Projects
“To witness pianist Tong Wang in performance is to venture into a vivid soundscape intersecting eras, cultures, and moods.”
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The Windwood Music Festival aims to provide a space for artists to explore and implement creative projects that help bridge the gap between communities and classical and contemporary music. We strive to bring music to public spaces in ways that interact and coexist with these spaces and the people who occupy them, thus connecting the threads that build a sense of togetherness among all the elements within a community.
“Da Capo'' is the story of how two young people from diaspora populations navigate complex personal identities, find kinship within each other, and continue to nurture an ever growing and changing relationship with homecoming through the power of music, art, and community. Featuring works by Ho, Ramnath, Baker, Kats-Chernin, Hisaishi, Beethoven and Fauré.
In a time of immense political upheaval, 我们 “Us” is an invitation to reconnect with each other and with the world around us. This solo piano program celebrates traditional cultural heritages and unravels social issues across the world from China and India to Turkey, Ukraine, and Africa. There are moments of great sadness, tragedy, and pain, but equally, if not more, there is hope, empowerment, joy, and even … cuteness (!) Whether directly or indirectly, we each hold the power to create a brighter collective future. The more we learn and understand each other’s backgrounds, the more sensitive we can be, the more we understand the symbols, the gestures, the how to being kind, generous, and sincere in our humble efforts to be together, to be - 我们(women), “Us”.
“Once Upon a Pumpkin” is an interactive musical fairy tale that traverses through fantastical worlds. Kai (Piano no Mori), Cinderella, Lenore, and Snow White come alive amongst witches, fairies, and vampires on a magical journey full of enchantment, love, drama, mystery, and adventure. Featuring works by Mozart, Prokofiev, Liszt, and Wild.
“Labyrinth of Tears” is a newly commissioned anime operetta. The original storyline draws from the Zenkora Universe and follows the adventures of The Flower Club, five wizardry schoolgirls from the prestigious New Verdecas Academy of Magical Arts. Four of the girls journey into the mind Labyrinth of their friend, Kansa Nightingale, in an attempt to rescue her from a deep, mysterious coma. Inside the ‘Labyrinth of Tears’, they discover the fantastical and absurd horrors of Kansa’s inner world, and must work together to solve the puzzles of the three peculiar identities guarding the Labyrinth - the Assassin, the Courtesan, and the Child. But more than just overcoming the trials, they must learn how to navigate and embrace the vulnerabilities, confusion, and paradoxes on this strange path to understanding love, friendship, and happiness.
My Neighbours Totoro and Claude
Have you ever met Totoro? The giant, fluffy, huggable racoon-like animal who protects the forest. His yawn makes the ground shake with joy and laughter, and his soft furry belly is bouncy like a trampoline! What about Kiki? Have you caught her flying through the sky delivering fresh hot herring pie? Have you wandered at night into the festive, bizarre Bathhouse for spirit gods and run into the terrifying witch Yubaba? Welcome to the fantastical, magical, kawaii (“cute”) world of Studio Ghibli! This program features piano four-hands arrangements of Joe Hisaishi’s film score for Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved films My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Spirited Away alongside duets by Ravel, Debussy, and Fauré. Let’s fall together into the sweet, tender embrace of cuteness through the sounds of childhood, imagination, and playfulness. “Be vulnerable to the magic of affection <3”
Accompanied by animated visuals, installation, dim-lit candles and poetry readings, the “GHIBLILANE” project pays tribute to the musical works of Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi throughout his long-time collaboration with Studio Ghibli.
"Song of Praise" is a violin-piano program that explores the multidimensional identities of Chinese-Canadian immigrant classical musicians. The collection of diverse repertoire not only pays homage to Chinese heritage, but also celebrates Western classical masterpieces and contemporary female Asian-Canadian composers such as Vivian Fung and Alice Ho. This program shares the important value of Chinese culture, traditions, stories, and art within the context of new Canadian music and classical Western music. This concert embraces the questions, challenges, and complexities of multicultural upbringings to seek the power of musical experience when diverse circumstances of race, class, and gender come together to form the identity of artists.
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“Cuteness Speaks up to Cynicism: Recreating Japanese Animation in North America”
A thesis project to research the cultural impact of “cuteness” as an aesthetic and musical topic in Joe Hisaishi’s animation film scores for Studio Ghibli. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council .
