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A composer whose work has been described as “genius” and one of the world’s greatest harpists will combine their talent on stage at DeVos Performance Hall with the Grand Rapids Symphony, April 3 and 4, at 8 p.m.
As part of its Richard and Helen DeVos Classical Series, the Symphony will perform the Michigan premiere of Chinese-American Composer Bright Sheng’s “Never Far Away,” featuring harpist Yolanda Kondonassis. Sheng will also serve as guest conductor for “Never Far Away,” and talk about the piece during “Upbeat,” a free pre-concert talk about the music at 7 p.m. in DeVos Place Recital Hall.
“Never Far Away” was written for Kondonassis and co-commissioned by the Grand Rapids Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Dallas Symphony, and Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Sheng is currently the Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan.
The concert also includes, under the direction of Music Director David Lockingon, Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 and John Corigliano’s “Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan,” featuring soprano Amy Burton. The Corigliano piece won a 2008 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition.
Born in Shanghai, China in 1955, Bright Sheng and his family were persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. This decade long “cultural cleansing” by Mao Zedong is described by Sheng as “one of the world’s holocausts…the cost to the Chinese people cannot be counted.” Avoiding compulsory farm-service through his musical talent, Sheng discovered his love for Chinese folk music while in a provincial band in Tibet. As the scourge of the Cultural Revolution began to dissolve in 1976, Sheng entered the Shanghai Music Conservatory. Graduating with top honors, he left China for New York City, where he studied at Queens College and Columbia University. In 2001 he received a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award” and was a runner-up for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize. The Santa Fe Opera premiered his “Madame Mao” in 2005.
Sheng writes of his work “Never Far Away,” “...each movement is inspired by my native Chinese culture. If your native culture is still the inspiration of your work, you are ‘never far away’ from home,” he said.
He added that he’s thrilled to have Yolanda Kondonassis premiere his harp concerto. The first movement was inspired by a Chinese folk song, the second reflects the experience of a drunken Chinese fisherman and highlights the sound of a Chinese qin, similar to a seven-string zither. The final movement titled, “Doctored Pentatonics,” uses a three-note theme in different ways.
Yolanda Kondonassis made her debut at age 18 with the New York Philharmonic. Since then she’s performed with leading orchestras nationwide and become one of the most respected and renowned harpists in the world. She’s made 14 major label CD recordings, written three books about the harp and has a highly successful career as a harp professor. “I’ve been a fan of Bright Sheng’s music for some time,” Kondonassis said. “I really love his mixture of power, color and Asian sonorities.”
Like Sheng’s musical work, John Corigliano’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” is also contemporary, premiering in 2000 at Carnegie Hall. The winner of several Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for his “Symphony No. 2,” and an Academy Award for his dramatic score for the 1997 film “The Red Violin,” Corigliano is one of today’s most successful composers.
Corigliano was asked to write a work based on an American text, and while he was totally unaware of folk singer Bob’s Dylan’s music in the ‘60s, he became intrigued by Dylan’s lyrics when looking for inspiration. Corigliano found Dylan’s poetry every bit as beautiful and immediate as he had heard they were, and surprisingly well suited for his own musical language. With Dylan’s permission, Corigliano wrote his musical work based the Dylan’s poetry. The 35-minute orchestral work includes five-movements: “Clothes Line,” “Blowing in the Wind,” “Masters of War,” “All Along the Watchtower,” and “Forever Young.” Soprano Amy Burton is a favorite vocalist of Corigliano.
Just as Bright Sheng and John Corigliano were inspired by the day and age in which they are living, so was Mozart when he wrote his Symphony No. 39 in 1788. The work is based on a folk dance, court dance and country dance from the time period. One of Mozart’s best loved and most recognizable symphonies, the work is one of a set of three symphonies that Mozart composed in rapid succession during the summer of 1788. Amazingly, the music is filled with joyous melodies while at this time Mozart was dealing with financial difficulties and the illness of his six-month-old daughter.
Tickets start at $18 and can be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800/982-2787 online at ticketmaster.com or in person at the Symphony office, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, at 300 Ottawa NW, Suite 100.
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