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
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,
Dr. Lu?s teaching career started from Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1987. After earning his doctoral degree from the
Program Notes of Mountain Dreams
In my hometown Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in
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;
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.