What are the attitudes and stereotypes associated with “cuteness”, what is its affect, and how can it help us understand our social environment? The aesthetic of “cuteness” amplifies the themes of magic, simplicity, and truthfulness in Ghibli’s animations. Can “cute” music enrich our culture by stimulating an appreciation for the values of earnestness, vulnerability, and sincerity to counteract the cynicism and skepticism that permeate the world around us from politics, art, and media to daily interactions? My research applies methods of musicology and musical topic theory to analyze the qualities of “cuteness” and surveys audience responses to those qualities through lecture-performances.
“The Twofold Power of Cuteness in Kawaii Metal, Lo-fi, and Classical Music”
A doctoral dissertation research-creation project. Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Fonds de recherche du Québec.
Cuteness has swept across our world by storm. We can observe its traces throughout our daily lives from the products and media we consume to our language and behavior. Scholars have recently begun to study the psychological, social, and cultural implications of cuteness, but the music field has yet to explore its significance. How can cuteness enrich our understanding, interpretation, and enjoyment of music from both a historical and modern perspective? My research will apply methods of musical topic theory to investigate the qualities of “cuteness” in different genres of popular and classical music. First, what characteristics of cuteness can be expressed through sound? Next, what musical motifs, signs, and figures signify these characteristics? I will use examples from animation, kawaii metal, lo-fi, and classical music to illustrate my analysis. Finally, I will explore how these signifiers can be associated with different genres, styles, and cultural contexts to reveal broader meanings and expressions in the music. Using this insight, I will create an original operetta centered around the power of the cute, both narratively and musically. Through this process, I aim to reveal a deeper understanding of how cuteness can emphasize the themes of innocence, simplicity, and sincerity, but also disguise dark undertones of aggression, cynicism, and sexualization. By exploring musical cuteness and its broader cultural context, I can advance the field’s understanding of a contemporary aesthetic, allow for its application to existing and new musical works, and better reflect on our psychology and values.
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Four Cities
Fieldwork research in Turkey and China to record, perform, and make a documentary film of a composition by Fazil Say and a new commission from Alice Ho. Canada Council for the Arts “Concept to Realization” Grant, 2023.
The [blank] Journal
An immersive multimedia installation of text, image, and sound to illustrate the digital memory box of fictional artist living in a dystopian, simulated society.
“The [blank] Journal” is an experimental performance installation of the sounds, images, and words of a fictional heroine, Sophie. Living in a dystopian society, Sophie is a paradoxical artist who indulges in her cynical yet sentimental self-reflections. She works in a corrupt industry that commodifies and sells the experience of emotions through live actor simulations. As a writer for a company specializing in ‘romantic sentimentality’, Sophie creates personalized archaic fairy tales and love stories for her clients. The installation represents the digital memory box in which Sophie scatters her collection of music, voice, and sound memos, journal entries and poems, short films, and sketches and photographs.
Zenkora
An interdisciplinary project and entrepreneurial initiative that uses an original fantasy multiverse to serve as the platform for artists of various mediums to express their creative voices.
The arts collective, Zenkora Studios, is a group of artists across the US and Canada producing multimedia projects and interdisciplinary concerts that illustrate the stories and adventures of an original fantasy multiverse. For over a decade, creator Wesley Chu and his team have written a diverse spectrum of fictional stories that now form the Zenkora Universe. In 2016, these stories were shared with the public in the debut Boston production “Zenkora: A Brief History.” In 2017, a larger concert was launched in Calgary, “Zenkora: The Seven Eras” in collaboration with Rocky Mountain Orchestra, Alberta Ballet, University of Calgary School of Drama, and international composers, soloists, and visual artists. Zenkora serves as a platform for artists of all mediums to reach a broader audience through unconventional, interactive, and immersive modes of presentation.
Published by carte blanche. Shortlisted for the 3Macs carte blanche Prize.
The collage of photographs, “E-mote,” is from a larger multimedia work: “The [blank] Journal.” Under the element of ‘images’ in this installation is “E-mote,” a collection of photographs featuring Sophie’s shoes and shadows, which traces her journeys and memories during the three years of her life when she writes the horror-romance script for Nick, a sarcastic and apathetic law student, and subsequently discovers her sexual fluidity in a disillusioning relationship with the rhapsodic actress of her story, Eudaemonia. The photographs are juxtaposed with words and short poems. The story contains a total of 107 photographs arranged in a collage across 52 pages.