/2009